Aaron Rodgers seemed to be making a firm commitment this week to playing out his career with the Green Bay Packers.
But, as they say, the devil is in the details.
Rodgers reportedly agreed to a monster four-year, $200 million contract with $153 guaranteed. Rodgers himself sort of disputed the terms of the deal, but there has been no retraction from those reporting the numbers.
It might very well be a four-year contract. But former Packers executive Andrew Brandt explained on the “Rich Eisen Show” why he thinks it’s effectively just a one-year pact.
“We heard talk about a four-year contract and all these big numbers, I am saying this, I do not for one second believe this is a four-year commitment to Aaron Rodgers or from Aaron Rodgers," Brandt told Eisen. "And I do believe the Packers are not giving up on Jordan Love – so what does that mean?
“I know, because I started this 20-something years ago: the Packers do not guarantee, true guarantee, more than the first year of the contract. And they’ve held that even through Aaron Rodgers’ last contract. So, this idea of $150 million guaranteed, well, maybe, but it’s not going to be real guarantees. The real guarantee is going to be some huge signing bonus this year which will be prorated for a number of years to dummy out the cap. For people that don’t know, you take the signing bonus and prorate it on the existing number of years, you get a cap number way down which they need, and he’ll have a low salary. …
“The fact that they’re making a huge guarantee to Aaron Rodgers doesn’t commit him to the team more than this year.”
Overall, it seems understood that Rodgers could end up retiring after this season. But Brandt’s comments leave the door open for something similar to what Tom Brady did in 2019. Brady signed a multi-year extension with the Patriots that summer, but all it did was offset his cap number for that season and it was loaded with void years. He became a free agent the following offseason and left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
And this all lines up in a way for it to be a one-year commitment. Even with Rodgers' help, the Packers’ cap situation is messy, and if they don’t reach an extension with Davante Adams, who was slapped with the franchise tag, then he could be gone next offseason.
So, it might be time to pump the brakes on the idea of Rodgers riding off into the sunset with Green Bay.
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