The next domino has fallen in regard to quarterback contracts. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the Packers have reached an agreement extending quarterback Jordan Love on a four-year, $220MM deal. The contract makes Love tied for the highest annual average salary in NFL history.
The Packers quarterback is set to receive an NFL-record $75MM signing bonus. Jared Goff‘s signing bonus this year of $73MM is the next-closest such figure. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that Love’s new contract includes $155MM in new guarantees.
This wraps a pivotal day for NFL contracts, with Love’s extension coming hours after the Dolphins gave Tua Tagovailoa a four-year, $212.4MM deal. Unlike Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and Trevor Lawrence over the past year, Tagovailoa and Love agreed to four-year contracts. This will put the 2020 draftees in position to potentially cash in on third NFL deals earlier than the Chargers, Bengals and Jaguars passers, who agreed to five-year deals. After a report Friday afternoon indicated contract structure was holding up this agreement, the parties hammered out a deal that will tie Love to Green Bay through the 2028 season.
Love’s path to his big payday is one not often seen in the NFL. After being the fourth quarterback taken in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, Love was the only one of the four passers to not start at least half the season as a rookie. In fact, Love was the only first-round pick in that year to not even appear in a game his rookie season. He fell victim that year to the Packers’ notorious strategy of drafting and stashing a quarterback talent while their long-time veteran finishes out his time in Green Bay.
After redshirting his rookie year, Love made his first career start in 2021, replacing a COVID-19-positive Aaron Rodgers. He delivered a middling performance in a loss to the Chiefs and appeared in mostly garbage-time situations for nine other games in 2021 and 2022. In 2023, after Rodgers forced a trade to the Jets, Love finally was given an opportunity to prepare for the season as a starter. With ten game appearances and only one start under his belt, Love took over the offense, starting all 17 games last year. In his first season as the starter under center, Love went 9-8 in the regular season, completing 64.2 percent of his passes for 4,159 yards, 32 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions.
Green Bay’s 9-8 record under Love was good enough to earn them a playoff spot as the No. 7 seed, setting them up for a trip to the No. 2-seeded Cowboys in Super Wild Card weekend. Love played lights out, knocking out Dallas before going toe-to-toe and losing a three-point contest to the top-seeded 49ers.
That is the story of Love’s career: the lone season as a starter in the NFL. That was apparently enough for Green Bay to tie him with Burrow and Lawrence as the highest-paid players in NFL history. Burrow and Lawrence both are making $55MM per year on five-year contracts, so technically they are in line to receive more money that Love, but Love’s $220MM in four years matches them in annual value.
While this level of commitment may seem excessive for an 18-game starting sample (plus two postseason starts), with a contract year on the horizon, it would have been risky to allow Love to test free agency or potentially improve his bargaining position. The team is confident enough in Love’s potential and happy enough with Love’s production, that they deemed him worth what Lawrence was making, at least.
Both sides wanted this deal done by training camp, though it took a few extra days. As negotiations with the Packers had been failing, Love was staging a hold-in, attending training camp to avoid fines but participating minimally, if at all. After finally putting pen to paper, Love should be suited up for the team’s next training camp session.
The most important remaining ongoing contract negotiation is that of Cowboys passer Dak Prescott. Currently ranking 14th in average annual salary, Prescott’s regular season success should set him up for a big pay day, once he comes to terms with Dallas. The Tagovailoa and Love accords being completed will help set the table for Prescott, who possesses unique leverage in his latest Cowboys negotiations.
The Packers, though, have checked that item off the to-do list. Since trading for Brett Favre in 1992, watching him reign until 2007, letting 2005 first-round pick Rodgers take over in 2008 and reign until 2022, the Packers have had longevity at the quarterback position for 30 years. The question facing Love was whether or not he would allow Green Bay to continue that trend. With this extension, Love is under contract through 2028. He will be 30 years old the next time he gets a chance to test free agency; that is, if the Packers don’t decide to push their longevity trend even further.
