Jordan Love's slow start is a significant blow to his earnings
When the Green Bay Packers and quarterback Jordan Love agreed to a one-year extension, it made sense for both sides. The Packers created a lot of flexibility, both in terms of cap hits and the salary Love would receive in 2024 — avoiding a possible Daniel Jones' scenario, where the New York Giants declined his […]
When the Green Bay Packers and quarterback Jordan Love agreed to a one-year extension, it made sense for both sides. The Packers created a lot of flexibility, both in terms of cap hits and the salary Love would receive in 2024 — avoiding a possible Daniel Jones' scenario, where the New York Giants declined his fifth-year option, but then was forced to work out a big-time extension.
It made sense for Love, too, because he would get more money upfront with a realistic chance of a new extension instead of the fifth-year option next offseason.
But the Packers offensive struggles have cost Love a significant amount of money. Besides the guarantees, Green Bay agreed to pay up to $9 million in escalators.
If Love reached certain thresholds, his 2024 salary would be bigger. So far, of the $9 million available, though, Jordan Love is getting just $1 million.
Based on these incentives, Love gets $500,000 for playing at least 65% of the offensive snaps (he's played 98.85%) and $500,000 for being in the top 16 in passing touchdowns (he's 12th, with 11).
Right now, according to The New York Times projection tool, the Packers have a 10% chance of making the playoffs. If they don't qualify, Love automatically misses $3 million in incentives based on team success.
Love also falls short (or not that short) in other individual incentives, because he is 28th in passer rating, 32nd in completion percentage, and 23rd in passing yards.
Jordan Love himself admits his individual performance hasn't been great so far.
"I think, obviously, not good enough," the quarterback said. "It's been, I think, pretty average to start. We got highs and lows. Myself, it's too bumpy right now. I need to find consistency in my play, where I'm able to make every play, go to the right place with the ball on every play. And it's gotta be more consistent from me, and I think that's where I'm lacking right now."
Evidently, it's not all on Love. The Packers lead the NFL in penalties and are one of the worst teams in the league in terms of drops. Going into the season with such a young group of passing weapons has been more costly than the Packers probably imagined.
"We've got to make some plays for him too," Packers head coach Matt LaFleur pondered. "I think we had like six dropped balls (against the Minnesota Vikings). That's going to be tough to overcome. We've got to catch it, we've got to throw better, we've got to catch it better. We've got to block better. We've got to stop having penalties that knock us back and put us in these obvious pass situations."
Jordan Love's struggles don't impact his earnings just for 2023 and 2024 based on his incentives. As he's under contract through next season, a strong performance would probably lead the Packers to work on a long-term extension — and it would probably be over $40 million per year, the number Daniel Jones got from the Giants.
Now, Green Bay has to wait. If things don't improve until the end of the season, not only is the extension off the table, but the Packers will most likely consider other quarterback options to at least compete for the starting job next year.
Jordan Love thinks Packers offense is ‘right there’ and he couldn’t be more wrong
His assessment is way off.
