Getty Aaron Rodgers #12 of the Green Bay Packers warms up prior to the start of the game against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on December 29, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan.
Aaron Rodgers finished the 2019 regular season with a little more money in his pocket and could still earn some more if the Green Bay Packers win in the NFL playoffs, but he also left a good chunk of change on the table where his performance is concerned.
Per the terms of his contract, Rodgers can earn additional bonuses each season on his four-year, $134 million deal depending on his performance and the team’s postseason success. For instance, he received a payout of $120,000 for playing in at least 72.5 percent of offensive snaps this season — missing just 21 total — and will make at least $120,000 for the Packers reaching the divisional round of the playoffs.
He can also earn an additional $130,000 if the Packers reach this year’s NFC Championship with another $150,000 on top of that if they make it all the way to Miami to contend for the Super Bowl title.
Where Rodgers missed out, though, was on four of his five performance incentives, each of which pays out $100,000 if he finishes in the league’s top three in any of the following categories: passing rating, completion percentage, interception percentage, yards per attempt and touchdown passes.
The Packers star quarterback did hit the mark with the lowest interception percentage among NFL passers, getting picked off just four times all year, but he finished much lower in the other areas with a 95.4 passer rating (12th), a 62.0 completion percentage (21st), 7.0 yards per passing attempt (17th) and 26 touchdown passes (tied for 8th).
While it didn’t earn him additional money, Rodgers finished with more than 4,000 passing yards for the eighth time in his career with two of those four misses coming during seasons where he missed significant time with injuries. He was also selected for the Pro Bowl for the eighth time.
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Packers Convert a Portion of Rodgers’ 2020 Roster Bonus
Putting aside his end-of-season bonuses, Rodgers finished last week with a lot more money than was initially intended after the Packers made a key adjustment in the service of cap space.
According to Sportrac.com, the Packers converted $14.26 million of their quarterback’s $19.5 million roster bonus into a signing bonus, which means he collects that money right now as opposed to waiting for the 2020 season to arrive. The move allows the Packers to put a portion of the cap hit on the 2019 cap and distribute the remaining hit over the rest of his contract.
For those of you who don’t speak contract, here’s essentially how that breaks down for the Packers in 2020 free agency:
- Rodgers was owed $19.5 million as a bonus for making the 2020 roster, a foregone conclusion for someone like him. He would normally receive all of that money on March 20, 2020.
- Being that Rodgers is the highest-paid Packers player, he is also expensive when it comes to cap space (amount of money the team can spend on players’ salaries). For example, Rodgers’ cap hit (amount deducted from the annual cap space for a particular player) cost the Packers roughly $29.4 million for the 2019 season.
- The Packers were expected to see Rodgers’ cap hit jump to $32.6 million for the 2020 season, as his cap hit incrementally goes up each year of his current contract.
- By converting $14.26 million of his $19.5 million roster bonus, the Packers prorate that money over five seasons, including 2019, and free up about $11.4 million of cap space for 2020.
In other words, Rodgers was willing to rework his deal to give the Packers more spending power for the upcoming season, which makes sense when you consider how well all four of their major free-agency acquisitions have paid off for them this year. Outside linebackers Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith have elevated the team’s pass rush, while safety Adrian Amos and offensive lineman Billy Turner have also supplemented their position groups.
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