Love vs Williams: And So It Begins...
The two rising superstars possess all the necessary ingredients to become the NFL's next great quarterback rivalry
By Mark Ballard
Some football fans cringe at the concept of quarterback rivalries, and, to an extent, I get it. Unlike boxing, basketball, or other sports, competing quarterbacks aren’t on the field at the same time. They compete against opposing defenses, and not, specifically, versus each other.
Still, it’s hard to watch the back-and-forth finish of last week’s Ravens-Steelers thriller, and not view it, at least partially, through a lens of Rodgers vs Jackson, and which player would blink first. Turns out it was neither, as Ravens kicker Tyler Loop choked away the game on a missed kick – admittedly, an outcome that proves there’s way more to wins and losses than just quarterback play.
But like it or not, quarterback rivalries are a thing. Brady/Manning is probably the biggest of them all. The two legendary QB's played seventeen times with Brady winning the overall head-to-head series 11–6, but Manning having a 3-1 edge in AFC conference championship match ups.
What made the Brady/Manning rivalry so special, was that it had all four necessary ingredients for a top-tier QB rivalry: (1) volume (number of games played), (2) talent, (3) competitiveness, and (4) high stakes.
Which brings us to Saturday night, the first critical chapter of Jordan Love vs Caleb Williams, and what could be the NFL’s next marquee quarterback rivalry and, when it’s all said and done, (whispers) maybe be the greatest ever. Am I ahead of my skis? Absolutely, but hear me out…
VOLUME
Playing in the same division, Love and Williams, health-willing, are set up for years of head-to-head match ups. They've already faced each other four times (as many times as Rodgers played Kaepernick) and the record stands at an even 2-2 [NOTE: both of Williams’ victories came in games when Love exited in the first half due to injury]. The volume is almost guaranteed with this rivalry, and at ages 27 (Love) and 24 (Williams), we might have these face offs for a decade, or possibly, hopefully, even longer.
TALENT
An MVP candidate for much of the season, Jordan Love is elite or on the doorstep of being elite (depending on who you ask). Three playoff appearances in his first three seasons, and with the statistics to back it up, Love regularly makes throws that very few NFL quarterbacks can make, and he’s still not at his ceiling. Love will get better, particularly as the promising young weapons around him mature and elevate their games. The thought of Love, Watson, Reed, Golden, and Kraft, over the next several years almost makes me drunk.
On the flipside, and despite a small sample size, I’m already willing to admit that the Bears finally got one – Caleb Williams is the real deal. The arm talent jumps off the screen, and his off platform stuff is particularly special. Finishing with 3,942 yards passing this year means that the Bears have still never had a 4,000-yard passer, but that day is surely coming. Like Love, Williams is surrounded with young, talented weapons in Rome Odunze, Luther Burden III, and Colston Loveland. The future is bright in Chicago.
COMPETITIVENESS
The competitiveness of this rivalry obviously is still to be determined, but it’s hard to imagine either team making it entirely one-sided given the current roster constructions. Further, unlike other quarterback rivalries that are non-divisional (Brady/Manning, Mahomes/Allen, Marino/Elway, as examples), the competitiveness of Bears/Packers is already baked in. The NFL's most storied rivalry, these teams have hated one another for generations. Heck, we have a song about them sucking, and Chicago has been known to chant “Green Bay sucks” at Cubs games. There even seems to be a brewing animosity between the two young head coaches.
As it pertains to the game on Saturday, the Packers remain upset about Love’s concussion from the last Chicago game, a perceived cheap shot from Chicago defensive end Austin Booker (who was fined for two illegal hits to Love). Speaking to the press this week, Packers running back Josh Jacobs said, “I know a lot of guys took that hit that he took a little personal. So I’m not saying we gonna go out there and play dirty or nothing like that, but we definitely gonna defend our brother.” Needless to say, the competitive piss will be hot on Saturday night.
HIGH STAKES
The season is on the line on Saturday night. It’s win or go home. So yes, the stakes are very obviously huge. True, the Packers have faced the Bears with even more on the line (shout out to BJ Raji), but this is still an absolutely massive game. For Love and the Packers, it’s a chance to maintain their big brother dominance of the Bears and the city of Chicago. For Williams and the Bears, it’s a chance to finally assert themselves in a rivalry where they have been more or less embarrassed for almost three decades. For Williams, specifically, the game has the added pressure of being his first-ever playoff game.
As they’re fond of saying at CheeseheadTV, there’s a lotta ballgame left in this rivalry, but Saturday night’s contest begins, in earnest, an exciting new era with two of the league’s brightest future stars. I can’t wait to watch it unfold. Go Pack go.
