Report: Jordan Love Got 'Poor Man's Patrick Mahomes' Comparison from Dolphins

It's never good to be called a poor man's version of anything in sports. That said, when it comes to being a "poor man's Patrick Mahomes," that comparison might get Jordan Love taken in the first round of the 2020 NFL draft.

Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated reported there has been speculation the Miami Dolphins could take an offensive tackle at No. 5 overall with plans to wait for Love to be available at No. 18. The Love-Mahomes comp has reportedly been thrown around by the Dolphins front office.

Let's just do the side-by-side comparison and delve into the narrative:

Mahomes

• Height: 6'2"
  Weight: 225 lbs
  Arms: 33 1/4 in
  Hands: 9 1/4 in
  40: 4.80 seconds
  Vertical: 30.0 in
  Broad: 114.0 in
  3-Cone: 6.88 seconds
  Shuttle: 4.08 seconds

Love

• Height: 6'4"
  Weight: 224 lbs
  Arms: 32 5/8 in
  Hands: 10 1/2 in
  40: 4.74 seconds
  Vertical: 35.5 in
  Broad: 118 in
  3-Cone: 7.21 seconds
  Shuttle: 4.52 seconds

From a physical standpoint, you can see the comparisons. Mahomes is slightly shorter with smaller hands but is far superior in the fast-twitch athleticism drills. That quickness could signal that Mahomes is more elusive in the pocket than Love, an important ability when it comes to extending plays and finding breaks in the coverage.

So far, the "poor man's Mahomes" label seems somewhat fitting. Let's continue the comparisons, with the acknowledgement that Love has a slightly worse arm than Mahomes but somewhere in the ballpark—again extending the "poor man" comparison.

Mahomes College Stats

• Yards: 11,252
  Passing TDs: 93
  Rushing TDs: 22
  Interceptions: 29
  Completion Percentage: 63.5%
  Passing Attempts: 1,349
  Yards Per Attempt: 8.3

Love College Stats

• Yards: 8,600
  Passing TDs: 60
  Rushing TDs: 9
  Interceptions: 29
  Completion Percentage: 61.2%
  Passing Attempts: 1,125
  Yards Per Attempt: 7.6

The comparisons are starting to fall apart, no? Mahomes threw the same amount of interceptions as Love on 224 fewer attempts, completed a higher percentage of his passes and averaged more yards per attempt.

Keep in mind that Love played college football in a mid-major at Utah State. Mahomes was going against Big 12 talent at Texas Tech. While Love may be a good quarterback at the next level, comparing to Mahomes is like comparing Nikoloz Tskitishvili to Dirk Nowitzki because they are tall, European big men.

It's not fair and sets up larger-than-life expectations for a quarterback who may not be able to deliver them. Mahomes' resume far exceeds Love's, and the fact he was not the No. 1 overall pick in 2017 was one of the biggest misses in NFL draft history.

If we want to look into expectations for Love, it may be the guy NFL.com compared Mahomes to in 2017: Jay Cutler, another howitzer-armed quarterback with a propensity for fitting the ball into tight windows.