Joe Flacco leapfrogs Aaron Rodgers as NFL's highest-paid player
Joe Flacco is the NFL’s highest-paid player. Again.
The three-year contract extension Flacco signed Wednesday with the Baltimore Ravens includes a $40 million signing bonus and averages $22.1 million in new money, a person with knowledge of the deal told Paste BN Sports.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because financials were to remain private on the deal, which runs through 2021 and surpasses Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ $22 million average as the new bar.
Full details on Wednesday’s extension weren’t immediately available. But it locks up Flacco until close to the 38th birthday and provides the Ravens salary cap relief, lowering the quarterback’s 2016 cap number from $28.55 million because the bonus is prorated.
Flacco, 31, had three years remaining on his previous deal, signed after the Ravens’ Super Bowl run in March 2013 – a six-year, $120.6 million extension that Rodgers surpassed less than two months later with a five-year, $110 million extension in Green Bay.
NFL’s highest-paid players (based on average dollars per year in “new money”)
1. Ravens QB Joe Flacco: $22.1 million
2. Packers QB Aaron Rodgers: $22 million
3. Seahawks QB Russell Wilson: $21.9 million
4. Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger: $21.85 million
5. Giants QB Eli Manning: $21 million
6. Chargers QB Philip Rivers: $20,812,500
7. Panthers QB Cam Newton: $20.76 million
8. Falcons QB Matt Ryan: $20.75 million
9. Saints QB Drew Brees: $20 million
10. Redskins QB Kirk Cousins: $19.953 million#
# - Franchise tag