Written by Jason Wilde at ESPN.com
If Tampa Bay Buccaneers backup quarterback Mike Glennon could get as much as $15 million per year on the NFL’s free-agent market, just how much is Aaron Rodgers worth?
The Green Bay Packers quarterback, which three years remaining on his current contract, is wondering the same thing — and thinks the league’s $167 million salary cap and rapidly escalating salaries should lead to talks about a new contract.
Speaking in an interview on ESPN Wisconsin’s “Wilde & Tausch” which aired Wednesday morning, Rodgers was asked if talk that Glennon, with 18 career starts, might get $15 million per year on the open market should lead to discussions about his own contract.
“I think it has to,” Rodgers said. “I think it has to.”
Rodgers then chuckled and added, “I don’t think I need to expand on that.”
Rodgers signed a five-year, $110 million extension a little less than four years ago, a deal that at the time was the most lucrative contract extension in NFL history. Entering the 2017 season, Rodgers’ cap number of $20.3 million is tied for seventh among NFL quarterbacks. He’s set to earn $12.55 million in base salary, and $1.1 million in roster and workout bonuses this year.
When the extension was announced, Rodgers called the deal one that he and the Packers were “both happy with.” He had two years left on his existing deal at the time. The structure of the deal put Rodgers into the upper echelon of NFL contracts but also gave the draft-and-develop Packers the flexibility to sign free agents if they so chose.
Nevertheless, last year, 10 quarterbacks — New Orleans’ Drew Brees, Washington’s Kirk Cousins, Baltimore’s Joe Flacco, the New York Giants’ Eli Manning, Carolina’s Cam Newton, San Diego’s Philip Rivers, Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger, Dallas’ Tony Romo, Atlanta’s Matt Ryan, Detroit’s Matthew Stafford — had higher cap numbers for 2016 than Rodgers did at $19.25 million.
Rodgers, who went on to win his second NFL MVP award in 2014 after signing the deal, said at the time of the extension that he didn’t expect for the contract to run its course.
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