Trevor Lawrence became the latest quarterback in the $50MM-per-year club by agreeing to his monster Jaguars extension. Jordan Love may be the next ascending signal-caller to join him in that regard. 
The latter is well past the 12-month mark since his bridge deal was signed last offseason. That one-year extension took the place of his fifth-year option as Love took over for Green Bay on a full-time basis. The 2020 first-rounder helped guide the Packers to the divisional round of the playoffs, and a lucrative long-term investment is now the expected outcome of negotiations this offseason.
General manager Brian Gutekunst recently confirmed the team’s preference to work out a deal before training camp opens next month. It is clear that feeling is mutual based on Love’s remarks on the subject. When asked about his looming deal, the 25-year-old said he is optimistic an agreement will be reached in time for camp. He added he expects contract talks to pick up in the coming days with minicamp having taken place (h/t ESPN’s Rob Demovsky).
Lawrence’s deal matches Joe Burrow‘s in terms of average annual value ($55MM). Love has been named as another candidate to approach that figure, but at a minimum he should manage to become the seventh quarterback to reach the $50MM plateau. The Utah State product had only one start to his name before the 2023 campaign, one in which he endured expected growing pains. The close of the regular season and the playoffs eliminated doubt on the team’s part that a mega-pact would be worthwhile, though.
Love finished second in the NFL in touchdown passes (32) and seventh in yards (4,159) last season, providing reason to believe he can guide a young Packers offense to similar success moving forward. He is due $11MM for 2024 as things stand, but that will change dramatically if a deal is worked out in short order. Given the public stances of both team and player in this case, it would not come as a surprise if Love opened training camp with a new deal in hand.
If crypto is a scam, what does that make Packers stock?
A small, direct way to help keep a beloved team in a tiny market and a cute stocking stuffer for Wisconsinites.
A $300 stocking stuffer that is worthless? Gooof indeed.
Again, selling stock helps not only keep an NFL team in far and away the smallest market in the game, but one with competitive resources. That’s worth a lot to Packers fans. And no one pretends it’s an actual investment or valuable commodity, unlike crypto.
You are talking about American consumers that brought us sensations like the pet rock, the dog umbrella, and the naming rights to a star. Don’t try to tell Americans how to spend their money!
Brilliant move by the Packers!!!!
There was a time when they put new sod on the field and sold thousands of 6in by 10in chunks to fans who want to own a piece of the frozen tundra. It’s basically crumbled into nothing in the box it came in, but the packer fans in WI don’t care, they love that team unconditionally and will help fund it in all circumstances
And there are many Packer fans around the world.
Something that the purchasers know at the time of purchase has no monetary value, and aren’t hoodwinked into believing its an investment that will grow their nest egg.
And what does that have to do with Love’s extension talks?
If this goober gets 50 million a year I’m out. Trevor Lawrence getting 50 million a year is a travesty, but at least he has more than 3 months of good football in him.
It is ridiculous money and you’re not alone in that line of thinking. At some point fans will have to draw a line in whether to continue to support this business. It’s supposed to be a game.
If the fans were going to draw a line it would have happened long before this. I’m sure a decade from now when that hot dog and beer costs $100 there will still be fans whining about the salaries being paid to players…but they will continue to support the NFL.
It may become prohibitively expensive for most people and people may lose interest.
Jordan Love has looked good in his single season. I’d want to see another season of high-calibre football, and durability, before I guaranteed $200 million at $55 million/year.
It’s not like the price of admission can go much higher? Right now the Packers would be paying at maximum potential. There’s nothing Love could do in 2024 to raise the minimum payment. He still won’t become Mahomes or Burrows, regardless of what the Packers pay him.
He played at a peak Burrow level the last ten weeks of the season.
Remember the RGIII season? How many one-year wonder QB’s has the NFL seen? Effectively 2023 was Jordan Love’s chance to baffle defensive coordinators. In 2024 they will be ready for him. We’ll see the real Jordan Love. For better or for worse.
I always respect your opinions Alec but we should probably just wait for Aaron Rodgers to rant on about how overpaid and ineffective Jordan Love is going to be as a Packers QB.
The only complaint I know of from Aaron Rodgers about Jordan Love is that the draft pick was required for an elite piece on offense before another MVP season, which could have ended with a Super Bowl – with one more piece.
Rodgers may be arrogant but he walks his talk. Four MVP awards.
They’re not similar on the field and RGIII was never the same after the injury at the end of that season.
Way to misunderstand a comment. I don’t know why you carry water for these players like this. They don’t know you, they don’t care about you. At this point, you’re basically vandalising any thread on which you appear. Just say your piece once and let it go.
Jordan Love played some nice games for half a season. Not a good reason to guarantee him $250 million. Let’s wait and see how he does in 2024.
If he does well, then he backs up the Brinks truck. If he does less well, he goes on a middling QB pact (smaller Brinks truck).
I don’t know why a football fan is so interested in taking down football players all the time. The dude played at a superstar level in the first season he got to start after turning 25 in the middle of it. He’s a free agent after this season. That’s a guy who gets paid at a top level.
Also, “vandalising”? Get a grip.
RGIII is a pretty good example, but there are others too. Like Daniel Jones! Contracts like those for mediocre (at best) QBs doom a franchise for 5 years. I don’t care about the Packers and their fate, but if I did, I would be against signing Love to a large guarantee.
