Jordan Love entered the 2023 season having been handed the reins of the Packers’ offense despite his inexperience. With a bridge deal in hand, he delivered a strong second half of the campaign in particular, earning the team’s trust as a long-term solution under center.

The 2020 first-rounder posted a 96.1 passer rating in 2023, finishing second in the NFL with 32 touchdown passes. That production helped lead the team to the divisional round of the postseason, and it certainly helped his leverage at the bargaining table. Talks on a Love extension are ongoing, and an agreement can be finalized at any time.

Four quarterbacks reset the market last offseason, each signing monster second contracts. That quartet (Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts) were recently joined by Jared Goff on his new Lions pact. Any new deals for ascending or established franchise passers therefore come with the expectation they will carry an annual average value at or above $50MM. Despite Love’s relative inexperience, he too could be positioned to reach that plateau.

In a recent installment of The Insiders, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that it is a matter of “when” not “if” Love becomes one of the league’s highest-paid quarterbacks on his next contract. Colleague Mike Garafolo adds the Utah State alum is expected to wind up “in Burrow territory” regarding compensation (video link). The Bengals Pro Bowler sits atop the market with a $55MM-per-year deal, and it would certainly be noteworthy if Love were to sign a similar one.

The latter started only one game during his first three seasons in the league. Green Bay’s decision to move on from Aaron Rodgers paved the way for Love to take over, and his one-year extension took the place of his fifth-year option. That agreement could not be extended until May 4, but with that date having come and gone the parties are free to hammer out a long-term accord. If the Packers view 2024 as a preview of Love’s prime, a deal near the (current) top of the market could prove to be a sound investment.

This offseason is expected to see a fresh wave of mega-deals at the QB spot. Any or all of Dak Prescott, Trevor Lawrence and Tua Tagovailoa could ink deals whose value is based on the contracts signed last summer and the historic jump in the salary cap witnessed in 2024. Waiting until after that has taken place could put Love in position to secure more on a deal (this offseason or later) than what the Packers could offer now.

On the other hand, the fact the 25-year-old has made only 20 combined regular and postseason starts (throwing 16 interceptions in that span) could give the team pause. Love endured growing pains early in the 2023 campaign, and his decision-making in certain playoff situations showed there is room for improvement in that regard. He is currently set to receive $11MM in 2024, but that figure will rise considerably once his next contract is in place even if the Packers manage a more modest agreement.

Green Bay has Sean Clifford in place as a backup quarterback, and the team selected Michael Pratt in the seventh round of this year’s draft. They will provide developmental options for years to come, but the Packers have already publicly endorsed a lucrative Love deal. When that is worked out – and the figures it includes – will be a key storyline to follow.

Last offseason, the Packers replaced Jordan Love‘s fifth-year option with a one-year extension. No new pact can be agreed upon until at least May 4, but talks on that front have begun.

With Aaron Rodgers out of the picture, Green Bay made a short-term commitment to Love as the team’s 2024 starter. The $22.5MM pact the latter inked included escalators and bonuses as he helped guide the Packers to the second round of the postseason. Love is due $11MM in 2024 on his current contract, which is set to carry a cap hit of $12.76MM. A long-term accord will check in at a much higher rate.

A January report stated the Packers would explore an extension in the offseason, with general manager Brian Gutekunst having seen enough of the former first-rounder to commit to him as Green Bay’s long-term answer under center. When speaking at the league meetings, Gutekunst confirmed negotiations on a Love pact have indeed started. Nothing is imminent at this time, though.

“There’s been some, obviously, preliminary discussions,” Gutekunst said on Monday (video link via Ryan Woods of Packers News). “But we want to do it the right way. And certainly the sooner the better, but at the same time, we want to make sure we do it the right way. So, it’s started. But it’s not something that’s going to go quickly, I don’t think.”

NFL contracts cannot be extended twice within a 12-month span, so any new Love deal will not become official for at least six weeks. Still, it is of course noteworthy the sides have begun talks on a new agreement. The sides are in a unique situation with Love having made only one start in his first three NFL seasons. The 25-year-old had a less-than-stellar beginning to his first campaign as a starter, but down the stretch and into the postseason his play improved.

