Josh Love Overview
Position: Quarterback
Height: 6’-2”
Weight: 205 pounds
School: San Jose State
Josh Love 2020 NFL Draft Profile
Josh Love is one of the most overlooked prospects in the 2020 NFL Draft. The San Jose State product actually had a strong year during his first full season under center. Overall, the redshirt Senior completed 293 of his 481 passes for 3,923 yards (8.2 yards-per-attempt), 22 touchdowns, eight interceptions, and a 95.1 passer rating. All of this was good enough for Love to become the first member of San Jose State to ever win Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year honors.
Despite being a three-star recruit coming out of high school, Josh Love didn’t receive any interest from any big-name college programs. Instead of giving up on his football dreams, Love attended San Jose State and made the team as a walk-on. Love never quite locked down the starting job from 2016 to 2018, but still had his fair share of attempts. In 2018, Josh Love completed 161 of his 288 passing attempts for 1,971 yards, 14 touchdowns, nine interceptions, and an 80.4 passer rating.
Strengths
- Quick release, knows where to go with the football;
- Reads defenses and goes through progressions at an above-average level;
- Can navigate the pocket and evade oncoming rushers;
- Isn’t afraid to live and play another down;
- Doesn’t lose accuracy when throwing on the run;
- Throws with touch and can vary ball velocity depending on the need of the throw.
Weaknesses
- Fringe-NFL arm;
- Only started for one season;
- Didn’t face the best competition at San Jose State;
- Pedestrian athleticism might not be good enough with underwhelming arm;
- Struggles to consistently push the ball downfield.
NFL Comparison: Kyle Allen
Teams With Need at Position: Cincinnati Bengals, Chicago Bears, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, New England Patriots, Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tennessee Titans
Projection: Round 5
Bottom Line on Josh Love
Josh Love is the type of solid backup quarterback prospect that gets overlooked on an annual basis. He didn’t play at a large program, so he’d need to really stand out in order to generate any type of attention. While he’s probably not a starting-caliber quarterback, he does all the little things right and could develop into an above-average backup. The San Jose State product excels at reading defenses, has a quick release, and was surprisingly effective under pressure in 2019. He has more than just a fastball and can put the appropriate amount of loft and touch on the ball to make any throw in the short and intermediate parts of the field.
Love’s mental ability should keep him in the league for a bit, but his underwhelming physical gifts mean that he probably won’t ever be a starter. Some quarterbacks can make due with a subpar arm, but they need to be perfect at just about everything else. Love’s accuracy isn’t terrible, but it might be good enough to make up for his lack of arm strength. Additionally, he didn’t exactly face the best competition in college, and the jump from Mountain West to the NFL might be too much for him to handle. Whatever the case, he should earn the right to compete for a backup spot and hang around in the league for a while.
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