The Oakland Raiders and Derek Carr officially agreed on a new contract, with the quarterback tweeting out the news Thursday morning. National media were quickly reporting the deal is for five years, and worth $125 million. The $25 million APY is officially the highest in NFL history.
Of course, as we have learned from virtually every NFL contract ever written, the APY is a mostly pointless number. The real news is how much guaranteed money a player gets. Few NFL contracts are fully guaranteed, with only one or two-year deals, and rookie first round picks getting full guarantees.
Jason La Canfora has the first report on the guarantees in Carr’s contract. He tweeted that Carr’s deal includes $40 million fully guaranteed at signing, and $30 million more guaranteed for injury. He can receive up to $69 million in the first three years of the contract.
The guarantees on this deal come in behind Andrew Luck. The Colts quarterback received $47 million in fully guaranteed money, and another $40 million in injury guarantees. Aaron Rodgers reportedly received $54 million in fully guaranteed money. Other quarterbacks with more reported fully guaranteed money include Joe Flacco, Matt Ryan, and Cam Newton. Flacco remains the odd anomaly in this, but otherwise, this list is about right to slot in Carr.
It’s safe to say that Carr will not officially see the last year or two of this contract. If he stays healthy and performs well, we will see the deal renegotiated at different times. And given that Carr is 26 years old, he could still be right in his prime when the deal is scheduled to end. More than likely he’ll get an extension before then, as part of a restructuring to lower some later cap hits.
Next up, Matthew Stafford and Kirk Cousins will be looking at contract extensions this offseason and into next offseason. Aaron Rodgers is signed through 2019, earning $13.65 million in salary and bonuses this year, $20.9 million next year, and $21.1 million in 2019. It’s safe to say he’ll be looking to re-do his contract sooner rather than later.