The Jordan Love extension will have to be unlike any deal Packers have done before

Trevor Lawrence's megadeal proves the market for quarterbacks is too different for the Packers not to adapt their contractual approach.

Trevor Lawrence moved the goal posts yet again, and Jordan Love isn’t complaining. On Thursday, Lawrence matched Joe Burrow as the highest-paid player in the NFL and based on conversations around the league, the expectation is Love will beat it.

At least … sort of. Love’s team, the Green Bay Packers, doesn’t operate like Lawrence’s Jacksonville Jaguars or much of the NFL when it comes to contracts. Given the state of quarterback contracts, that may have to change for Love as the league moves further and further into contract inequality for the game’s most important position.

The last megadeal the Packers signed went to Rashan Gary, a four-year, $96 million extension with $34.6 million fully guaranteed at signing. That $24 million average annual value puts him eighth among edge defenders right now, but Danielle Hunter, Brian Burns, and Montez Sweat have all signed bigger deals since then. Each of them got more fully guaranteed than Gary because the Packers generally avoid guaranteeing money beyond the first year.

Russ Ball, Green Bay’s de facto chief negotiator, frontloads the cash for players in a signing bonus as a standard operating procedure. That practice has typically worked for players -- they get a lot of money up front -- while allowing the Packers to use the NFL’s mob accounting practices to spread the cap hit of that bonus across the life of the deal.

In 2022, Packers corner Jaire Alexander set a record for defensive backs with a $30 million signing bonus. But already, there are six DBs making more fully guaranteed, including L’Jarius Snead to whom the Tennessee Titans just gave $51.5 million in full guarantees.

But that has not been how these megadeals for quarterbacks have looked. Lawrence’s five-year, $275 million contract boasts a baseline average value of a chart-topping $55 million. Almost half of that is fully guaranteed at signing, and if you’re sick of hearing that phrase, I understand. I’m sure Ball is, too.

This is where things get tricky though, so don’t fall asleep because of the semantics.