The Green Bay Packers and quarterback Jordan Love have reached an agreement on a four-year, $220 million contract extension, league sources said Friday. The deal also includes a record $75 million signing bonus and $155 million in new full guarantees, per sources, making Love the highest-paid NFL quarterback.
Love’s new deal puts him in line with Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow, all of whom are earning $55 million per year as the top-paid quarterbacks on an annual basis. Those figures come in above quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa ($53.1 million per year), Jared Goff ($53 million per year), Justin Herbert ($52.5 million per year) and Lamar Jackson ($52 million per year).
The agreement also ends Love’s “hold-in” as the quarterback decided to skip practice until he received a new contract. Love reported to camp on time and will participate in other team activities outside of practice.
Love participated in all offseason activities even without a new contract, but the quarterback’s representation informed the Packers just before the start of training camp that he wouldn’t practice.
“I feel we’re close,” Packers GM Brian Gutekunst said at the start of training camp.
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Love, 25, was set to enter the final year of his contract and is coming off a breakout first season starting in which he helped the Packers to a surprise divisional-round playoff appearance. He threw for 4,159 yards, 32 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 17 regular-season games.
He now heads into his second season as the Packers starter after sitting four years behind current New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The Packers and Love agreed on a one-year contract extension ahead of last season that only tied the quarterback to Green Bay through this coming year. That extension was worth up to $22.5 million, including $13.5 million fully guaranteed.
Why Green Bay made this deal
The Packers shocked the NFL when they traded up in the 2020 first round to draft Love with four years remaining on Rodgers’ contract. Love bided his time for three years behind Rodgers and the long game paid off for him, Gutekunst and the organization that kept faith in their new franchise quarterback.
The Packers are hoping Love can follow in the footsteps of Brett Favre and Rodgers and give them three consecutive Hall of Fame quarterbacks, though Love has plenty more to accomplish to get there after a breakout first year starting in which he was arguably the NFL’s best quarterback the second half of the regular season.
In his first three years in the NFL, Love only started one game, a Week 9 loss to the Chiefs in 2021 on short notice after Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19. Love struggled under relentless pressure from Kansas City as the Packers only scored once in a 13-7 loss, but Gutekunst was impressed with Love’s ability to persevere through adversity. In addition to three years of watching Love behind the scenes and in practice, the Packers felt confident enough to hand the reins of the offense over to an unproven 24-year-old.
Their decision paid off, and Green Bay looks to have struck gold again in the form of a player now tied for the highest-paid player in NFL history. — Matt Schneidman, Packers staff writer
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