Oh, yes, Russell Wilson and his agent absolutely notice Aaron Rodgers’ new Packers deal
Aaron Rodgers just massively re-set the NFL quarterback market.
Oh, yes, you can bet your 12 flag Russell Wilson and his agent — and the Seahawks — noticed.
Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers have agreed to a four-year contract worth a reported $200 million, according to NFL Network and other outlets Tuesday. It will be the richest contract in league history.
While many will focus on the $50 million per year average salary as being the new standard, the real number that Wilson and his agent Mark Rodgers are interested in is the $153 million guaranteed the Packers are giving Rodgers. That’s the largest amount of sure cash to a player in NFL history. It’s $3 million more than the guaranteed money the Buffalo Bills gave quarterback Josh Allen last year.
Guaranteed money is king in the high-injury-risk NFL Unlike in Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association, guaranteed contracts in the NFL are not the norm. The more guaranteed money for any player, the larger the coup.
Aaron Rodgers’ guaranteed money is of particular importance to Wilson, and his future with the Seahawks.
Wilson, 33, has two seasons remaining on the $140 million contract his agent negotiated with Seattle in April 2019. That was $6 million higher and $1.5 million per year more than the Packers had given Rodgers a year earlier.
This time next year, the Seahawks and agent Mark Rodgers will be talking about a fourth contract for Wilson. Mark Rodgers has used Aaron Rodgers’ deals with the Packers as the benchmark for the two extensions he’s done with the Seahawks.
Those were favorable comparisons to make. Aaron Rodgers and Wilson have each won one Super Bowl. Their statistics had been comparable into 2019. And Wilson is five years younger than the Packers passer.
But since Wilson signed his last deal, the gap in career accomplishments between Rodgers and Wilson has widened. Last month, Green Bay’s star was named the NFL’s most valuable player for the 2021 season. That was the fourth time he’s won it. He is just the second player to win NFL MVP more than three times.
Wilson famously has never received a single MVP vote.
While Rodgers was having a fourth MVP, Wilson was having his worst. Wilson missed three games with a broken finger, the first games missed to injury of his career. He returned in mid-November. He lost the first three games back, including the first shutout defeat of his career, against Rodgers and the Packers.
In December, Wilson acknowledged he wasn’t fully healthy when he returned to playing the previous month.
And now Rodgers has $153 million guaranteed and $50 million per season. The math of a Wilson fourth contract has a benchmark.
Patrick Mahomes’ annual average of $45 million per year from the Kansas City Chiefs re-set the market on NFL quarterback salaries above Wilson in 2020. Buffalo’s Allen averages $43 million per year and Dallas’ Dak Prescott $40 million per season. They signed their extensions in 2021.
How Wilson and Seattle responds on the field in the 2022 season will largely determine how next offseason plays out for the QB, and the team.
At first glance Wilson at $50 million per year and $153 million guaranteed would seem to be out of the realm of what the Seahawks would want to — or could — pay their quarterback. Seattle and coach Pete Carroll have so many positions to improve along the line of scrimmage. The team also has star receiver DK Metcalf due a massive new deal; his rookie ends following the 2022 season.
But the Seahawks and every team’s financial conditions are about to change. Hugely.
Agent Mark Rodgers this time next year will have as negotiating leverage the knowledge the NFL’s salary cap is about to soar. The league’s new media-rights deals with television networks CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN plus Amazon for the new package of Thursday Night games almost exclusive streaming online kicks in with the 2023 salary cap. Those media rights are worth about $110 billion over 11 years, more than double the value of the league’s previous media contracts. That is going to spike each team’s salary cap from $182.5 million in 2021 to $208.2 million this year to likely approaching $250 million by 2024 or ‘25.
So the Seahawks will have far more buying power over what would be the life of Wilson’s next contract. Increases in Wilson’s future cap numbers would correspond to big increases in the annual cap limits themselves. Relatively, the Seahawks will be able to afford much more later than they can now.
Any deal worth $50 million per year today is going to take up less of any team’s cap space, and thus hurt less, tomorrow.
So, yes, Wilson and his agent Mark Rodgers’ absolutely are noticing Aaron Rodgers’ new deal. That makes Mark Rodgers’ relationship with the Seahawks and general manager John Schneider a key to the quarterback’s and team’s future beyond 2022.
Do John Schneider and Mark Rodgers get along well?
The News Tribune asked Schneider and Rodgers that question this past week.
Rodgers politely declined an interview on the subject with the TNT.
Schneider talked about it in the hallway of the JW Marriott hotel in Indianapolis at the NFL combine last week.
“Well, it’s interesting because Pete, we really over, I would say, the last two, I’d say two years, basically, Pete, (it’s been) player and coach kind of together,” Schneider said, “and then agent (and) executive ... the two of us have been working together.
“So it’s good. We’ve had real good open lines of communication.”
This story was originally published March 8, 2022 at 9:43 AM.
