Aaron Rodgers is biggest beneficiary of Matthew Stafford contract

DENVER, CO – AUGUST 26: Quarterback Aaron Rodgers /

Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers need to sit down across the table from one another and talk.

They need to do it soon before the next not-as-good-as-aaron becomes the highest paid NFL player on the planet.

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That’s because Matthew Stafford – the guy who hasn’t won a single division title, a guy who hasn’t won a single MVP award, the guy who hasn’t won (nor appeared in) a single Super Bowl, the guy who hasn’t been a Super Bowl MVP, and the guy who hasn’t won a single playoff game – just got paid a lot of money to continue his “distinguished” career.

You see, he’s making $25 million more than Aaron Rodgers over the course of the next five years, according to the numbers of the new contract that Stafford signed yesterday.

Stafford’s deal, according to Spotrac is as follows: 5 year, $135,000,000 contract with the Detroit Lions, including a $50,000,000 signing bonus, $92,000,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $27,000,000. In 2017, Stafford will earn a base salary of $1,000,000 and a signing bonus of $50,000,000, while carrying a cap hit of $16,500,000 and a dead cap value of $66,000,000.

DETROIT, MI – AUGUST 25: Matthew Stafford /

Now compare that to Aaron Rodgers’ deal signed a few years ago: 5 year, $110,000,000 contract with the Green Bay Packers, including a $33,250,000 signing bonus, $54,000,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $22,000,000. In 2017, Rodgers will earn a base salary of $12,550,000, a roster bonus of $600,000 and a workout bonus of $500,000, while carrying a cap hit of $20,300,000 and a dead cap value of $6,650,000.

In comparison, Rodgers’ contract looks like peanuts.

Aaron Rodgers will make a little more than $12 million this year; with his new deal, Stafford will earn an average of $27 million per season over the course of his five-year extension.

We won’t even get into the guaranteed money or other specifics of Stafford’s deal.

Instead, we can only guess that Aaron Rodgers’ representatives are on the phone today considering what to do next.

The importance in signing Rodgers to an extension just blew up … forget Davante Adams or any of the other impending free agents that will be looking for their own big paydays in the near future.

The onus is on the Packers to recognize what’s happening here. If there’s anyone on the planet who can negotiate a deal that’s team-friendly, it’s Ted Thompson.

Spotrac estimates that the new deal for Rodgers that is expected to be negotiated over the next year, will be around $150 million for five years – an average of $30 million a year.

While those numbers are expected, the stakes and the numbers jumped with Stafford’s contract and the threshold for consummating a deal that’s a good one not only for Rodgers, but for the Packers, just got a lot more difficult to reach.

The business of football just took a sharp turn upward and the Packers are the team that faces one of the biggest franchise decisions in many years.

Will they be able to afford Rodgers when it comes time to draft a document that the quarterback would sign?

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That’s a question for Ted Thompson, but it’s also a question that will reverberate across the entire league for years to come.

Rodgers will be the direct beneficiary of Stafford’s contract, but those new numbers could also put many GMs on notice that the game has changed … in a big way.

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