Former NFL Agent Predicts Jordan Love’s ‘Target’ for Contract Extension
GREEN BAY, Wis. – On May 3, 2023, Jordan Love’s one-year contract extension with the Green Bay Packers became official. On May 3, 2024, Love will be eligible to sign another extension for more years and more money.
A lot more money.
Just how much money will Love receive after delivering a series of superb performances down the stretch in 2023?
According to CBS Sports’ Joel Corry, a former NFL agent, the target for Love’s team of negotiators will be “more than” the three-year average of Rodgers’ final contract extension with the Packers in 2022. That was $50,271,667.
In other words, Love is about to be paid like an elite quarterback.
Let’s say Love gets a five-year contract worth $255 million – or a cool $51 million per season. By total value, that would trial only Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen and equal Jalen Hurts.
The $51 million average would trail the Bengals’ Burrow ($55.0 million), the Chargers’ Herbert ($52.5 million) and the Ravens’ two-time MVP Jackson ($52.0 million). It would tie the Eagles’ Hurts and be more than the Broncos’ Russell Wilson ($49.0 million), the Cardinals’ Kyler Murray ($46.1 million), the Browns’ Deshaun Watson ($46.0 million), the three-time Super Bowl champion Mahomes ($45.0 million) and the Bills’ Allen ($43.0 million).
“Jordan had a really good season toward the end, especially the second half and we are really excited to build around him,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said in confirming the obvious that the Packers were going to hitch their wagon to Love.
Of the forthcoming extension, he added: “I think we will go down that road. Certainly, I think that’ll be important for our football team to have some stability there. Jordan and his representation, they’re really good people, so we will start working towards that sometime in the next couple months.”
With Love under contract through 2024, time isn’t of the essence from the Packers’ perspective beyond the obvious of wanting to get it out of the way so it doesn’t become a distraction. From Love’s perspective, there’s probably more urgency just to avoid missing out on a big payday in case there’s a freak injury.
It was a tale of two seasons for Love, who had back-to-back games of three touchdowns vs. zero interceptions in splitting season-opening games against the Chicago and Atlanta.
In the seven games spanning Game 3 against New Orleans through Game 9 against Pittsburgh, Love threw eight touchdown passes vs. 10 interceptions. He had just one game with a 100-plus passer rating and four with a completion rate of less than 60 percent.
Over the next nine games, which spanned the Week 10 comeback over the Chargers through the wild-card rout of the Cowboys, Love was MVP-level Rodgers great with 21 touchdown passes vs. one interception. In contrast to the previous stretch of games, Love had eight games with a 100-plus rating and zero with a completion rate of less than 60 percent.
During the second half of the season and playoffs, Love beat the two-time MVP Mahomes and the 2023 MVP runner-up Dak Prescott of the Cowboys, and almost knocked off the 49ers’ Brock Purdy, who finished fourth in the MVP race.
With that type of success, Love would have been a bargain at twice the price.
By annual salary, Love is going to be about four times the price of his $13.5 million average.
The impact on the salary cap will be dramatic, though perhaps not immediately, depending how much of the signing bonus the Packers want to prorate with the addition of end-of-contract void years. Love’s cap number for the 2024 season is set to be about $12.76 million. According to Ken Ingalls, an independent cap analyst, Love’s Year 1 cap number might not be too far above that level.
