PACKERS AGREE TO ONE YEAR $22.5 MILLION CONTRACT EXTENSION WITH QB JORDAN LOVE
Just eight days after the Green Bay Packers agreed to trade Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets, the team announced that they had agreed to a contract extension with soon-to-be starter Jordan Love.
As per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the new deal is a one-year contract extension worth up to $22.5 million, including $13.5 million fully guaranteed and keeps Love in Wisconsin through the 2024 season. The Packers had until Tuesday, May 2nd to decide on Love’s fifth-year option, which was worth $20.272 million fully guaranteed. Instead Green Bay passed on the guaranteed money while still assuring Love of a fifth year with the team.
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero describes the new deal as a “bridge deal” that can pay Love up to $2.3 million more. The 2018 New Mexico Bowl MVP is set to earn $2,298,655 in 2023.
With Rodgers off to the bright lights of New York, the job in Green Bay is now Love’s to lose. The 2020 first-round pick sat behind the four-time NFL regular season MVP in each of the three years he’s been in the league, carrying on the Packers’ tradition of young quarterbacks sitting behind future Hall of Fame quarterbacks, as Rodgers once did behind Brett Favre early in his career.
While the jury is still out on Love, the former 26th overall pick is more than aware of how make-or-break the next two seasons are going to be for him. The short-term deal comes with little to no assurances for the former Utah State Aggie and is an incentive for him to earn his next contract. The deal guarantees he’ll get at least two years at the job, however, which he would take as a positive.
Through his first three seasons in the league, Love has started just one game, a 13-7 loss at Kansas City in 2021, making a total of 10 appearances. The 24-year-old has thrown 83 passes, completing 50 of them for 606 passing yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions. Love has also accounted for just 26 rushing yards in his career off of 13 total attempts, averaging a measly 2 rushing yards per attempt.
“I’ve got to figure that out by Tuesday I guess,” said Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst on Saturday regarding Love’s fifth-year option. “We’ve had some primary conversations… It’s a lot of money for a guy who hasn’t played but at the same time obviously we’re moving forward with him so we’ll figure that out by Tuesday.”
Instead of a fifth-year option, Love and the Packers now have a one-year deal.
Green Bay drafted the California-born quarterback three years ago to be the franchise’s next play caller, and Love will now get his two-year opportunity to prove them right. Just like the fifth-year option, the one-year extension also gives Green Bay an additional season before any franchise tag comes into play.
The Packers loaded up on pass catchers in the draft using five of their 13 picks on receivers and tight ends. The team selected two tight ends – Luke Musgrave (Oregon State) and Tucker Kraft (South Dakota State) – and three wide receivers; Jayden Reed (Michigan State), Dontayvion Wicks (Virginia), and Grant DuBose (Charlotte) in what was a calculated move to build around Love this year.
Green Bay also added Central Michigan running back Lew Nichols III in the seventh round, bringing their total offensive skill position acquisition via the draft to six, which is the most the team has ever done in franchise history.
With the team surrounded by unknowns in 2023, the mindset for Jordan Love has to be “to attack this opportunity.” Although Green Bay took quarterback Sean Clifford out of Penn State in the fifth-round on Saturday, there’s little to no concern that Love is going to be the starter once football rolls around in September. While the pressure will be on him to perform, now is the perfect opportunity to show how much he has improved as a signal caller and overall leader over the past three years.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
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