As a result, he is in line for a steep raise compared to his current deal. 12 quarterbacks currently average at least $40MM per season, and with the salary cap expected to continue rising at a notable rate that number will no doubt increase in the coming years. Love has much less experience in a No. 1 role than the veterans at the top of the market, but a number of relatively young passers have secured monster second contracts in recent years. If Love is to become the next in line, an agreement could be within reach relatively soon depending on the progress of negotiations.

Owing in large part to the improved play of their offense down the stretch, the Packers advanced to the playoffs for the fourth time in five years. Green Bay’s run to the postseason despite being the youngest team in the NFL was sparked by the performance of quarterback Jordan Love, who has shown significant signs of improvement during his first year as a starter.

Both general manager Brian Gutekunst and president Mark Murphy have publicly offered encouragement for the former first-rounder while maintaining that a full campaign would be needed for the team to truly evaluate his status as a passer worth building around. Love – and the Packers’ offense as a whole – endured growing pains early in the year, and turnovers became an issue for him. However, he compiled a highly impressive 18:1 touchdown-to interception ratio over the final eight games of the season.

That success has already earned the 25-year-old considerable bonuses given the incentives in his contract. That pact – a one-year, $22.5MM extension signed in May which took the place of his fifth-year option – included $13.5MM guaranteed. The latter figure represents a bargain given the current market for high-end starting QBs, but Love has cashed in on numerous escalators. As detailed by ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, the Utah State alum earned a number of bonuses for performance as well as leading the Packers to the postseason. He could see another $500K with a win over the Cowboys today.

Given his impressive showing late in the year, Love (who has boosted his 2023 earnings by $4.5MM so far) has likely done enough to land a more permanent stay in Green Bay. Indeed, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports he and the Packers will speak about an extension this spring (video link). Love is due $6MM next year, but a multi-year pact ensuring he remains with the franchise for the foreseeable future would of course check in at a much larger price tag. Contracts cannot be extended twice within a 12-month span, however, so no new agreement can be finalized until at least May 4.

The Demovsky piece details the unique nature of this situation, with Love having essentially redshirted his first three seasons in the NFL. The Aaron Rodgers successor is thus a challenging case with respect to working out an appropriate long-term contract. Three sources Demovsky cites project a range in AAV from $30MM on the low end to upwards of $50MM on the high end. It would come as little surprise if a contract fell somewhere in between those extremes, but questions will obviously linger about a lack of sample size.

Young passers like the quartet who each eclipsed the $50MM-per-year mark on their respective deals this offseason (Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow) each had more time as a starter than Love has so far. The latter has nevertheless likely done enough to price himself above other, less heralded starters, and he has proven to have chemistry with the Packers’ group of highly inexperienced pass catchers; keeping that nucleus intact for years to come would represent a logical priority for the front office.

Regardless of how the postseason shapes out for Green Bay, the status of Love’s long-term financial future will be a major storyline during the offseason. With a lengthy period in place between the end of the season and the point at which a new contract can be signed, both team and player will have a long runway to negotiate terms on what could be a sizeable raise.

Although Aaron Rodgers famously needed to wait until his fourth season to become an NFL starter, the Packers had seen enough from the future Hall of Famer midway through that 2008 season to hand out an extension.

The Packers and Rodgers agreed on what became a wildly team-friendly deal on Oct. 31, 2008 — six years, $63.52MM — to set up the ascending quarterback entering his early prime. The Packers did not revisit the deal until the 2013 offseason, when Rodgers inked a five-year, $110MM pact. The initial extension holds a distinction as one of the better contracts a team has hammered out this century.

Before Week 1, Packers president Mark Murphy said it would likely take at least a half-season to begin to pinpoint Jordan Love‘s trajectory. The longtime Packers exec has since moved the goal posts a bit since those comments and followed GM Brian Gutekunst by indicating how pivotal this season’s second half will be to the franchise’s evaluation.

“It wouldn’t be fair to judge Jordan now since there are so many other factors that have contributed to the offense’s poor performance (e.g., dropped passes, penalties, mental errors),” Murphy said in a question-and-answer piece on Packers.com. “We should have a much better sense regarding Jordan at the end of the season.

“Young players often take time to find consistency, but we still very much believe in Jordan and are excited to see his continued development.”