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Mark Ballard is an obsessive Green Bay Packers fan, born in Buffalo Bills country, but raised right by a Mom from Rice Lake, WI. You can find him on X at @ballark
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Comments (20)
SicSemperTyrannis
January 09, 2026 at 10:54 am
Great article, Mark!
GPG
TarynsEyes
January 09, 2026 at 10:59 am
One lightbulb is possibly getting ready to shine, and one lightbulb seems to be possibly dimming. Can we really be certain as to which is whom.
PearlyBakerBest
January 09, 2026 at 06:46 pm
A tale of two Taryns.
Savage57
January 09, 2026 at 11:25 am
I remember Joey Harrington had a good season, too.
Stinky Cheese
January 09, 2026 at 11:45 am
Poor Savage..In denial. Get used to it buddy. We got ONE :)
Stinky Cheese
January 09, 2026 at 11:48 am
Looking forward to competing in the division and with the Fudgepackers. It should be a good game to the end. CW is built for these moments. Bears 24 Packers 23 BearDown!#FGB
jont
January 09, 2026 at 03:41 pm
Welcome.
FWIW, around here we leave the vulgar stuff at /sp/.
Stinky Cheese
January 09, 2026 at 11:50 am
P.S. The Booker cheap shot narrative is hilarious! Love Stinks dropped his head into a poor tackling form from Booker. Nixon is the cheap-shot artist
BuckyBadger
January 09, 2026 at 01:07 pm
Caleb still has to prove he is the guy yet IMO. His career completion % is only 60% and he was 58% this year. That won't cut it in the long run. This Bears team relied strongly on TOs and that is something that tends to be streaky and they probably have some regression coming in that area.
Are the Bears set up for a run or did they have a lucky year? They went 2-4 in the division with a lucky win vs GB and a 2pt victory over the Vikings. Their defense gives up long drives routinely.
BabeParilli
January 09, 2026 at 01:52 pm
Caleb Williams is a dual threat QB that is elusive and agile in the pocket and Ben Johnson does not need to take the ball out of Williams hands and run - even though Johnson could as the Bears are 3rd in the NFC in yards per rush at 4.9. Williams also makes good decisions - of the 14 teams in the playoffs, the Bears turn the ball over the least.
In contrast, the Packers Defense and Matt Lafleur have carried Jordan Love and hidden his flaws for each of Jordan's 3 years as a starter.
The Packers had a defense that was in the top 10 Jordan's first 2 years and only fell to 11th, where the Packers defense finished, after the week 16 Packers surrender to Derrick Henry and 41 points to the Ravens. Rodgers had a top 10 defense to support him just 3 years in his entire 15 years as Packer starting QB!
In Lafleur’s first 3 years with Jordan as starting QB, Jordan is now 11 wins 18 losses and 1 tie in games where Jordan drops back to pass more than the Packers run - that is a ABSYMAL 38.3% winning percentage!!!
You cannot survive as a Super Bowl contender in today’s NFL with a quarterback that has an ABYSMAL 38.3% winning percentage when you pass more than you run, as today’s NFL is a passing league!!
In Lafleur’s first 3 years with Rodgers as starting QB, Rodgers was 34 wins and 12 losses where Rodgers dropped back to pass more than the Packers ran – that is a 73.9% winning percentage.
You have over 50 games of data points - starts - for each QB with Lafleur.
*****Lafleur with Rodgers when passing more than running - 73.9% winning percentage.
*****Lafleur with Jordan when passing more than running - 38.3% winning percentage.
Lafleur – a very very smart and aware coach – recognized that Rodgers passing accuracy, arm strength, ability to think and quickly process the field, and agility in the pocket and pocket awareness made passing a winning formula with Rodgers as starer so the Packers passed more than they ran in 46 of the 53 games - that is 86.8% - that Rodgers started under Lafleur in Rodgers first 3 years with Lafleur.
Lafleur – a very very smart and aware coach – recognized that Love had poor passing accuracy, weaker arm strength than Rodgers, an inability to think and quickly process the field, and a lack of agility in the pocket and pocket awareness made passing a losing proposition with Jordan as starter so the Packers have passed more than they ran in just 30 of the 51 games – that is 58.8% - that Jordan has started under Lafleur in Jordan’s first 3 years with Lafleur.
This all tells you that the problem is Jordan Love, not Lafleur.
And that tells you that THE CORE PROBLEM IS GUTEKUNST.
You cannot survive as a Super Bowl contender in today’s NFL with a quarterback that has an ABYSMAL 38.3% winning percentage when you pass more than you run, as today’s NFL is a passing league!!
Unfortunately due to "Gutey" and his BONE HEADED choice of Love and destruction of the Packers Super Bowl bound teams, after 8 years of Gutey we have nothing.
