Aaron Rodgers' Packers contract is reportedly official, and the numbers are staggering
The contract between Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers has been signed, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero.
Pelissero and Rapoport tweeted details of the contract, including yearly salary, and the numbers are staggering.
On first read of #Packers QB Aaron Rodgers' new contract, he gets:
$42 million in 2022
$59.515M in 2023
$49.3M in 2024
So that's $150.815M over the next three years, and the first two are fully guaranteed at signing.— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 15, 2022
Aaron Rodger gets $150.6M guaranteed on his deal. Rodgers will earn $74.5M in the first new year and $62M average through second new year. https://t.co/9rOyWnTx7R
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 15, 2022
More details:
Essentially, Aaron Rodgers gets $50M per year over 3 years, then likely retires. If he keeps playing, those final two years (on a 4-year extension, 5 years total) will be redone. https://t.co/CVTXfrKSUE— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 15, 2022
That's over $150 million for Rodgers over three years, with nearly $75 million guaranteed at signing. By yearly average, this makes him the highest-paid player in NFL history. He also has two "dummy years" in his contract, which Rapoport reports will have to be redone if he continues playing past 2024.
There are conflicting details out there, though. ESPN's Adam Schefter said Tuesday morning on "Get Up" that the deal is "year to year," meaning that the Packers will have to address it again next year.
Here's how Rodgers' new deal compares to previous quarterback contracts:
The Davante Adams issue
One of the advantages of Rodgers' deal with the Packers is that it clears up salary-cap space. According to ESPN, the Packers' cap hit goes from about $46 million to around $28 million with this deal.
It's that cap space that allowed the Packers to keep wide receiver Davante Adams under the franchise tag, to the tune of roughly $18.4 million in 2022. That apparently isn't what Adams wants. According to Rapoport, Adams has told the Packers that he won't play under the franchise tag and wants a long-term deal.
Green Bay needs to clear a lot of space to make room for an Adams deal, but it has time to figure this out. The Packers have until mid-July to sign Adams to a contract. However, Adams likely isn't thrilled with them right now, considering that the Packers franchise-tagged him and took away the opportunity for him to test the free-agent market. When you tell a team you're willing to miss games if it doesn't pay you what you'd be worth to other teams, you're probably not thrilled with it.
Adams and Rodgers have amazing chemistry, and Rodgers has spoken in Adams' favor many times. That could work in Adams' favor with the Packers, though at this point no one can predict how this is going to work out.
