We all know Aaron Rodgers is going to get paid a ton of money at some point. Probably soon.
The market has been set after the signings of Kirk Cousins (three years, $84 million, all guaranteed) and Matt Ryan (five years, $150 million, $94.5 million guaranteed).
The Rodgers’ situation comes down guaranteed money. The Packers will make him the highest-paid player in the game, but what will they guarantee in his contract? The team hasn’t traditionally been in the habit of making guarantees. They usually build in additional money for workout bonuses and games-played bonuses.
Rodgers has both of those in his current contract and he lost some money by missing games last year.
So back to the guarantee. Jason La Canfora says Rodgers is going to get $110 million.
Recently caught up at length with an agent who represents top quarterbacks and we both agreed that Aaron Rodgers is probably looking at $110M fully guaranteed over the first three years of his new contract, and that may be underselling it. I have a hard time seeing the Packers escape that reality and even harder time seeing Rodgers agree to anything less than that with two years on his current deal. The Matt Ryan and Kirk Cousins deals virtually assure it.
The quarterback market has changed with the Vikings’ signing of Cousins and the Falcons’ extending of Ryan’s deal. Guaranteed money hasn’t been a thing in the NFL until now.
Right now, it’s only for quarterbacks and the Packers are going to have to pay up.
On the flip side, I can see chief negotiator Russ Ball not wanting to give up that kind of guaranteed money. And that’s probably why this deal isn’t done yet.
The desperate-ass Vikings changed things when they signed Cousins. So even though they’ll never win a Super Bowl, at least they cost the Packers a bunch of money.