Green Bay Packers star quarterback Aaron Rodgers is used to breaking records on the field.
For instance, he holds the record for the highest QB rating in a single season with 122.5 in 2011.
Rodgers is now officially a record breaker off the field after agreeing to a massive contract extension with the Packers.
The two-time NFL MVP’s four-year extension is worth an eye-popping $134 million.
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Just as impressive is the record $100 million in guaranteed money that’s included in the package, $80 million of which will land in his bank account by next March.
His signing bonus alone is worth $57.5 million and his average annual salary during the four-year span of the new contract (2020-2023) will be $33.5 million. Both of those are also NFL records.
The contract sets a new bar for the league’s elite quarterbacks, surpassing the mega-deals that were recently signed by Atlanta’s Matt Ryan ($30 million a season) Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins ($28 million) and San Francisco’s Jimmy Garoppolo ($27.5 million).
There is no question that Rodgers is the best player in Green Bay and is among the best pivots in the game, and without him, the Packers would not for a second be considered a perennial Super Bowl contender.
But is he worth three times as much as the next highest-paid player on the Packers, who in this case is receiver Randall Cobb at nearly $13 million? The Packers certainly think so.
The quarterback position is the most demanding and that player is virtually always the de facto leader of the team, more often than not receiving the most blame when his team loses and the most praise when his team wins.
Packers fans are certainly overjoyed that Rodgers is locked up for the next six seasons, but they should also be concerned that he’s eating too much of the financial pie which could prevent Green Bay from adding more high-priced, highly talented players in the years to come.
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