Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers had a very unusual January in 2018. Whereas he normally is duking it out with that season's NFC hopefuls, this year he watched the entire playoffs from his couch.
It has long been established that as goes No. 12, so go the Packers. This season, Rodgers missed nine games due to a broken right collarbone, to match the left collarbone he fractured in 2011. By the time he returned to action in Week 15, the season was too far gone. So there he sits, watching another Brett Favre backup, Doug Pederson, coach his Philadelphia Eagles to represent the NFC at the Super Bowl.
On the bright side, Aaron Rodgers has some unexpected January time to himself now. In between spending time with new girlfriend Danica Patrick and playing straight man to Clay Matthews in State Farm commercials, he also has time to sit down and calculate how much money he lost due to his injury. Rodgers' weekly roster bonus is $37,500. Over the nine weeks in total he was not in pads, he missed out on $337,500 as reported by ESPN.com's Rob Demovsky.
The cap number for the usual multi-year player contract in the NFL includes, for any given year, the player's base salary, that year's share of the signing bonus, roster bonus (paid weekly), workout bonus as well as performance bonuses capped according to their likeliness to be achieved.
Before you feel sorry for him, remember that Rodgers' cap number, including his signing bonus, turned out to be just under $20 million. That means the injury cost him less than two percent of his cap number for 2017.
The two-time Associated Press NFL MVP has two more years left in his contract, but new Packers GM Brian Gutekunst is expected to extend Rodgers' contract, making him the highest paid player in the league. That is, until it's Matt Ryan's turn, or whichever quarterback happens to leapfrog the others in salary due to the ever-increasing salary cap and the shortage of franchise caliber passers.
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