With NFL revenues continually rising, player contracts are rightly doing the same. Quarterbacks are seeing the lion’s share of this growth, with 10 QBs now on contracts worth over $50 million in AAV. One of those is Jordan Love, who signed last summer for four years and $220 million.
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Love’s deal with the Green Bay Packers ranks 11th in total value, second in AAV, and 11th in overall guarantees. Unfortunately, he did not build on his red-hot finish to the 2023 season—the stretch that earned him the deal—last year, instead slightly regressing as teams became more familiar with his game.
As is the case with most professional sports contracts, however, the year-by-year cash is very complicated. In the first year of the deal in 2024, Love made just $3.5 million as a base salary. However, he also received a $500k workout bonus as well as a massive $75 million signing bonus. That meant that at $79 million in cash last year, he was the highest-paid player in the NFL. But not only that, his 2024 earnings also matched the payroll of an entire MLB team: the Tampa Bay Rays.
WILD: #PACKERS QB JORDAN LOVE MADE MORE THEN THE ENTIRE TAMPA BAY RAYS ROSTER THIS YEAR.
Jordan Love last season made: $79 million
Tampa Bay Rays combine payroll this year: $79 million
ONE #NFL PLAYER>ENTIRE MLB TEAM pic.twitter.com/gLKahc0gZR
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) May 1, 2025
Unlike in the NFL and NBA, there is no salary cap in the MLB, which means the payroll of a team (the amount they can pay their roster) changes depending on how much revenue a given team brings in. There is no revenue-sharing, meaning popular teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees will always have a much higher payroll than smaller markets.
Needless to say, the Tampa Bay Rays are one of those smaller-market teams. According to Yahoo Sports, the Rays’ full payroll for 2025 is only $79,216,312, which is about $244 million less than what the New York Mets have to play with thanks to the highest payroll in baseball.
Naming Jordan Love as the highest-paid player in the league in 2024 was going to ruffle some feathers. And it did. However, most fans were simply annoyed at the clickbait title that made it seem like Love’s salary was the highest when it was really just a big signing bonus. One said, “This is pretty misleading. His signing bonus was 75m for the big contract he just signed, and his salary last season was 3.5m.”
Another was hyperbolic in his anger at the statement: “Embarrassing extension by the Packers. Maybe the worst in NFL history.” Another had the opposite view, saying the extension was well-deserved, “Good, he’s a top 5 QB in the NFL“. Another pointed out that the chasm in popularity between baseball and football is the reason for the discrepancy: “One sport is more popular than the other, that’s why more money.”
Whether or not Jordan Love deserves his contract remains to be seen. But, considering the other guys that have earned similar deals—Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence—it seems that he is more deserving than most, considering the market.
However, there will not be as much patience for regression in 2025. The wide receiving corps will be healthy, and it was supplemented by a first-round receiver in the 2025 NFL Draft in speedster Matthew Golden. That’s something Green Bay never did for Aaron Rodgers. With a strong running game also backed by Josh Jacobs, 2025 should answer the question of whether Love’s deal was worth it or not.
