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, according to the sources, making Love the highest-paid quarterback in the NFL.
Love’s new deal puts him on par with Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow, who each make $55 million annually, as the highest-paid quarterbacks on an annual basis. Those numbers are higher than quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa ($53.1 million annually), Jared Goff ($53 million annually), Justin Herbert ($52.5 million annually) and Lamar Jackson ($52 million annually).
The deal also ended Löw’s “abstention” from training as the midfielder decided to miss training until he gets a new contract. Löw reported to the camp on time and will take part in other team activities outside of training.
Love participated in all postseason activities even without a new contract, but the quarterback’s representative informed the Packers before training camp began that he would not practice.
“I feel like we’re close,” Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said at the start of training camp.
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Paying Jordan Love that much money is a big risk, which is not uncommon for the Packers with their quarterbacks.
Love, 25, was set to enter the final year of his contract and had a stellar first season as he helped the Packers reach the divisional round of the playoffs in a surprise upset. He passed for 4,159 yards, 32 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 17 regular-season games.
Love is now entering his second season as a starter with the Packers after trailing current New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers by four years. The Packers and Love agreed to a one-year contract extension before last season that tied the quarterback to Green Bay only through next year. The extension was worth $22.5 million, including $13.5 million fully guaranteed.
Why did Green Bay make this deal?
The Packers surprised the NFL when they decided to move up in the first round in 2020 to select Love four years before Rodgers’ contract was up. Love bided his time for three years behind Rodgers, and the long game paid off for him, Gutekunst and the organization, which kept faith in its new quarterback.
The Packers hope Love can follow in the footsteps of Brett Favre and Rodgers and give them three straight Hall of Fame inductees, though Love has a lot of work to do to get there after an exceptional first season in which he was the NFL’s best quarterback in the second half of the regular season.
In his first three years in the NFL, Love started just 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 scored just once in a 13-7 loss, but Gutekunst was impressed by Love’s ability to persevere in the face of adversity. Combined with three years of watching Love behind the scenes and at practice, the Packers felt confident enough to hand the reins of the offense to an unproven 24-year-old.
Their decision paid off, and Green Bay appears to have hit the ground running again in the form of a player who now shares the title of highest-paid player in NFL history. Matt Schneidman, Packers team writer
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(Photo: Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
