It’s good that Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers isn’t thinking much about getting a new deal. Because it doesn’t look like he’ll be getting one imminently.
Per a league source with knowledge of the situation, no meaningful progress has been made recently between Rodgers and the Packers on a contract extension. That doesn’t mean a deal won’t happen, but nothing will be happening immediately — barring a sudden and dramatic change.
Although Rodgers, at an average of $22 million per year, definitely deserves a new deal, he’s not publicly clamoring for one. Which gives the Packers no real reason to rip up the current contract, which pays him $19.8 million this year and $20 million in 2019. That’s a very affordable $39.8 million for two seasons.
Afte that, the Packers could go choose to use the franchise tag once (at perhaps a tender of $27 million per year in 2020) and again (at a 20-percent raise over his 2020 tender). The question would then become whether the Packers would give him a 44-percent raise for one more season, in 2022 — when he’ll be closing in on his 39th birthday.
Regardless of what happens in 2022, the Packers could keep Rodgers for four years at a total payout of $99.2 million, if the franchise tag for quarterbacks is indeed $27 million in 2020. That’s an average of less than $25 million per year for four more years with Rodgers.
So what would the Packers give him instead? More importantly, what does he want? If what he wants is more than what the Packers would swap for four years and $99.2 million, there’s no reason to do a new deal. And if Rodgers won’t make a big stink about his status (possibly to avoid criticism for signing in 2013 a deal that binds him to the team through 2019), there’s even more reason for the Packers to shrug and say, “If it’s not a problem for him, it’s not a problem for us.”