Aaron Rodgers eyeing top NFL salary as Packers receive trade offers

The Packers hope they will have Aaron Rodgers back next season, and Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com notes the sides have been communicating. Rodgers and the team have discussed his contract, Demovsky adds, as they navigate a complex cap situation.

Similar to Rodgers’ 2018 negotiations, keeping the future first-ballot Hall of Famer around would mean making him the NFL’s highest-paid player. Rodgers is believed to be targeting a deal that makes him the league’s highest-paid player by a wide margin, Dianna Russini of ESPN.com said during an appearance on the Rich Eisen Podcast mentioning $50M per year as a relevant number here.

While this would be a monster number and represent a seismic increase in quarterback salaries over the past two years, Rodgers is now negotiating with back-to-back MVPs on his resume. The quarterback market was at $35M (Russell Wilson) as of summer 2020, and Patrick Mahomes reached $45M on average because he agreed to a 10-year extension. Rodgers’ age stands to limit the length of his next contract, so a deal worth $50M or close to it on average would be a more player-friendly agreement than the one Mahomes landed.

Following Mahomes’ pact, Dak Prescott and Josh Allen each scored deals at or north of $40M AAV. Allen got to $43M but did so on a six-year deal. Although a Rodgers extension would be vital for the Packers’ 2022 cap situation, as they are still nearly $40M over without factoring in a Davante Adams franchise tag, this would be a tremendous markup from the superstar QB’s current $33.5M extension. When Rodgers agreed to that extension in August 2018, the NFL was barely a year removed from having its first $25M-per-year player (Derek Carr).

The obvious wrinkle interfering with the Packers authorizing a record Rodgers extension remains: he has not informed the Packers he wants to stay in Green Bay, and Russini reports multiple teams have sent the Packers offers. Rodgers does intend to inform the Pack of his decision soon, but with the franchise tag window having opened this week, the situation has moved into crunch time for the team.

The Broncos have been the team most closely connected to a Rodgers pursuit. They were on Rodgers’ destination list last year. It would be surprising if the Packers sent Rodgers to an NFC team, but that does not stop NFC franchises from sending over proposals. 

The Panthers and Commanders have been linked to QB pursuits. Should Rodgers have a new employer soon, that team would need to authorize this record-setting extension. Of course, Brian Gutekunst said Wednesday he did not promise to trade Rodgers in the event of a request. That could be a rather notable hurdle here, should Rodgers inform the Packers he wants out.