Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love becomes the tied-highest paid player in NFL history on the same day Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa agrees a four-year $212.4m contract extension
Saturday 27 July 2024 11:16, UK
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love has agreed to terms on a four-year contract extension worth $220m (£171m), making him the tied-highest paid player in NFL history.
Love's new deal includes a $75m signing bonus and $155m in new guarantees.
The extension comes after Love led the NFL's youngest team to a 10-9 record and playoff berth last season in his first year as a starter while stepping up to the challenge of replacing four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers, who was traded to the New York Jets in April 2023.
Love's deal came the same day that Miami's Tua Tagovailoa agreed on a four-year extension worth $212.4m. Detroit's Jared Goff signed a four-year, $212m extension with $170m guaranteed, and Jacksonville's Trevor Lawrence agreed to a five-year, $275m extension with $142m guaranteed earlier in the offseason.
The 25-year-old Love hadn't been practicing with the Packers in training camp this week while the contract talks were unresolved, though he had been attending workouts and was participating in all other team activities. Love's contract had been set to expire at the end of the upcoming season.
"Certainly we're very down the road as far as we know he's our franchise quarterback and we're ready to move forward," general manager Brian Gutekunst said Monday while discussing the negotiations.
"It's not like we're trying to make that decision. But at the same time, we want to put the best team around him we can, and we want to make sure that there's certainly the structure of it so that we can do what we need to do for our football team moving forward, not only this year but in years to come is very, very important."
The Packers are betting on the promise Love showed during his late-season surge last year.
Green Bay had signed Love to a one-year extension in May 2023 that included $13.5m in guaranteed money with another $9m in incentives. That deal gave the Packers time to evaluate Love as he entered his first season as a starter after Rodgers, a four-time MVP, was traded to the Jets.
Love responded by completing 64.2 per cent of his passes for 4,159 yards with 32 touchdowns and 11 interceptions last season while improving dramatically as the season wore on.
He threw 21 touchdown passes with only one interception during a nine-game stretch that culminated with a 48-32 upset of the Dallas Cowboys in a wild-card playoff game. Love did throw two second-half interceptions the following week in a 24-21 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
The only other quarterbacks ever to throw for at least 4,000 yards and 32 touchdowns in their first season making multiple starts were Kurt Warner in 1999 and Patrick Mahomes in 2018. The only quarterbacks to throw more than 32 touchdown passes in their first season with multiple starts were Mahomes (50), Warner (41) and Daunte Culpepper (33 in 2000).
Love's 32 touchdown passes ranked second in the league, behind Dallas' Dak Prescott (36).
Love had made only one career start before last season. After the Packers traded up to select him out of Utah State with the 26th overall pick in the 2020 draft, Love spent his first three seasons backing up Rodgers.
