Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) warms up prior to an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals, Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021, in Glendale, Ariz. With reigning MVP Aaron Rodgers on the reserve/COVID-19 list and unavailable to play Sunday, Nov. 7, at Kansas City, the Green Bay Packers are about to discover just what they have in quarterback Jordan Love. The 2020 first-round pick from Utah State will make his first career start against the Chiefs.(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Former Utah State quarterback Jordan Love agreed to terms on a one-year contract extension with the Green Bay Packers that will function in lieu of Love’s fifth-year option.
The extension will be worth a maximum of $22.5 million, though only $13.5 million of that will be guaranteed. The roughly $9 million difference will be tied to incentives Love must earn, likely through performance and maintaining good health. It will keep Love on the Packers through the end of the 2024 season, giving him likely two years as a starter to prove he can make it in the NFL.
As a first-round pick, Love’s contract was a four-year guaranteed contract that came with a fifth-year team option that the Packers could exercise if they chose or decline to either let Love walk as a free agent or sign him to an extension. Green Bay was faced with the decision to exercise the fifth-year option for the former Aggie by May 3rd which would have put them on the hook for $20.272 million of guaranteed salary for Love in 2024. The team was clearly hesitant to commit all that money since, in three seasons with the team, Love has appeared in just 10 regular season games and thrown a grand total of 83 passes.
Though Green Bay appears committed to having Love be their starter this year after trading longtime starter and four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets last week, the team clearly wanted to maximize potential cap space if Love doesn’t perform or gets injured. A extra $9 million in cap space could go a long way. But if Love does perform at or beyond expectations — earning all incentives and the maximum salary possible on the contract — the Packers would surely be glad to pay the extra $2.228 million for his troubles and sign Love to a longer contract extension after the 2024 season.
