Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love probably had the biggest smile at about 6:00 PM on Thursday, June 13th. The reason being, Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence received an extension that paid him $275 million over five years, two hundred million guaranteed and $142 million of that paid at signing. Overall, Lawrence’s deal gives him an average yearly salary of about $55 million. This made Trevor Lawrence tied for the highest paid player in the NFL.
So, if Lawrence is the one who got paid all of that money, then why would Jordan Love be smiling too? Well, Love is looking for a contract extension, and he arguably should be paid more than Lawrence. Yes, Lawrence was a first overall pick in 2021, but his play on the field didn’t really show a quarterback deserving of being the highest paid (tied) player in the NFL. But he got it anyway.
Love has only had one season and after a rough start, turned it around and threw for 32 touchdowns. This was the second most passing touchdowns in the NFL, just behind Dak Prescott. He also threw for 4159 yards and had only eleven interceptions on the season. But those were just the stats; Love and the Packers were within in striking distance of the NFC Championship game.
With Trevor Lawrence getting paid, it is more likely that Love receives a similar deal, if not an even better deal. That would effectively make Love the highest paid player in the NFL. My question is this, is he deserving of that honor? And if not, then why will it happen?
Jordan Love Is Ranked…
So, every June, my friend Christian and I rank all of the 32 starting quarterbacks in the NFL. It isn’t scientific. It’s more of just our own head knowledge of each quarterback, what they have done in the NFL, and where they are possibly heading. We also have to speculate who we think the winner of any quarterback battles will be to fill out our rankings. Anyway, we do this for fun and to look back on in the future.
Spoiler alert, Jordan Love was not number one on either of our lists. And I’m pretty positive that not many have him as their number one. So, if Love is not the number one quarterback, then why will he possibly receive a contract making him the highest paid player in the NFL?
Before I answer this question, here are mine and Christian’s quarterback rankings:
One last thing about the rankings – we don’t talk to one another while we work on these
NFL’s Cap
So what’s the biggest reason that Love could end up being the highest paid quarterback? Simply speaking, it’s because of the NFL cap is skyrocketing!
I mean look at this post by Tom Pelissero! It shows the NFL salary cap over the past ten years:
Business is booming, indeed.
And as the salary cap rises, so do the quarterback contracts.
Jordan Love #8 (or 7) but also #1
So, if you look at the guys we have ranked ahead of Love, they recently received their extensions prior to the recent boom in salary cap.
Patrick Mahomes received his contract extension in 2020 (that ten year deal is looking like highway robbery), Joe Burrow in 2023, Josh Allen in 2021, Lamar Jackson in 2023, Dak Prescott in 2021 (he will be paid close to $60 million a year if he makes it to free agency next year).
Justin Herbert and Jalen Hurts received a contract extension in 2023. CJ Stroud can’t receive and extension until after he has played three seasons.
So, other than Dak Prescott, no one else is up for an extension and Prescott doesn’t seem like he will get one until next year’s offseason. Tua Tagovailoa is also up for an extension but we both had him ranked behind Jordan Love.
Because of the salary cap booming and the timing of the other quarterbacks receiving their extensions, Jordan Love has a chance to be the highest paid player in the NFL. At least for the moment anyway.
You know what else?
Go Pack Go!
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Damon is a diehard, fully-immersed cheesehead who currently lives in southern Missouri. He teaches at a local high school and has a family YouTube channel about all things Packers. You can follow him on twitter at @packersfamily and on YouTube at The Packers Family.
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