A full post–Aaron Rodgers regular season is in the books, and the Green Bay Packers look the same as they ever were. In saying that, I’m not telling you the Packers are about to embark on another 15 years at quarterback like the 30 they just had.

But as far as being up to the task of following a legend? Jordan Love has been all of that.

And he’s done it simply by giving the Packers a familiar feeling: normalcy. And that normalcy was reflected vividly in a text Rodgers sent Love on Sunday morning.

That part was the same as it’s ever been Sunday, too. Brett Favre was 23–13 against Chicago. Rodgers was, famously, 26–5. Love is now 2–0.

Even better, the 25-year-old reached that mark while hitting a bunch of personal high-water marks in going 27-of-32 for 316 yards and two touchdowns in Green Bay’s workmanlike 17–9 win. His completion percentage (84.4%) was a season best, as were his yards per attempt (9.9) and passer rating (128.6). All of which shows two things. One, that, as the Packers expected, he’s a lot better now than when he got his first win over the Bears, at Soldier Field in Week 1. And two, that their patience with him, both through some bumps this year, and over the past four years, was well founded.

The result is a kid, if you still want to call him that, who firmly believes he’s just where he should be in his development and hasn’t really doubted that development was coming along at any point this season—even when he went three straight games with a passer rating under 70, or as the Packers had to ride out a 2–6 stretch that followed the high of that Week 1 win.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s because he got to watch the ebbs and flows of a season three times over before having to live those as a starter, which has given him the benefit that Matt LaFleur and his staff hoped he’d take from waiting—actual sustainable confidence.

“Coming into this year, I came in with no expectations,” Love says. “I wasn’t trying to put a feeling on what we could be as a team, what I could be. I really just came in with a grateful mindset and wanting to take advantage of the opportunity that I had in front of me. That’s kind of the same mindset I kept throughout the season. We had low points. We had high points. I was not trying to put a ceiling on us.