Daniel Jones wasn’t nearly as good in his best season as Love was last year, and that came after three years of mediocrity.
Give him $60 million AAV guaranteed, I don’t care! In my opinion, he has not shown enough yet to warrant that kind of deal, but I really don’t care. The problem is that when a QB makes that kind of money, they have to elevate the rest of the roster because the team cannot afford the best o-line or skill players, or defense. I don’t think that Love has had enough time to show if he is that kind of player or not. He might be. I wouldn’t feel comfortable offering that type of salary cap commitment to a player with 10 good starts to their name.
That’s understandable, but I also think it’s the corner the Packers have painted themselves into. They could have gambled more and paid less for a long-term deal last offseason. That will be true again if they kick the can down the road another year and he plays even mostly as well as he did the second half of last year. People say they want to see QBs sit for a while, but it does cost evaluation time before the guy needs his next contract.
But also, if any team can afford to do this, it’s the Packers. All their receivers and tight ends combined are making like $10 million this year.
I agree that money is becoming less valuable, and a contract today is worth less than it will be five years from now. I also agree that you do not want to end up in a Kirk Cousins/Washington situation where you have to use the franchise tag three times in a row. There isn’t an easy answer, (if there was, then it would have been found already!) but knowing that you can use the tag if you needed to means that waiting one more year to see if he takes the next step is a legitimate option.
Did you see Love down the stretch? He was playing like an elite quarterback with no veteran receivers or tight ends.
Several times so did Trent Dilfer, and Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Even if you look at his stat line for the whole year, he threw for more yards and touchdowns than Fitzpatrick or Dilfer ever did, completed passes at a higher rate than any Dilfer season or most Fitz seasons, and had a lower interception rate, in addition to a sack rate better than Dilfer ever had and among Fitz’s better seasons. And that’s setting aside his breakout over the course of the season. The last ten weeks of the season–starting a couple of days after he turned 25–he threw 21 TDs to 3 interceptions. He also played great in the playoffs and looked great doing all of this. Whatever reason you want to call him a goober, last year looked like a coming out party for a superstar.
Yes, but we have seen other QBs seemingly about to have a superstar coming out party only to poop in the punch bowl. I really don’t care what the Packers do, but I think it is more likely that you have Joe Flacco, than Tom Brady there.
…and Daniel Jones, and Joe Flacco, and Deshaun Watson, and…
What do any of those guys have to do with Jordan Love?
They were given large guarantees based on small sample sizes, and it didn’t work out as the team had hoped.
All those guys played much more before getting their big contracts. Daniel Jones had three mediocre seasons and then a good season that wasn’t nearly as good as what Love just did. Joe Flacco’s dud contract wasn’t his first big one, and it came after having a great Super Bowl winning run. And Deshaun Watson got his contract after two ACL tears, a full season sitting out, and a whole lot of sexual misconduct allegations. All very different.
Were they consecutive months?
You might as well pack your bags then, because if Lawrence is worth $56 million, Jordan Love is worth $60 million. Lawrence has never played as good as Jordan Love did down the stretch. In fact, most QBs never have.
Except Burrow, Mahomes, Allen, etc etc do it year after year after year, not for 2 months. Lawrence isn’t worth near 50 million. (See previous posts) and neither is Jordan Love
It’s not his fault he was drafted to sit behind a hall of famer. You’re paying for what you think a guy will do, not what he’s already done. He got to start for one season and by the second half he was playing like an MVP candidate at age 25. I get that a longer track record would be nice, but you pay to hold onto that guy. It’s not like Josh Allen was a perennial superstar before he signed his. He had two rough years before breaking out for two.
Jordan Love is not an elite QB, and this guys is absolutely correct, let’s see more than 3 months of competent ball before we pay him.
Not sure why it matters anyways, the packers will never beat the 49ers.
Actually a guy SHOULD be paid for what he’s done, not what you think he can do. He had a good 2 months, let him start the year and see if the defensive coordinators have him figured out yet. Trevor Lawrence was gold, now he looks like a hall of famer for 15 minutes and then Ryan Leaf for the next 15. I would wait and see how he does for awhile before he gets big money.
Projection is a key part of any long term contract. What a guy has done already is mostly only useful in terms of what it can tell you about what he will do when you’re paying him. You’re also paying based on what a guy would get elsewhere on the market. If you try to nickel and dime Love or wait too long, someone else will get a chance to pay him what you won’t. Unless you want to franchise him repeatedly, which is how you end up with Dak Prescott and Kirk Cousins making more cash than elite quarterbacks. The Packers chose to draft a guy who would spend his whole rookie contract on the bench. That changes the kind of decision they have to make. Love had a star caliber season his first year as a starter and he’s only a year and a half older than Michael Penix. He’s got a big payday coming his way.
Also let’s not say things we can’t take back. Ryan Leaf was unbelievably bad.
I’m still waiting for a reasonable alternative to dishing out an extension before camp, which both sides seem to agree is some sort of deadline, and what to do come next off-season when Sean Clifford is QB1 on the depth chart.
Hey, I think Michael Pratt is a MUCH better prospect than Clifford was.
He deserves to be making at least as much as Danny Dimes.
I wish one NFL team had the stones to try a completely different approach to winning football games. Bring back the wishbone!
It failed the first time so why bring it back. Punting on every down is the way to go…lol.