Jordan Love is about to join a growing group of quarterbacks earning at least $50 million per season. Love and the Green Bay Packers agreed on a four-year, $220 million contract on Friday, a day in which both Love and Tua Tagovailoa joined the $50 million club.
Love’s deal averages $55 million per season, tying him for the highest-paid quarterback in football.
For good to great quarterbacks nearing or entering the final year of their respective deals, $50 million per year is now the floor for a contract extension. Love started for only one season before his $220 milion extension, but he showed the Packers enough — especially down the stretch — to warrant a top-of-the-market deal. Over the second half of the season, Love was undoubtedly a top-5 quarterback as he led the Packers back from a 3-6 start, securing both a playoff berth and a playoff win as Matt LaFleur’s team won six of their last eight games, destroyed the Dallas Cowboys in the postseason and nearly took down the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara.
“We feel very, very confident that the success he had last year was no mistake,” general manager Brian Gutekunst told Jori Epstein of Yahoo Sports.
Quarterbacks are the most valuable players in football by a wide margin. If you don’t have one, you’re desperately looking for one. When you do have one, you pay them handsomely.
Teams also pay for future performance. The Packers are expecting Love — who is still only 25 years old — to be a top player at his position for the life of the contract, which runs through 2028. Love’s run to end the 2023 season suggests he is more than capable of being a top-5 quarterback for many years into the future, especially considering the Packers’ stability at head coach/playcaller and all the young talent surrounding Love.
Sure, $55 million per year is a lot for a quarterback with 20 career starts, including the postseason. But that’s just the cost of doing business when you have a quarterback with the talent and potential of Love, a player the Packers handpicked in the first round of the 2020 draft and then slowly developed over three years.
Including Love and Tagovailoa, here are the eight quarterbacks earning $50 million or more per season as of July 27, 2024:
1. Love, $55 million
1. Trevor Lawrence, $55 million
1. Joe Burrow, $55 million
4. Tua Tagovailoa, $53.1 million
5. Jared Goff, $53.0 million
6. Justin Herbert, $52.5 million
7. Lamar Jackson, $52 million
8. Jalen Hurts, $51 million
Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys will join this group at some point in the future.