Rodgers expects he’ll soon be passed as the league’s highest-paid player
GREEN BAY, WIS.— Aaron Rodgers has spent more than two years as the NFL’s highest-paid player, which is a relative eternity. And the Green Bay Packers’ star quarterback isn’t sweating the fact that reign is destined to end.
If the new cash king isn’t Eli Manning, who’s entering the last year of his contract with the New York Giants, rising Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck seems a virtual lock for a bar-setting mega-deal before his rookie contract expires after the 2016 season.
“At some point, it’s probably going to happen,” Rodgers said. “I guess Eli’s maybe going to get up there, and I would have to assume Andrew’s going to be well above it. He’s younger than I am and I’m sure he’s going to be up here in a year or so.
“But yeah, it’ll happen. That’s the way the league goes. I’m really happy with the contract, I think the Packers are happy with it as well, and I like living up to it.”
Rodgers, 31, had two years left on his previous contract when he signed a five-year, $110-million (U.S.) extension with the Packers in April 2013. The $22-million “new money” average topped the $20.1-million average on a six-year, $120.6-million deal Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco inked the previous month.
Since then, five other QBs — Seattle’s Russell Wilson ($21.9M), Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger ($21.85M), San Diego’s Philip Rivers ($20.8125M), Carolina’s Cam Newton ($20.76M) and Atlanta’s Matt Ryan ($20.75M) — have gotten new deals exceeding Flacco’s. But nobody has surpassed Rodgers, who won his second NFL MVP in 2014.
Manning, 34, isn’t in the same category as Rodgers as a player at this stage. But Manning has the leverage in negotiations of a $19.75 million cap number that would force the Giants to commit at least at $23.7 million to franchise tag him in March if a new deal doesn’t get done.
Rodgers’ contract runs through the 2019 season, when he’ll be 36 years old. If he keeps playing at an elite level and the salary cap continues to grow, it’s hard to imagine he won’t be in line for another extension and raise before then — particularly once Luck, 25, resets the market.
“I’d like to play this one out and maybe get one more contract,” Rodgers said. “That’d be fun.”