Packers confident Jordan Love is worth big contract extension

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Schefter details how Jordan Love’s record deal with Packers came to be

Adam Schefter explains how Jordan Love and the Packers agreed to a four-year, $220 million deal.

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Anyone who thinks the Green Bay Packers acted too soon when they gave Jordan Love the massive contract extension that was agreed to Friday, as reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, needs a history lesson.

Go back in the archives or Google this: How many games did Aaron Rodgers start before the Packers signed him to a contract extension?

Merely seven.

The Packers tore up Rodgers’ 2005 rookie deal and on Oct. 31, 2008, they agreed on a five-year extension worth $65 million. It included $40.5 million in the first three years of the deal. That might seem to pale in comparison to Love — who will make more than that in the first year as part of a four-year, $220 million contract that ties him with the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence and Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow as the highest-paid QBs in NFL history — but Rodgers’ deal ranked in the top five on the quarterback pay scale.

To that point, Rodgers had led the Packers to a 4-3 start while throwing 12 touchdowns and four interceptions. He had a passer rating of 98.8, even while playing the previous three games with a shoulder injury.

Ted Thompson, the late general manager who decided that was enough to go on, explained it by saying: “We try to be proactive in our discussions with our current players, and we felt like this was an appropriate time to try to come to an agreement with Aaron. We feel like this is good for the organization and the players, and we will continue this approach as we move forward.”