What to Know: Jordan Love and Packers contract extension details
By Paul Bretl
On Tuesday, it was reported that Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers agreed to a contract extension through the 2024 season. Albert Breer of SI recently reported what that contract and incentive structure for Love looks like.
Clicking here, you can see in greater detail the contract details reported by Breer, but in short, the incentives are both centered around how the team fares as well as Love’s production. The magic number for Love in terms of playing time is 65%. The Packers’ winning 10 games, or going to the playoffs, and playoff victories play a factor in his bonus structure as well. Individually, making the Pro Bowl, along with strong performances in passer rating, completion percentage, touchdowns, and passing yards, can help earn Love additional bonus money.
The incentive structure reported by Breer is only for the 2023 season and maxes out at $9 million. Love’s base salary for 2023 is at the $1.01 million minimum to help Green Bay with his 2023 cap hit and is fully guaranteed. In 2024, his base salary jumps to $5.5 million and is also fully guaranteed. Love earned an $8.78 million signing bonus that will hit his bank account right away. In total, $15.3 million is guaranteed to Love over the next two years with a max contract value of $24.8 million.
As of now, it has not been reported that void years were used–a tactic to further reduce Love’s cap hit and something we’ve seen the Packers often utilized over the last few offseasons.
According to Spotrac, Love’s cap hit in 2023 will be $11.441 million. As a team, the Packers have $10.63 million in cap space available, not the roughly $4.5 million that has to be allocated to the 2023 draft class. Reworking Darnell Savage’s contract was a key part of giving Green Bay the additional cap space that they needed to get the extension with Love completed.
This is a contract extension that really does feel like a win-win for both parties. Love, who has thrown only 83 career passes, gets a pay raise of $7-plus million for the 2023 season and the opportunity to earn more money than if the Packers had picked up his fifth-year option for 2024, which would have paid him a guaranteed salary of $20.27 million.
For the Packers, they now have two full seasons to evaluate Love and show him a level of commitment while maintaining salary cap and roster flexibility next offseason. Rather than having to absorb the $20.27 million guaranteed fifth-year option only in 2024, the extension allowed Green Bay to spread the cap hit out over two seasons.
If Love plays well and hits a number of those bonuses, the Packers will then extend Love once again to help further reduce his salary cap impact while also keeping him under contract long-term. If Love struggles, however, the way his contract is set up won’t stop Green Bay from looking for a quarterback early on in next year’s draft.