Pack GM plans to talk long-term deal with Love

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Jordan Love is under contract with the Green Bay Packers for another year, but they don’t plan to let the quarterback go into 2024 season with an expiring contract.

General manager Brian Gutekunst said Thursday he plans to begin talks with Love’s agents even though they can’t officially sign an extension until after May 3.

“I think we will go down that road,” Gutekunst said. “Certainly, I think that’ll be important for our football team to have some stability there. Jordan and his representation, they’re really good people so we will start working towards that some time in the next couple months.”

Love signed a short extension on May 3, 2023, in lieu of the fifth-year option on his rookie deal. It gave him an $8,788,655 signing bonus, which upped his average pay per year to $13.5 million, but also gave the Packers an out if they felt like Love was not the long-term answer at quarterback. NFL rules say a team has to wait 12 months before doing a second extension of the same contract.

If Love does not sign a new deal, his base salary for 2024 will jump from the $5.5 million that was negotiated into his last deal to $10.5 million because he hit $5 million in escalators based on playing time, playoff wins and statistical rankings from the 2023 season. He also has a $500,000 roster bonus, bringing his total 2024 pay to $11 million without a new deal.

A new contract would almost certainly net Love a deal in the $35 million per year to $50 million per year range, although league sources were split on which end of that range Love’s pay would fall in.

Gutekunst said Love answered all questions with his play over the final half of the season, which ended with a 24-21 loss to the 49ers in the NFC divisional round. Love threw for 4,159 yards, completed 64.2% of his passes and threw 32 touchdown passes with 11 interceptions in the regular season. Over the final eight regular-season games, he threw 18 touchdown passes and just one interception while leading the Packers to a 6-2 record in that stretch.

“Jordan had a really good season toward the end, especially the second half,” Gutekunst said. “And we are really excited to build around him.”

Love could have most of the same offensive pieces around him next season, including running back Aaron Jones. Gutekunst said he expected to bring back Jones, who finished the season with a franchise record of five consecutive 100-yard rushing games including the two playoff games after battling injuries during the early portion of the regular season.

Jones, 29, took a pay cut to return last offseason in exchange for some guaranteed upfront money. His current base salary for 2024 is $11.1 million with a salary-cap charge of $17.7 million that the Packers likely will want to lower with a restructured deal.

Less certain, however, is the status of former All Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari, who played in only the regular-season opener in 2023 before he experienced more issues with his damaged left knee. Bakhtiari underwent two surgeries this past season, bringing the total on his left knee to five since he initially tore his ACL on Dec. 31, 2020.

Bakhtiari has no more guaranteed money left on his contract but is scheduled to make $21.5 million in 2024, the final year of his deal. The Packers would clear that same total in salary cap space if they moved on from Bakhtiari this offseason.

“We are still at the very beginning stages of looking at how we are going to move forward with all of that,” Gutekunst said. “Obviously David has been through a really rough stretch with the injury stuff, and he’s going through a very major surgery trying to get back to be able to play. We’re monitoring that, and I know he’s working his tail off. Once we get down the road and see where he’s at healthwise we will kind of make those decisions.”

Gutekunst also said he has no plans to trade cornerback Jaire Alexander. Gutekunst suspended the former All Pro for the Week 17 game against Minnesota for conduct detrimental to the team. Alexander is under contract through the 2026 season.