Aaron Rodgers looks set to return to the Green Bay Packers for his 18th NFL season.
The reigning NFL MVP has reportedly agreed to terms on a new contract with the Packers that would him pay $200 million over four years, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
A few hours after the NFL Network’s report, Rodgers, 38, confirmed that he is staying with the Packers on Twitter
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although he says he hasn’t signed a new contract yet.
The news of Aaron Rodgers returning to the Packers was first reported by The Pat McAfee Show.
The average annual value of Rodgers’s reported contract would be $50 million per season, representing the highest average annual value of any professional athlete’s contract in any American sports league.
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The previous most lucrative NFL contract, in terms of average annual value, was Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’s, at $45 million.
In Major League Baseball, the highest per season salary belongs to New York Mets pitcher Max Scherzer at $43.3 million, according to Spotrac, and in the NBA Stephen Curry has the highest salary per year at $45.7 million.
At times, other professional athletes have eclipsed this annual return but those situations involved individual sports like boxing or mixed martial arts. For example, Floyd Mayweather Jr. surpassed $50 million in annual earnings several times during his boxing career.
The news comes as several big offseason moves have taken shape around the NFL. In addition to Rodgers coming back to join the Packers, the Denver Broncos executed a blockbuster trade for Super Bowl winning quarterback Russell Wilson.
