Last offseason was filled with the “will he, won’t he” drama of Aaron Rodgers threatening to retire (and try to host Jeopardy!) due to his frustrations with the Green Bay Packers front office. Rodgers ultimately showed up to camp on a restructured deal that would allow him to walk after the 2021 season if he wanted, but another MVP campaign (and a season off the field in which Rodgers made himself a polarizing figure, to say the least) apparently brought the two sides much closer together.
Instead of moving on for greener pastures, Rodgers is going to stay with the Packers and try to win some more MVPs and maybe another championship in Green Bay, and the Packers are going to make him the NFL’s highest paid player on a per-year basis to do so. On Tuesday, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network announced Rodgers and the Packers have agreed to a monstrous 4-year, $200 million deal with $153 million guaranteed to play through his age 42 season in Wisconsin.
The #Packers and MVP QB Aaron Rodgers have agreed to terms on a 4-year, $200M deal that makes him the highest paid player in NFL history, sources say. He gets a whopping $153M guaranteed and his cap number goes down. A monstrous commitment by GB for years to come. 💰 💰 💰
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 8, 2022
It is a wild contract and the guarantee and annual salary are more than Patrick Mahomes got in his 10-year, $450+ million monster deal two years ago. Rodgers has certainly shown that he’s still at the top of his game at age 38, and the Packers are banking on him having a Tom Brady-like run into his 40s with this deal. As for the rest of the league, those wanting veteran QB help immediately due to a weak QB class in the Draft now will shift their attention to other disgruntled QBs (Russell Wilson, despite the Seahawks insisting they won’t trade him) and teams tired of their veteran signal-callers (like the Colts with Carson Wentz and Niners with Jimmy Garoppolo). They also could call Green Bay about former first-round pick Jordan Love, who one would think is very available. now.
UPDATE: Rodgers confirmed that he is staying in Green Bay but disputed the contract details that were reported, which means we’ll have to wait a bit to see what the official numbers and details are (one would guess they won’t be far off from what was reported).
Hey everyone, just wanted to clear some things up; YES I will be playing with the @packers next year, however, reports about me signing a contract are inaccurate, as are the supposed terms of the contract I “signed”. I’m very excited to be back 💪🏼 #year18❤️
— Aaron Rodgers (@AaronRodgers12) March 8, 2022
