16 quarterbacks currently have contracts that total up to over $100 million, with nine of those contracts coming in north of $200 million. And even though he only has been the starter for one season, Jordan Love likely will be joining the $100 million club in his next contract extension.
Green Bay looks to have gone back-to-back-to-back on franchise QBs, adding Love to the equation during the Aaron Rodgers era. Coming off a 32-touchdown season and an unexpected playoff berth, it’s safe to say the Packers have a good problem on their hands – needing to pay yet another franchise QB.
There are plenty of use cases in the QB market for salary cap guru Russ Ball and general manager Brian Gutekunst to reference for Love’s contract, and that could play a huge factor in helping keep Love’s overall cap numbers digestible on a yearly basis. If the Packers are known for one thing, it’s being able to keep their homegrown options on deals that really benefit the franchise in the long run.
Timing of Extension
It may seem like Green Bay is jumping the gun a bit to sign Love to a new deal this offseason, seeing as how he still has one year left on his current deal. Having signed a one year, $13.5M deal that could have reached $22.5M through escalators last offseason, Love was able to bypass his fifth-year contract extension while giving him full control of how much he earns.
But quarterbacks typically don’t like to enter as a lame duck, so getting a deal done before the season begins is the best course of action. Green Bay can look to build a deal based on Love’s lone season as a starter while citing his lack of experience for why he doesn’t have to be paid like a top-5 signal caller.
Contract Details
With the top-10 quarterbacks earning at least $40 million per season (AAV), that likely will be the base for Love’s new deal. While Green Bay could look to come in just under that yearly total and try to build in incentives, it should be expected that Love’s camp would need to have a deal starting at $40M/season.
More realistically, fans should expect Love’s new deal to come in right around $41-42M, which would put him behind Josh Allen but ahead of Daniel Jones and Dak Prescott’s current deals. Most extensions negotiated with members of the Packers don’t extend longer than four or five seasons, so Love likely will be offered a five-year deal, with his camp pushing for four years so he can enter free agency for even more money sooner.
All in all once the dust settles, Love’s deal should be a four-year deal worth $168 million at its base, with incentives and a signing bonus raising his deal to around $195M in total. It likely will seem to be a bit much for a quarterback that still need to consistently prove himself, but in the world where the value of QBs continues to go up by the minute, locking Love in at his current value and expecting him to keep his future value makes the most sense.
