The contracts details are in for quarterback Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers, who agreed to a four, $220 million contract. Love signed the deal on Saturday morning.
Over the Cap has all the details and structure of Love’s new deal here.
Some key points:
— Love’s cap number in 2024 will be $20,257,731, adding roughly $8 million to the cap this year. This deal has little immediate impact on the Packers’ salary cap. The cap number in 2024 from prorated signing bonus plus a $3.5 million base salary.
— In fact, Love’s cap number doesn’t rise above $40 million during any of the first three years of the deal (2024-26). Even in 2027, his cap number will be just over $42 million. The Packers won’t be badly constrained by Love’s cap impact during the first few years of the deal.
— The Packers added three void years onto the end of the deal to help spread out the cap hit of the option bonuses. For cap purposes, this is a heavily backloaded deal. When the deal voids, $34.7 million will get dumped on the 2029 cap in the form of dead money. But that’s a problem for another day.
— Love has guaranteed base salaries in 2024 ($3.5 million), 2025 ($11.9 million) and 2026 ($10.4 million). The Packers went outside their typical contract structure, as expected, and guaranteed more than just a signing bonus. Speaking of the signing bonus, the $75 million given to Love is an NFL record.
— On the fifth day of the 2025 league year, Love will have $39.5 million of his 2026 salary become guaranteed. On the fifth day of 2026 league year, Love will have $20 million of his 2027 salary guaranteed. More guaranteed money
— Love’s base salary in 2028 is $49.3 million, all non-guaranteed. His cap hit also balloons to $74.2 million in 2028.
— Love has total per-game roster bonuses equaling $600,000 every year between 2025 and 2028. He also has $500,000 in workout bonuses available every year between 2025 and 2028. Altogether, this is worth $4.4 million.
— The first year the Packers can save money on the cap with a release is 2028. This looks like the fork in the road of the contract — by 2028, Love and the Packers will need to determine the path forward financially. His cap number won’t be tenable.
— Love will get $79 million total in Year 1.
This effectively looks like a four-year deal that will get addressed and changed — in one way or another, and regardless of whether Love is an elite player or falls off a cliff — by the offseason before the 2028 season. Just as important, the cap numbers in the first four years provide an open window for the Packers to add and retain players around a top quarterback contract.
Could this be a win-win? Only if Love is a top quarterback, obviously. But the Packers are getting manageable cap hits in the first four years and a few outs. Love is getting a ton of money up front and a deal that keeps him under contract for only 4-5 years, so another top-of-market contract could be possible before he turns 30.