The Green Bay Packers have agreed to a new contract with quarterback Jordan Love that will pay him up to $22.5 million in 2024. $13.5 million of that money is guaranteed, which helps the team save money on next year’s salary cap while also allowing Love the chance to earn more than he would have had the Packers picked up his fifth year option. It was that fifth year option, and specifically Brian Gutekunst’s comments about it at the NFL Draft, that had some fans and analysts doubting Green Bay’s confidence in Love. Others, including Packers’ legend Gilbert Brown, did not feel like those comments were fair to Love, as he stated on The Earl Ingram Show.
Green Bay Packers Legend Gilbert Brown Says the Team Needs to Commit to Jordan Love
Jg 082821 Bills 28. © Jamie Germano via Imagn Content Services, LLC
Gilbert Brown is a huge advocate for both Packers and NFL players, past and present. While the NFL is certainly a business, Brown has always been an advocate of players being rewarded with what they deserve. That is why Brown said what he did on Monday morning before Jordan Love’s contract extension was announced. Host Earl Ingram asked him how he would feel if he was Love, and Gutekunst said what he did about not being sure about the fifth year option:
“I’m p***ed off, first of all. Second of all, you’re sending mixed messages. Or, it’s sounding like you’re saying, ‘Oh, it’s all messed up now, but we got to keep him now. We’ve been talking all this good about him, but we’re a little unsure if we want to give him his money. He got to prove himself.’ Are you serious?
“Are you serious? What kind of GM would say something like that? I mean, this man needs all the confidence he can get. You putting him in a pair of shoes when he wears a size 14 and they’re a size 20, and you got up there and say something stupid like that.”
Again, this was on Monday morning before the contract was announced on Tuesday. There was no way for Brown or anyone outside of the organization to know of the contract talks, and based on what Gutekunst said, the reaction was both understandable and justified from a former player.
On Tuesday afternoon, I reached out to Gilbert and asked him about his thoughts on the new contract. This is what he said:
“Well, it sounds like they do believe in him after all. I don’t necessarily take back the things I said, but it’s good that they’re showing that they believe in him. Because if he can make more money than he would if they had picked up the option, that’s a great confidence boost for him.”
It is understandable that many fans and others still look sideways at what Gutekunst said during his press conference. While it all worked out for both parties involved, the way he talked about the fifth year option was not exactly straightforward. Perhaps a, ‘We are discussing that question internally and believe we have options that will benefit the organization and Jordan Love equally’ would have been a better answer.
For Gilbert’s analysis of the Packers’ draft class and for his view on the importance of coaches in youth sports, listen to the entire segment in the link above.
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1 Comment
I love Gilbert, but it was asinine to presume, even before the extension was announced, that they weren’t cooking up something that would do right by Love. I mean picking up the option or some form of an extension made up at least 80% of the likely outcomes given all that has transpired with Rodgers and Love. Unless of course you just assume Gutekunst is some slapdick GM, in which case you’re just telling on yourself. He’s not perfect but the only people who evaluate his decisions from the assumption he’s incompetent end up having the stupidest takes.