Adam Schefter: Jordan Love could become the highest-paid player in NFL history

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love will not practice with the team until he has a new contract in place, according to news Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst during his pre-practice press conference on Monday, just before Green Bay opens training camp for the 2024 season.

According to Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, Love has been attending meetings with the team up until this point. Love was even seen wearing sweats on the practice field on Monday, but seems determined to “wait” until his camp’s contract demands are met.

After today’s training, which you can read about here, ESPN’s Adam Schefter went on the Pat McAfee Show to discuss the ongoing drama.

Schefter’s prediction? Love and the Packers will complete a deal by the end of the week that would make Love the “highest-paid quarterback in NFL history,” which would also make him the highest-paid player in the history of the sport.

So what does that mean? Well, depending on what you mean by “highest paid,” that can mean a number of things. The largest contract in NFL history right now is Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes has a ten-year, $450 million deal. On an annual basis, however, the highest average salary in league history is tied between Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence at $55 million per season.

In truth, the reason the Packers and Love haven’t come to an agreement yet is probably not because of the high number that will be announced if Love signs. NFL contracts are usually renewed in one way or another after three seasons anyway. Instead, it’s likely about guarantees and cash flow for the next three seasons.

For example, Burrow and Lawrence both have $55 million contracts, but Burrow will make $146.5 million from 2023-2025, while Lawrence will make $114 million from 2024-2026, the first three seasons since signing the contract. That $30 million difference shows how different contract structures can be, even when the average salary is similar.

The Packers don’t like to give salary guarantees beyond the first year of a new contract when extending players, but that line will become increasingly difficult to maintain as salaries and guarantees for quarterbacks explode. For example, Burrow signed for $146.5 million fully guaranteed and Lawrence signed for $142 million fully guaranteed, but they only received $40 million and $37.5 million of that in signing bonuses, respectively.

So how do the Packers close the nearly $100 million gap between these quarterbacks’ guaranteed and signing bonuses? There are only three options. A) They decide to pay out an even larger signing bonus that stretches salary over the salary cap for several seasons and eats up even more of the Packers’ salary cap in the short term. B) They guarantee the money in future seasons’ salaries, an option the Packers apparently don’t want to exercise after the first year. Or C) The team has to get very creative with contract design, like with the last Aaron Rodgers contract extension, where it paid out not fully guaranteed but highly likely to be received “roster bonuses” in exchange for giving up fully guaranteed entitlements.

Looking at Mahomes’ 10-year contract is a good example of this. Mahomes signed for just $63 million guaranteed and a $10 million signing bonus in 2020, but his salaries and roster bonuses in his contract include “rolling guarantees.” This means that if he’s on the roster on a certain date a year or two earlier, those numbers are automatically guaranteed.

Under Mahomes’ contract restructuring, which incidentally occurred three years into his 10-year contract, his roster bonuses for one year in advance will be fully guaranteed on the third day of the new league year, while his salary that same season will also be fully guaranteed on the same day. So in March 2025, Mahomes’ salary of $16.7 million in 2025 and his roster bonus of $10.4 million in 2026 will go from non-guaranteed to guaranteed.

Knowing how the Packers go about avoiding guaranteed salaries beyond the first year of new contract extensions, it’s safe to assume that this deal will be held up more by squabbling over the details of such odd contract mechanics than by where that big sum will ultimately end up.