QB Jordan Love eager to show he’s worth the Packers’ investment in him after signing big contract

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Jordan Love wants to reward the Green Bay Packers for betting big on him once again.

The Packers traded up in the draft four years ago to select Love in the first round. They cleared the way for him last year by trading four-time MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets. Now they’ve made him one of the NFL’s highest-paid players.

Love’s new four-year, $220 million contract extension enables him to match Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow and Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence for the top annual pay of any NFL quarterback. The Packers announced Love’s new deal Saturday without disclosing the terms, which include a $75 million signing bonus and $155 million in new guarantees.

“I’m excited to have an opportunity to go out and earn this every day and prove the people who believe in me right,” Love said Saturday after participating in his first training camp workout of the year.

“I’m ready to get to work, prepare ourselves for the season ahead and chase the ultimate goal that we have of winning the Super Bowl.”

Love, 25, received this big contract after making just 20 career starts — 18 in the regular season and two in the playoffs. But his path to this payday began long before he actually took a snap in an NFL game and required a couple of big leaps of faith by the Packers.

The Packers received criticism in 2020 when they drafted Love out of Utah State when they already were coming off an NFC championship game appearance and already had Rodgers on their roster. Rodgers, who said the move caught him by surprise, responded by winning MVP awards each of the next two seasons.

“There’s just a lot of unknown that goes into it, not knowing if the opportunity would come, not even knowing if it would come here, with Aaron when he was playing so well, back-to-back MVPs, him signing another contract,” Love said. “So it was a lot of question marks for me that went into it. But I just stick to trying to control what I can control.”

After Green Bay missed the playoffs in 2022, the Packers traded Rodgers and made Love their starting quarterback.

Love faced some obstacles as he attempted to lead the NFL’s youngest team. The Packers started out 3-6 and endured one five-game stretch in which they didn’t score a touchdown before halftime.

But he matured along with the rest of the roster as the season went on.

Love 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, before the Packers lost at San Francisco the following week.

“The back half of the season, he played as well as anybody in the league,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said.

Love ended up completing 64.2% of his passes for 4,159 yards with 32 touchdowns and 11 interceptions last season while leading the Packers to a 10-9 record.

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).

But as well as Love played late in the season, his relative lack of game experience made this an interesting contract negotiation. The Packers are betting that Love’s work ethic and steady approach will enable him to continue to improve and maintain this franchise’s uncanny run of elite quarterback production, a stretch that began with Hall of Famer Brett Favre’s emergence in the 1990s.

“It’s in my opinion the hardest position to play in all of sports,” said general manager Brian Gutekunst, who made the decision to draft Love. “To have a guy that you really believe in and has done things the right way all the way through is a very comforting feeling.”

The lucrative extension continues Love’s eventful summer.

Love announced in late June that he was engaged to Ronika Stone, a former Oregon volleyball star who now plays professionally. A month later, he has signed a nine-figure contract.

“Definitely the price went up on the wedding, I guess,” Love said.