Aaron Rodgers‘ contract runs through the 2019 season, but despite the 12th-year passer being nowhere near the end of his deal, USA Today’s Pete Dougherty advises the Packers to begin working on another extension for their All-Pro quarterback. At $22MM per year, Rodgers resides as the league’s third-highest-paid signal-caller — behind Andrew Luck and Joe Flacco — but the longer the Packers wait to address this issue, it will cost them as the cap rises.
More QBs on the verge of new contracts will continue to bump the 32-year-old Rodgers down in the quarterback financial hierarchy as they sign deals based on the one Luck inked earlier this summer, with Dougherty adding Green Bay doesn’t want Rodgers’ deal to become a distraction. While that date looms down the road still, the build-from-within Packers won’t stop being Rodgers-dependent anytime soon.
Their five-year, $110MM extension for Rodgers signed in April of 2013 was based on a $123MM cap; the salary ceiling’s expected to approach $170MM in 2017 and continue to rise. A Rodgers deal as his current contract comes close to expiring would cost more due to inflation and the two-time All-Pro’s leverage increasing. Dougherty adds the franchise tag would surpass $25MM for Rodgers in 2020, should this as-of-now non-issue become an impasse between the game’s smallest market and who many view as the league’s best quarterback.
Here’s some more news coming out of Wisconsin.
- Former New Mexico running back/safety Jermicheal Selders is working out for the Packers on Sunday, reports Aaron Wilson of the National Football Post. Per Wilson, Sanders previously had an audition for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League.
- The Packers could re-sign long snapper Brett Goode before the start of the regular season, according to Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Twitter links). Current Green Bay long snappers Rick Lovato and Jesse Schmitt evidently let off several bad snaps during Tuesday’s practice session. Goode, for his part, had been with the Packers for eight years, but tore his ACL last December.
- Despite having not played since 2013, 33-year-old Kellen Winslow worked out for the Packers on Sunday.
Zach Links contributed to this report
He’s going to go down as one of the greatest to ever play the game. Sign Rodgers to be a Packer for life.