Adrian Amos knows Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love about as well as anyone.
The former longtime NFL safety starred for the Green Bay Packers from 2019 until 2022, starting all 66 of the games he appeared in during that time frame. Amos helped lead the Packers to the NFC Championship Game during the 2020 season and racked up 102 tackles during the 2022 season, ranking second on the team in that category.
While Amos was with the Packers, it was Rodgers who was still the franchise quarterback of the team. Rodgers won back-to-back MVPs while Amos was there, doing so during the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Love was the team's backup after the Packers selected him with the 26th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Since Rodgers' departure after the 2022 season, Love has established himself as the Packers' new franchise quarterback, leading them to three consecutive playoff appearances. The 27-year-old has posted at least a 96.1 passer rating in each of his three seasons as a starter.
When asked which quarterback Love reminds him of, Amos gave a surprising answer — he said Love is a mix of both Packers greats Rodgers and Brett Favre.
“I think he's in between Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers,” said Amos in a one-on-one interview. “I'm not saying he's a Hall of Famer right now, or anything like that. I'm not comparing them that way. I'm saying his play style is like those two, Aaron's going to protect the ball 100%. Brett Favre is gonna let it go, he gonna throw it up.
“I think Jordan Love has a little bit of that, but he also has the throw-making ability Aaron has as he can make those throws off his back foot, across his body, sidearm throws,” Amos continued to say. “He can make all of those types of throws. He can do that, but he has the gunslinger-like mentality sometimes of Brett Favre that does get him in trouble sometimes too, throwing it up.”
This past season, Love showed more care taking care of the ball, limiting his total to just six interceptions. His 1.4% interception rate was the fifth-lowest of any quarterback who started at least 15 games this past season.
However, he does have a penchant for some risky throws, which he did earlier in his career. He threw the game-losing interception in the divisional round of the playoffs against the San Francisco 49ers during the 2023 season as the Packers lost 24-21.
Amos said the three seasons Love spent behind Rodgers was extremely beneficial for his development. It's a similar path Rodgers followed when he spent the first three seasons of his career behind Favre.
“For sure,” said Amos of Love benefiting from sitting behind Rodgers. “If you watch Aaron, he's a very cerebral person, saying so if you watch and you get the way he thinks about ball, you have no choice but to learn from whether he's pulling them aside or not. You just being around in the way he approaches football and his mindset on certain things. I feel that as though he picked up a lot of things that he did, hit a lot of his mechanics as well.”
Amos matched up against some of the best quarterbacks of all time, including Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Rodgers (as a member of the Chicago Bears). He said Rodgers is the best quarterback he's ever gone up against, but he mentioned that he believes Love can emerge as an elite quarterback.
“I think he can be,” said Amos of Love. “I think he is great, but I think he could be one of those elite guys if he's consistent with taking care of the ball and those things. But he has an elite arm talent. I feel like when his feet is set in the pocket, he's making great throws. He has great accuracy and a great relationship with the guys in the locker room. He draws to a lot of guys in the locker room. I think it benefited him sitting around for his first couple years being up behind Aaron, being one of the guys in the locker room. It just carried him over to where he is now.”