Gutekunst must BE FIRED! Only the Gutekunst couple propagandists on here - the "Baghdad Bob's"/"Comical Ali's - a couple bitter enders do not now see that Gutekunst has destroyed years of past, present and future Packers Super Bowl chances with his disrespect of Packer veterans, ego, lies and incompetence.
Love must be traded - just like Howie Roseman traded Carson Wentz.
Malik Willis must be made the Packers starting QB - just like Howie Roseman made Jalen Hurts the Eagles starting QB.
If the General Manager for the Eagles Howie Roseman and the Eagles' accountants can figure out how to get rid of Carson Wentz and his then RECORD CONTRACT AND RECORD DEAD CAP HIT, how come Gutekunst and the Packers accountants can't figure out how to get rid of Jordan Love and his Record Contract and Record Dead Cap hit?
13TimeChamps
January 09, 2026 at 04:41 pm
* In Lafleur’s first 3 years with Rodgers as starting QB...
* Lafleur with Rodgers when passing more than running...
* Lafleur – a very very smart and aware coach – recognized that Rodgers...
Pssst Babe. Rodgers doesn't play for Green Bay anymore.
BabeParilli
January 09, 2026 at 11:21 pm
That's the problem.
Gutekunst has replaced veteran future NFL Hall of famers - that are still playing at a high level - with players that should not even be on the roster and with competent GM wouldn't be.
dobber
January 10, 2026 at 02:36 pm
Parrilli is butt-sore over a rebuild that needed to happen.
The roster was aging and the cap was in a shambles.
How many 5 and 6 win seasons did we have to endure once the rebuild began before the Packers became a playoff team again?
Different team--different players--different play calls--different tendencies.
Oppy
January 09, 2026 at 09:34 pm
It's embarrassing how bad your take is
Let me personally apologize for whatever it is Jordan Love did that brought shame to your family
BabeParilli
January 09, 2026 at 11:16 pm
As predicted 1 of a couple of Gutekunst's chief propagandists on Cheesehead TV appears - Gutekunst's Baghdad Bob/Comical Ali has arrived.
Oppy
January 10, 2026 at 01:48 pm
You are the definition of a propagandist.
You copy/paste the same long, drumming narratives- likely not your own or AI assisted compositions- week in, and week out.
Its clear you wouldn't be able to assess QB play by watching a player on the field, you need to sift data and carefully choose hyper-isolated statistics devoid of context or understanding to prop up a narrative.
I'm sorry Jordan hurt you and your family so badly.
GregC
January 10, 2026 at 02:22 pm
Carson Wentz's last season with the Eagles:
completion % 57.4
yards 2,620
TD 16
INT 15
rating 72.8
Jordan Love's 2025 stats:
completion % 66.3
yards 3,381
TD 23
INT 6
rating 101.2
To put it another way: Wentz was one of the worst QBs in the league that year, and Jordan Love was one of the best QBs in the league this year.
Swisch
January 09, 2026 at 02:22 pm
It could be fun to have a renewed competitiveness in the Bears-Packers rivalry, and with two top quarterbacks.
I'm a big fan of Jordan Love and what he has done with the Packers.
From what I can tell, he has the aptitude and attitude to be among the best QBs in the NFL for the next decade or so.
Having said that, we all need to prove ourselves day after day, at work and at home and everywhere else.
We'll have our ups and downs as far as our performance, as well as with our character, but we hope to keep striving all the way through to the end.
As Lombardi said, we chase perfection knowing we won't attain it, but in the process reach excellence. That statement helped to energize an unknown QB named Bart Starr to a career as a hall-of-famer and fan favorite.
My impression is that Love has some of the attributes of Starr in his preparation and presence and perseverance. I hope and pray so.
I truly think Love could one day be in the Hall of Fame.
In any case, the goal is to reach the fullness of our potential as players and persons.
That's victory.
jont
January 09, 2026 at 03:49 pm
Sure we all say we hate the Bears, but we generally reserve it for the weeks the teams actually play. It's not a year round thing as it is down south. It's really odd to me how much Bears fans, the FO, and coaches focus on GB. The coaches even say job one is to beat the Packers when #1 should be "win championships".
Anyway, about Caleb, I agree that the signs are there-- good arm, great mobility-- along with the usual room to improve like accuracy and touch. But the physical skills are the entry qualifications for the job. The QB job is mostly mental, and he's not there yet from what I see. I might even go so far as to say Malik is a little better at this time.
joejetson
January 09, 2026 at 09:34 pm
The Bears' last QB, Justin Fields, had "all the tools", just like Williams.
I'll start believing the Williams hype when he actually wins a playoff game.
GB had Chicago beat, handily, in both games this year. But the defense fell apart and let them back into the game late.
It took a total fluke to give away the 2nd game. I don't see that happening again.
GB- 31
CHI- 17