When should the Packers worry about Jordan Love’s contract?

If it seems like the Green Bay Packers were embroiled in quarterback contract drama just a year ago, that’s because they were.

There are many advantages to having your first-round pick sit on the bench behind a future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback for three years, and the Packers have taken advantage of those benefits for decades. The only downside is that Green Bay has little to gain from the young quarterback’s success while he’s still on his rookie contract.

Green Bay drafted quarterback Jordan Love in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, but he didn’t become the team’s full-time starter until 2023 after the team’s acrimonious relationship with former quarterback Aaron Rodgers finally came to an end. Love is entering the fourth year of his rookie contract, meaning that after just one year as the starting quarterback, a contract extension is in the near future.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter said in May that he didn’t think the Packers would come anywhere close to making a deal, but Love would ultimately get a bigger contract than Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff, who signed a four-year, $212 million deal earlier this offseason.

Green Bay appears to have made no progress on Love’s contract. During an appearance on SportsCenter, ESPN’s NFL insider Jeremy Fowler reported that Love and the Packers have had “positive” contract talks, but a deal is not in the cards at this time.

The Packers should be concerned at some point, but it’s understandable if team leadership wants to see a larger sample size from Love before deciding on a contract extension. The 25-year-old quarterback finished the 2023 season with 4,159 yards, 32 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. It was a spectacular performance, but also a tale of two halves. Through the first nine games of the season, Love completed just 58.7 percent of his passes while throwing for just 2,009 yards, 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Ultimately, the best outcome for the team would be to sign the quarterback before the next group of quarterbacks cashes in and rebalances the market.

The Packers signed Love to a one-year extension rather than exercising the fifth-year option. The extension, which includes $13.5 million in guaranteed money and a $22.5 million maximum, gives the Packers control over Love through the 2025 season. But that doesn’t necessarily mean Green Bay should wait until the very last moment to sign Love to a long-term contract extension.

Teams that made this mistake, like the Dallas Cowboys with quarterback Dak Prescott and the Miami Dolphins with Tua Tagovailoa, are currently regretting it. Both teams could have signed their franchise quarterbacks last year at much cheaper prices, but instead chose to wait until the offseason when the market value for any quarterback worth his salt rose above $50 million.

With the market value expected to rise to $60 million next season, the Packers would be wise to make a deal with Love as soon as possible.