What to Know: Packers sign Jordan Love to extension through 2024

Tuesday May 2nd was the deadline for the Green Bay Packers to decide whether or not to pick up Jordan Love’s fifth-year option for the 2024 season. However, the two sides came to a different solution, as the Packers and Love agreed to a contract extension that will run through the 2024 season.

According to Adam Schefter, this is a one-year extension that will be worth up to $22.5 million and includes $13.5 million fully guaranteed.

Just a few days prior, following the 2023 draft, GM Brian Gutekunst was non-committal when asked about Love’s fifth year option, saying that the $20.27 million he would be guaranteed in 2024 was a lot for a player with such little playing time—and it certainly is.

The extension route, however, gives Love more money up front in 2023, where he otherwise would have still been playing on his rookie contract, which came with a base salary of $2.29 million. He also has the opportunity through incentives to earn more than what the fifth year option would have paid him.

From the Packers perspective, they get additional financial flexibility in 2024. Had they picked up his fifth-year option, that $20.27 million guaranteed salary also would have been Love’s cap hit with it essentially being a one-year deal. We have to wait and see how the numbers shake out, but with the extension, Love’s cap hit in 2024 will be reduced.

Also important in all of this is that it shows a level of commitment to Love from the Packers. Ideally, a year from now Green Bay knows if Love is the future of the quarterback position but they may need to see more of him to come to that conclusion, and having him under contract for 2024 – at a reduced cap hit – gives them that option.

If this season, Love plays well and proves that he can be the future of the quarterback position in Green Bay, the Packers will then likely extend him again next offseason. On the flip side, if Love struggles and the Packers decide to look for their next quarterback in the draft, Love has just one year left on his contract and he comes with a digestible cap hit that won’t stop Green Bay from adding to the quarterback position in the draft if that is the route they choose to go.

This really feels like a win-win for both sides. Love gets commitment from the team and a much larger guaranteed pay-day for 2023, while the Packers have both added financial and roster building flexibility than if they had been locked into the fifth year option.

In his third season with team, Love made huge strides and we on the outside caught a glimpse of that against Philadelphia. He was confident and poised in the pocket. He went through his progressions, his footwork was balance, and the end result was him delivering accurate passes.

Of course, the Packers goal is to win games each week, but regardless of record, what they need to see from Love is progression and improvement week to week. In Rodgers firs season as a starter in 2008, the Packers went 6-10, but the team had seen enough from him that they extended him during the season.

Although it is Love’s first season as the guy, he has been within this offense for three seasons. His learning curve – and the ups and downs he inevitably experiences – needs to be shorter given the time that the Packers have invested into him.

The Packers choosing to rework Darnell Savage’s deal was likely required to give them additional cap flexibility in 2023 for the Love extension.