Murphy also cited the experience around Rodgers when he took over, referencing receivers Donald Driver and Greg Jennings along with tackle Chad Clifton and running back Ryan Grant. While Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon represent experience, with the former residing as one of the better Packers skill-position players this century, this Green Bay edition lost David Bakhtiari for the season and played a stretch without Elgton Jenkins. The team also bid farewell to experienced wideouts Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb this offseason, seeing both team up with Rodgers with the Jets. The Packers’ receiving corps consists entirely of first- and second-year players, with rookies Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft comprising the team’s top tight end duo. The inexperience issue came up multiple times this offseason, but the Packers refrained from adding a veteran to help the young group during Love’s first starter season.

Although Murphy reminded the Packers had seen enough from Rodgers to extend that extension offer by this point in his first starter season, the veteran exec praised Love’s makeup and leadership qualities. Through eight games, the fourth-year passer has not impressed. Love ranks 25th in passer rating, 22nd in QBR, 25th in yards per attempt and last (among qualified passers) in completion percentage (59.6). An accurate outing against the Rams brought Love’s completion rate to that point, and the Packers are coming off a 20-3 win.

An organization expecting to strike gold on a third consecutive passer is obviously a longer-odds proposition. The Packers’ 1992 Brett Favre trade and 2005 Rodgers draft choice set them up like no team before it, at least in terms of duration. The team’s decision to trade up for Love in 2020 generated scrutiny, and with the move coming without Gutekunst notifying Rodgers, that selection led to the parties’ relationship fracturing. By not taking a player capable of helping immediately, the Packers also punted on the chance to strengthen a team that had ventured to the prior year’s NFC championship game.

Gutekunst certainly took a risk by trading up for Love, who led Division I-FBS in interceptions in 2019. The Packers will give the Utah State alum more time. In lieu of picking up Love’s fully guaranteed 2024 option, the Packers gave Rodgers’ successor a two-year deal worth $13.5MM. Escalators exist within the deal, but Love is currently tied to a $5.5MM base salary and $7.76MM cap number for 2024. That is a favorable rate for a starting quarterback beyond his four-year rookie deal, but Love still has plenty to prove in order to command another Packers extension.

In the midst of a four-game losing streak, the Packers’ struggles have led to renewed questions about Jordan Love‘s status as the team’s projected long-term starting quarterback. Head coach Matt LaFleur endorsed the former first-rounder last week, but general manager Brian Gutekunst has since struck a different tone.

Love got off to an encouraging start in 2023, his first season at the helm and thus the beginning of his audition period as Aaron Rodgers‘ successor. The 25-year-old has taken a step back statistically in recent weeks, however, throwing at least one interception in each of the past five games (and eight total during that span). Love sits last in the NFL in completion percentage (57.7%), a sign of his growing pains but also those of Green Bay’s offense as a whole.

“I think he’s done a lot of really good things,” Gutekunst said of Love, via ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. “Really like the way he’s responded to the adversity, how he’s led the team. Again, we’ve got to be better as a unit, and I expect that to happen over the next 10 games. And I think that we’re going through some things that we knew we would go through. We haven’t had the results that we want, but I do like the way guys are responding to things.”

Gutekunst added that the final 10 games of the Packers’ season will be “very important” as it pertains to the organization’s evaluation of Love. The Utah State product signed an extension which took the place of his fifth-year option this offseason, a pact which has him on the books through 2024. Improvement will be needed to quell doubts on the team’s part that another option under center should be sought out, although it comes as little surprise that Green Bay’s highly inexperienced offense has encountered issues in the first half of the campaign.

“When the group as a whole is not functioning the way it should function, then it’s hard to evaluate anybody,” Gutekunst added. “At the same time, it’s on us to get that right so we can move forward and evaluate the guys we have in that room. But yeah, when we’re not clicking, it’s tough to evaluate anything.”

Plenty of attention will be on Love in particular to close out the season as the 2-5 Packers aim for signs of growth over the second half of the campaign. Green Bay elected not to add a veteran presence at this week’s trade deadline, with the team’s only move being the one which sent corner Rasul Douglas to the Bills. While Gutekunst expressed confidence the Packers’ young offense nucleus will take a step forward, his remarks make it clear progress will be necessary in the near future on Love’s part for the organization to feel comfortable about a long-term commitment.