Packers QB will not train until new contract is finalized

For the Green Bay Packers, there was no drama at the quarterback position in 2023 for the first time in several years.

This will change in 2024.

Love’s representatives informed the Packers on Saturday night that the fifth-year quarterback will not practice until he has a new contract in place. Green Bay holds its first training camp on Monday.

Love will attend practice and participate in all team meetings. He just won’t participate in any live activities at practice.

“I think it was Saturday night, they kind of informed us that he wasn’t going to practice until we did something,” Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst said Monday morning. “So if nothing is done here before practice starts here soon, he’s not going to practice.”

Love, who is entering the final year of his contract, and the Packers are trying to finalize a deal that will keep him in Green Bay for the foreseeable future. What makes it difficult is that Love was only a starter for one year — and it was certainly a tale of two seasons.

After nine games, Love had thrown 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions and the jury was still out. His passer rating then exceeded 108.0 in eight of his last 10 games, and in four of those, his rating was at least 125.0.

The crown jewel came in Love’s first playoff game, when he led the Packers to a 48-32 victory over host Dallas. Love threw three touchdowns and no interceptions that day, and his passer rating of 157.2 was just 1.1 away from perfection.

Now Love and the Packers are trying to negotiate a new deal with a relatively small sample size.

“I think that’s something we’re all working on,” Gutekunst said. “We certainly understand where he’s coming from. We want him out there. It’s important for him to be out there. Obviously, you know how important training and working with his teammates is. But until we get that sorted out, he’s not going to practice as of now.”

Love made all 19 starts in 2023, throwing 37 touchdown passes and just 13 interceptions. During a two-month window between Week 11 and Green Bay’s NFC divisional playoff game at San Francisco, Love had a stretch in which he threw a remarkable 23 touchdowns and just one interception.

That’s something Green Bay legends Bart Starr, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers never did.

Love completed 409 of 634 passes (64.5%) for 4,625 yards and achieved a passer rating of 98.5. By comparison, Rodgers threw 28 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in his first year as a starter in 2008 and achieved a passer rating of 93.8.

Love’s 32 touchdowns in the regular season were the second-best in the league, only better than Dallas’ Dak Prescott (36). And he finished seventh in total passing yards (4,159).

Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes has the NFL’s largest contract, worth $450 million. Cleveland’s Deshaun Watson has the highest guaranteed salary at $230 million. And Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow and Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence have the highest annual averages at $55 million per year.

Love will likely receive one of the best quarterback contracts in the NFL in the coming days. For now, however, Love is still on the one-year, $13.5 million deal he signed in May 2023.

“Whether you’re a young player or a veteran player, I think when you come to training camp, you want everybody there,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “Some guys can’t be there today for different reasons, but you know, you just have to adjust and adapt. That’s the nature of the game.”

“That’s part of our game and part of our business, but we’re confident he’ll be out there sooner or later. I know how he prepares, so I’m not too worried about it. He’ll do whatever he can to get the mental reps. Of course, the physical reps are the most important thing.”