With the decision to move on from Aaron Rodgers in April, the Green Bay Packers entered the 2023 season in an unusual situation. By trotting out Jordan Love, a first-year starter at quarterback, the Packers were officially embracing the future. Now that Love has been extended on a team-friendly contract that runs through 2024, the organization will be faced with a decision in the spring that could either tie them to Love for the future, or have them looking elsewhere for a quarterback.
First And Foremost: Does Jordan Love Deserve A Contract Extension?
Through five weeks of the season, Love has shown enough flashes to instill confidence that he could in fact become the Packers signal caller for the foreseeable future. There have, on the other hand, undoubtedly been moments where Love has looked like a player who needs more reps throughout the early part of the 2023 season. While extending a player after one season of solid play (see: Daniel Jones, 2022) can be a dangerous game, there are ways to approach the extension that could yet again benefit both Green Bay and Love.
How The Packers and Love Ended Up Here
Jordan Love is no stranger to precarious situations, as he entered the NFL as a first-round pick despite the presence of Aaron Rodgers and, three years later, he finally earned a starting job. The Packers infamous decision to select a young quarterback while they had a top-tier veteran entrenched as the face of their franchise paid dividends in a number of ways: Aaron Rodgers, the Packers previous starter for 16 years, took the Love selection as motivation to propel what became back-to-back MVP seasons in both 2020 and 2021.
For Love, the consistency that Rodgers displayed until the end of his tenure as a Packer meant that he did not have to be forced into action, and was allowed to absorb as much as he could while playing sporadically in clean-up duty for Green Bay.
The Youth Movement in Green Bay is a Double-Edge Sword
Working both for and against Love has been the Packers rapid turnover at the receiver and tight end positions. Between both the 2022 and 2023 drafts, Green Bay selected four receivers and two tight ends in the first five rounds of their respective drafts, giving Love a nucleus of young, but promising weapons to grow with and establish a chemistry that could continue for years to come. Again, the return on the receivers especially has been mixed: at times, Christian Watson has looked like a stud, while Romeo Doubs and Jayden Reed have also flashed play-making ability that inspires confidence on what their connection with Love could become with more years under their belt. All three receivers, however, have disappeared at various times throughout the early part of the season, while Love has also missed those receivers on occasion, leading to confusion and frustration.
The decision to build around Love, more than anything, presents a high ceiling for this team. That said, the NFL is also a results-based business, and practicing patience with young players does not always play out the way it would in theory. The Packers benefit from what is a team-friendly contract extension that Love signed in May of 2023, which keeps him on the team through 2024 on a cheap contract that includes incentives but also does not come saddled with a huge cost, in case Love were to be cut or demoted to a backup role in 2024.
What Could a Contract Extension for Jordan Love Look Like?
With a few big games in 2023, Love could absolutely play his way into a big contract with the Packers, but it appears more likely than not that the team will opt for a more flexible contract that resembles what the Seattle Seahawks gave to Geno Smith. Smith is playing in Seattle under a three-year contract he signed heading into the 2023 season which provides the Seahawks an out after one year, but also includes incentives and considerable dead cap in case they do move on from him after 2023. Green Bay could absolutely follow a similar model if Love continues to show more good flashes than bad; following the New York Giants approach with Jones is the antithesis of what this team should be looking to do, if Love does play well.
At the end of the day, Green Bay holds the cards for Love’s future. Applying caution and flexibility to the looming contract decision will undoubtedly be imperative for Green Bay, and the signs have so far shown that they will do just that as they decide Love’s future with the organization.
