Jordan Love could get screwed by NFL Sunday Ticket lawsuit

The Green Bay Packers are in the middle of a conundrum that, frankly, a lot of teams would love to be in. They have a franchise quarterback. And now they have to pay him.

Jordan Love proved himself worthy of a new contract in his first full year as a starter. It seemed like a matter of course that the Packers would ink him to an extension before the 2024 season began. It might not be that simple anymore.

As Justis Mosqueda of Acme Packing Co. examined, the Packers are in the unenviable position of being "the first team scheduled to hand out a major quarterback extension following the jury’s decision on the NFL Sunday Ticket lawsuit."

NFL Sunday Ticket lawsuit could limit Jordan Love's new contract

The NFL lost a massive anti-trust lawsuit this week. A jury ordered the league to pay more than $4 billion in damages to residents and businesses who paid for the out-of-market NFL Sunday Ticket package. That's a minimum too. This whole thing could cost the NFL up to $12 billion.

To put that into perspective, the NFL's total revenue in 2023 was $19 billion. That was with Sunday Ticket profits which will be going away along with the penalties.

All this points in one direction: The NFL salary cap is surely to be impacted, whether by by constricting or by going away entirely.

If the latter, the Packers won't have to worry too much. They'll actually benefit from getting Love signed as soon as possible with a cap ceiling still in place.

If the former, Love may be the new Bad Luck Bryan meme. Here's how Mosqueda put it:

"How can Green Bay pay out Love $55 million per year, the rate that both Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow are signed at, when they have no idea if the salary cap will significantly regress over the next few seasons or not?"

It's not just that Love's earning power may take a hit. It's that the Packers may be incentivized to wait on giving him a contract to see get better clarity on the whole situation. He could enter the 2024 season without a contract with the risk of injury or underperformance further cutting into his contract prospects.

The Packers should take a deep breath and try their best to get a handle on these new developments. Having said that, signing Love before the season is probably still the best approach. If they truly believe he is their guy, they should lock him in while they can instead of overthinking it. Solid starting quarterbacks don't grow on trees in the NFL. Ones with the potential to be a Top 5 QB in the league are even rarer.