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Earlier this week the Packers decided on giving Jordan Love a contract extension through 2024 which I believe ended up being a win win for both sides.
The Packers didn’t go the typical route of exercising Jordan Love’s 5th year option or giving him a longer extended contract. Jordan Love is not in the same position as your typical QB after 3 seasons in the league. Most teams have more of an idea of what their QB has to offer after 3 seasons.
Your average NFL QB entering year 4 having a few years of play under their belt which gives the organization a better idea when gauging if their QB is worth what the 5th year option costs. Love on the other hand only has 83 career pass attempts after 3 full seasons. That’s what happens when you get drafted to a team led by a future hall of famer. You get to sit back and wait your turn.
Love’s gone through the same process Aaron Rodgers went through after being drafted in 2005. He spent 3 years sitting behind Favre before he finally got his opportunity to take over the starting job as he entered his 4th season.
Back when Aaron Rodgers was entering his 4th season 5th year options weren’t a thing.
They didn’t become a thing until 2011. The decision that Packers GM Brian Gutekunst had to make regarding Jordan Love was not a decision Packers GM Ted Thompson had to make back in 2008 when the Packers transitioned to Aaron Rodgers. So the Packers giving Love a short term extension through 2024 is the first of its kind in Green Bay.
This morning specific details came out regarding exactly how much Jordan Love will make and when. It gives much more clarity to why both sides decided to agree to the extension.
This proves that the Packers have confidence in Jordan Love.
I’ve seen some people interpret the Packers not exercising Jordan Love’s option as some kind of sign that the Packers don’t trust that he will be a good QB. I disagree.
The fact that the Packers were willing to give a guy $15.3 million guaranteed proves just what they think about him. You don’t give a guy that much money if you think he is going to stink. If you think he is going to stink you let him play his final year of his rookie contract in 2023 and then you move on. You don’t pay the guy a boat load of money.
Here’s how I imagine the conversation went between Packers GM Brian Gutekunst and Jordan Love’s agent.
“Hey, we think Jordan is going to be a great QB but we have a proposition. We want to give Love $5 million less guaranteed so that we can lessen his cap hit in 2024 but we want to give him the ability to make around $5 million more if he reaches certain benchmarks. We’ll also give him an $8.7 million signing bonus. That way he is protected from any kind of injury. If his play in 2023 gives us confidence in him as our QB of the future we can come up with a massive long term contract extension next off-season.”
If you’re Jordan Love this is a no brainer if you believe you can play at a high level. Plus you have security that protects yourself from any unforeseen problems like a serious injury.
Another interesting thing about this contract is that the incentive payments for 2024 are based off of his play in 2023. Albert Breer of sports illustrated also shared exactly what these incentives are earlier today. I’ll share the document below if you want to read through it.
All in all the contract that the Packers gave to Jordan Love isn’t that different from the 5th year option.
The only real big difference is the fact that he gets $5mil less guaranteed and around $5 million more in upside if everything pans out. AND he gets money up front as opposed till waiting after 2023. AND the Packers get more cap flexibility in 2024. It’s a win, win, win.
Now the question becomes what would the Packers need to see in Love in 2023 to give him a longer contract extension?
I believe that if Love shows the Packers front office that he is no doubt the answer at QB moving forward after 2023 then the Packers give him a new contract this off-season. If we look back to 2008 with Aaron Rodgers after about halfway through the season the Packers made Aaron Rodgers the 4th highest paid QB in the league. At that point Rodgers had shown enough to give the Packers confidence moving forward. Here’s a look back at a report in 2008 from Adam Schefter on Rodgers extension halfway through his first season as starter.
"Now that Aaron Rodgers‘ contract numbers have come in — a five-year extension that gives him six more years for $65 million, including $40.5 million in first three years of the contract — they can be compared.
And Rodgers’ contract now makes him, remarkably, the fourth highest paid quarterback in the game, behind only Peyton Manning, Carson Palmer and Ben Roethlisberger."
Considering 5th year options weren’t a thing back then entering 2008 Aaron Rodgers was still playing under his rookie contract. Rodgers was in the 4th of his 5 year rookie contract when the Packers gave him a 5 year extension. They could have waited till after year 4 or 5, but decided to pay up when they knew that they had something special. Considering contracts are always getting more expensive year after year you do yourself a favor paying a player sooner rather than later.
Would the Packers be willing to give Love an extension in the middle of the season if Love shows he is THE guy? I don’t see why not.
Under the scenario that Love doesn’t prove he is the guy in 2023 the Packers are able to give him one more year in 2024 without having to make another decision about a new contract. I love this decision by the Packers. We won’t have to deal with Love being a free agent after the 2023 season. That would have made for quite the off-season! -Luke Beller
Hey whats up man I just found this I talked to you briefly once before when you were live playing madden. I said I could see you on FS1 someday. I still think that. Which leads me to my question. You think youll ever have a 2man podcast where theres back and forth dialogue? You seem like you'd be good at debates. Anyway take care man. 👍🏾