Aaron Rodgers is going to be sticking around Green Bay for a while longer.
According to a report from ESPN.com's Adam Schefter, Rodgers and the
Packers agreed to terms on a contract extension. The deal will reportedly be the largest in NFL history, and will keep Rodgers in Green Bay for "well beyond the two years left on his contract and quite likely for the remainder of his career."
The money is well-deserved for Rodgers, who has already put together one of the best careers for any quarterback in history. He is still at the top of his game and has shown no real signs of slowing down as he enters his mid-30s. The only thing that has kept him from putting together an elite season, at any time, is a couple of broken collarbones. He's a superstar and arguably the best player in the league. It makes sense that the Packers will pay him handsomely to keep him around for as long as they can.
Rodgers has two years remaining on the five-year, $110 million contract extension he signed back in 2013, and those two years will pay him base salaries of $19.8 million and $20 million, per Spotrac. Since his extension was signed, several quarterbacks have signed considerably larger deals. Rodgers will have just the 14th-largest cap hit among quarterbacks this season, for example.
For Rodgers to get the largest deal in NFL history, he will have to surpass the five-year, $150 million pact signed by Matt Ryan earlier this offseason, which also contained $94.5 million guaranteed at signing and $100 million in practical guarantees. Former Packers wide receiver James Jones reported soon after Schefter's initial report that Rodgers' extension is for four additional years and averages $33.5 million per year in new money, while guaranteeing Rodgers over $100 million.
Four years at $33.5 million per year works out to $134 million, which, added to the two years and $41,662,500 (including workout and roster bonuses) remaining on Rodgers' current deal, gives him a six-year, $175,662,500 contract. That's just south of $30 million per season, but the guaranteed figure of over $100 million is really what matters here, and would indeed be record-breaking.