Love Reporting to Training Camp Without Extension

Jordan Love will be at Lambeau Field when the quarterbacks and rookies report to Green Bay Packers training camp on Wednesday.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love at training camp last year. / Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ quarterbacks, rookies and select veterans are scheduled to report to Lambeau Field for the start of training camp on Wednesday. Starting quarterback Jordan Love will be there, even without a contract extension, a source told Packers on SI.

The race is on for the Packers and Love to agree to an extension before training camp begins with the first full-squad practice on Monday. Whether Love would participate in a “real practice” without an extension isn’t known or hasn’t been decided.

Fortunately for the Packers, there is almost a week to hammer out an extension. No doubt they’d like to get that accomplished to avoid a major distraction at the start of a training camp that will be filled with high expectations.

Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy had little to say on the topic on Tuesday after discussing the team’s whopping $60.1 million profit during the fiscal-year that ended on March 31.

“That’s really Russ’s hand on that,” Murphy said of Russ Ball, the team’s executive vice president, director of football operations and contract negotiator.

That’s more than Love had to say. Love, in the Milwaukee suburb of River Hills on Tuesday for a youth football camp, chose to focus on the camp and his Hands of 10ve Foundation.

“In my hometown, Derek Carr and David Carr both had a camp that I went to as a kid,” Love told reporters. “That was something that impacted me at a young age. Those are two guys that I looked up to and were from my hometown. I think it was awesome. That’s something I definitely look forward to being able to do now that I’m in the same position as them. Hopefully, we can do one in Green Bay, too.”

After a couple questions about the camp and his foundation, Love was asked about his contract.

“Nope,” Love’s handler hollered when a contract question was asked. “Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Nope, nope, nope, nope.”

With that, Love walked away with a smile on his face.

Because of last year’s one-year extension, Love is under contract for the upcoming season. His base salary is set to be $10.5 million, with $5.5 million of that guaranteed.

The signing bonus on a contract extension might be worth 10 times his base salary. Even though the risk of injury might be minute during training camp, when a quarterback is off-limits of defenders, it’s hard to imagine Love or his representatives would want to take even the slightest risk that could threaten a contract that figures to be in excess of $200 million (over four years) or even $250 million (over five years).

Love is going to collect a massive payday because of how he finished last season while leading the Packers’ playoff drive. He threw 18 touchdown passes and one interception as the Packers went 6-2 down the stretch. He added three touchdown passes in his playoff debut at Dallas.

“I think it’s a credit to Brian,” Murphy said of general manager Brian Gutekunst, who made the controversial decision to draft Love in the first round in 2020. “He saw the potential in Jordan. Playing in the NFL, particularly playing quarterback in the NFL, is not easy. 

“It’s a tribute to Jordan, though, the way he stuck with it and got better and better. Obviously, at the end of the season, he was playing at a very high level.”

With an exploding salary cap and the importance of the position, three quarterbacks signed huge contracts this offseason that helped drive up the price on Love.

Coming off a torn Achilles, Kirk Cousins signed a contract worth $45 million per season with the Atlanta Falcons. Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions agreed to a contract extension worth $53 million per season. The real stunner was the Jacksonville Jaguars signing Trevor Lawrence to an extension worth $55 million per season. That contract – even with Lawrence coming off a disappointing third season – tied Cincinnati Bengals star Joe Burrow for the highest average salary in NFL history.

“Every one thing affects another, but I think we’ve learned for a long time, you’ve got to have a quarterback,” Gutekunst said at the Scouting Combine. “Everything kind of starts there and you work around it.”

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Here’s what Mark Murphy had to say about Jordan Love and the #Packers today. https://t.co/JgkIzY6uYt

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) July 17, 2024

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