Paying Jordan Love this much is a big risk, which Packers are no strangers to with QBs (2024)

Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst is taking a big risk paying quarterback Jordan Love what he just did.

On Friday evening, Love agreed to a four-year, $220 million contract extension, league sources confirmed to The Athletic’s Dianna Russini. There’s also $155 million in new full guarantees, per sources. It includes a league-record $75 million signing bonus. He’s now the league’s highest-paid player with only about a half-season worthy of that payday under his belt.

In the Packers’ ideal world, maybe they would have waited to see how Love plays the first half of this season before paying him for a larger sample size, but that’s not always how business works in the NFL.

On one end, Love’s camp wanted long-term security entering a contract year in case Love gets hurt or doesn’t play as well as he did late last season. On the Packers’ side, if they waited eight more games to open the checkbook and Love plays as well as he did late last season or even better, his price would only go up. Both sides had their reasons to get a deal done before Love played this regular season, so it makes perfect sense that they came to an agreement. And while some fans may be skeptical of the Packers’ decision to pay Love what they did and when they did, his contract may end up being a bargain if both he and quarterback salaries around the league continue to ascend.

Paying Love what they did is not only a reflection of what Love has already done but also what the Packers expect him to do in the future and where the quarterback contract market stands. With those in mind, these dollar figures make sense, too, especially considering what guys like Jared Goff and Trevor Lawrence recently earned.

The Packers have been thrilled with Love both off the field and on, where he threw 18 touchdown passes and only one interception over the last eight games of the 2023 regular season before helping the Packers to a playoff upset of the Cowboys with three more touchdown passes and no picks. Will Love be that good this season and beyond? Maybe, but even if Green Bay projects Love’s average level of play to fall slightly below that, he’s still worthy of this payday because salaries are bound to rise.

Jordan Love takes his time and delivers.

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Could Love plateau and make this contract look like an overpay in a couple of years? Of course. But there’s just as much likelihood and perhaps more that fans look back on this massive risk to make Love the highest-paid player in league history after only one season starting and say what they’ve said before: Maybe Gutekunst knew what he was doing.

Do you remember your reaction when the Packers traded up to take Love in the first round with four years left on Aaron Rodgers’ contract? It probably wasn’t much different than the reaction of many others both inside and outside the fan base, one of bewilderment. Gutekunst, however, has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to making quarterback decisions four years later because, though it’s still very early in his career, Love appears to be the next franchise quarterback in Green Bay. And he may not have been that if he hadn’t been drafted when he was and sat behind Rodgers for three years, even if the selection complicated a whole bunch for the franchise as it pertained to the last couple of years Rodgers spent with the organization.

General managers aren’t paid to be conservative. Conservative doesn’t win your team a Super Bowl. Taking risks does. The Packers’ best chance to get back to the NFL’s peak sometime in the next few years for the first time since the 2010 season is to be bold, not to accept their standing as simply an NFC playoff contender.

Playing it safe would be waiting to pay Love until you’re even more sure he’s the guy, but at that point, who’s to say Love and agent David Mulugheta will be willing to deal? If Love played the first half of this season without a new contract and lit the league on fire, he’d then be incentivized to wait. Yes, the Packers would have the franchise tag at their disposal so Love wouldn’t hit free agency after this season, but the bottom line is that waiting to pay Love might only complicate things financially and relationship-wise for the Packers with their quarterback.

So though it might’ve been slightly painful for the Packers to sign their name on Love’s contract given how much is coming off their books, the pain could be well worth it for the reward they hope awaits in the near future.

(Photo: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)

Matt Schneidman is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Green Bay Packers. He is a proud alum of The Daily Orange student newspaper at Syracuse University. Follow Matt on Twitter @mattschneidman