A day after they signed receiver Davante Adams to a four-year, $58 million extension, the Green Bay Packers took another of their would-be free agents off the market. Center Corey Linsley got a three-year extension worth $25.5 million.
Like Adams, Linsley is in the final year of his rookie deal.
The timing of both deals is significant. Teams have until this weekend to work out contract extensions and have some of that money count against the 2017 salary cap. The Packers were $10 million under the cap and you can bet they used some or all of that up.
It’s a nice payday for Linsley at $8.5 million annually in new money.
If you look at it just from the new money perspective, it would make Linsley the fifth-highest paid center in the league annually.
Of course — and this holds true for Adams, as well — since the Packers have put some of the contract money in 2017, the annual numbers are going to be higher than they actually are.
Linsley's salary this season was $1,797,000 and given the Packers can prorate the signing bonus over four years (including this year), it ends up being a four-year, $27.297 deal.
— Rob Demovsky (@RobDemovsky) December 30, 2017
That still pays Linsley an average of $6.8 million per season.
It’s a decent re-up for the Packers. After getting injured in 2016, losing his job to J.C. Tretter and then regaining it when Tretter got injured, Linsley has started every game in 2017. It’s also worth noting that the Packers don’t really have another center on the roster. The backup was Don Barclay, but the team waived him off injured reserve earlier in the season.
Of the remaining Packers’ free-agents-to-be, safety Morgan Burnett has to be at the top of the list, especially with the regression of Ha Ha Clinton-Dix.