The Green Bay Packers today took care of wrapping up the first of their potential 2015 free agents, signing first-priority receiver Jordy Nelson to a contract extension.
According to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport, Nelson received a four year extension for 39 million dollars, just short of the 10 million per season he was looking for. The deal includes 14.2 million of guaranteed money and an 11.5 million signing bonus. Nelson, woefully underpaid in the eyes of most Packers observers, gets a deal roughly equal to that of Pierre Garcon (based on per year average), and slightly below Victor Cruz.
In a statement released by the Packers, Ted Thompson said, “Jordy’s hard work and dedication has made him a good player, teammate and a core member of this team. We are pleased to come to an agreement that will extend his Packers career.”
Coach McCarthy, finding out after today’s practice, said, “Jordy Nelson is an outstanding football player and great ambassador for the Packers. It’s something everybody is excited about. I’m glad to see Jordy will be here for some time. Just made aware of it. I think Jordy is so consistent. He shows up each and every day, performs at a high level consistently. He’s the ultimate pro.”
Last season, Nelson had 85 receptions for 1,314 yards and eight touchdowns, mostly without Aaron Rodgers throwing the passes. That put an end to the “Rodgers makes his receivers look better than they are” narrative some of those who doubted Nelson’s worth were putting forth.
At 29 years old, Nelson is the same age as Greg Jennings and James Jones were when the Packers chose not to re-sign them.Keeping money in reserve for “core” player signings is something Ted Thompson is very aware of and factors into every decision to let someone go. For those still complaining about Evan Dietrich-Smith not being re-signed, this is where that money went. happy now?
And from the perfect timing department. just this morning, our own Cory Jennerjohn predicted Packers GM Ted Thompson would show Nelson the money.
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Jersey Al Bracco is the founder and editor of AllGreenBayPackers.com, and the co-founder of Packers Talk Radio Network. He can be heard as one of the Co-Hosts on Cheesehead Radio and is the Green Bay Packers Draft Analyst for Drafttek.com.
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This contract is marpag approved.
Of course, the devil is always in the details. But on the surface, at least, I don’t think it’s a grand slam for either side (like the previous contract was a grand slam for the team). It’s fair. Barring injury, and given his performance to date, I find it hard to imagine that you couldn’t expect a bare minimum of two quality years out of this deal. Even if he totally fell off a cliff after that, the impact of cutting him wouldn’t be so great.
glad to see him back for the long haul. he’s got the potential for a donald driver type of career.
Good for Nelson and the Packers. I was for waiting a bit, but I have no doubt that Nelson will give great value back to the team. He approached this like a pro and has shown class. He will be a great veteran presence in the locker room.
Great contract by Ted.
Ensures the organization’s future is in good shape and pays Nelson some solid money.
I’m happy they got him at a fair rate for both side. Now, as Marpag said, let’s wait a week to see the fine print.
Jordy is one of the true class acts in professional sports. Glad he is a Packer and will now likely finish as one. Pack still has cap room to sign Cobb and they should.
Very happy, and this contract might actually be Packers-friendly in the sense that I believe Nelson is worth a bit more than 10M/year- he’s that good.
Small nitpick with this sentence, Al:
“Nelson is the same age as Greg Jennings and James Jones were when the Packers chose not to re-sign them”
In Jennings’ case, the Packers didn’t “choose” to pass on Jennings. They offered Greg a very handsome contract (very similar to what Nelson just accepted) in an attempt to retain his services, but unfortunately, Jennings is the one who chose to pass on the Packers. 😉
Oppy, I actually stopped myself and thought about that when i wrote it. The way I look at it is the Packers made him an early contract offer. he turned it down and Packers took it off the table. He went to free agency and at that time the Packers decided not to make another offer and let him walk. Essentially, I think we’re both right.
I think the Jennings contract offer was on the table the whole time, they just chose not to sweeten it to keep him. He had also turned down a contract worth 11M the previous year.
Jordy is a better #1WR IMO anyway, and they couldn’t have kept both Jordy and Jennings.
I don’t know that Jordy is a better “#1”, and honestly, since two WR’s are on the field at all times, I don’t know that any HC or OC in the league really thinks of much difference between “1” and “2” anyways.
Jennings and Nelson are different skill sets, but I think the Packers passing game would have thrived with any combination of Jennings/Nelson/Cobb.
In any event, I’m really excited to see Boykin’s progression and looking forward to catching a glimpse of Adams by the end of the season… The new kid could be the best WR on the field in three years.
I don’t think you understand what I mean by a True #1 WR. Both are capable of being the #1 WR for a team, but almost every team wants that one WR that is the big, fast deep threat that can also play in every WR position on the field. Z,Y,Z, slot… Whatever. Jordy is more capable of being that type player than Jennings is IMO.
No doubt Jennings and Jordy have different skill sets, but Jordy just has a slightly higher upside and is the more capable Lead/#1 WR between the 2.
I don’t see Adams ever becoming the WR that Nelson is, but he could rival Jennings, and is certainly capable of being a better WR than James Jones. Next year Adams and Boykin should have a hell of a competition for the #3 WR job.
I could see Adams being one of the better WR on the Packers next year. He’s got great hands, body control, and excellent leaping ability. Hs 40 time wasn’t great compared to some in this years draft class, but he’s fast enough.
One of the best being behind Nelson and Cobb and I completely agree… He could. It might also take him longer to develop since he never learned to run the complete route tree or even learned to run great routes similar to Jordy in college.
I don’t see him being better than Nelson but close to Jennings and better than James Jones.
Looks like a good contract from GB’s standpoint, although the structuring will be interesting. Average/year is about what many on this site had predicted, although some were lower. I thought Nelson would get 40 to 45% guaranteed, and your article indicates he got 36.4%. Looks good so far.
No, I am not happy now about EDS. I don’t think signing EDS would have prevented GB from signing Nelson and Cobb. EDS’ contract has a cap figure of $3.5 million this year. After this season his contract has no dead money and Tampa Bay is free to cut him with no CAP hit if done by the 3rd day of the new league year (2015).
However, I suppose every bit of CAP room helps. I did become more resigned to losing EDS when TT drafted a true center, though.
In essence Jordy just signed a 5 yr 44M deal. The extension and the one yr remaining on his previous deal. No matter any details in the contract its a great deal for the Packers!
I tend to look at the extension as discrete from his current contract, but your point of view is valid: other teams have been known to rip up the last year of a player’s contract or add money to the last year in such situations.
The signing bonus serves the purpose of adding money to the current contract since the current contract for Nelson in this case (I found out is 3.5M this year) along w/ the signing bonus he just got. He’s getting a lot of money upfront, about 15M this year, however for Cap purposes the signing bonus gets prorated as I’m sure your aware, in this case over 5 yrs.
You can’t really say its a 4 yr new contract since the signing bonus is given this year not next. So the money is spread out over 5 seasons, not 4.
So the exact figures I found out are. 5 yrs under contract for a total of 42.5M. The signing bonus gets prorated over 5 yrs and the average yearly is 8.5M.
Another Great contract by Thompson/Ball to get a Great Packer locked up for a very fair, even slightly below market deal.
Great signing for the Packers. As I have mentioned in previous posts, our offensive unit is the strength of this and keeping it as intact as possible is critical. Next up is Cobb. Get him done and we are set with 4 core offensive skill players for the next few seasons with Aaron Rodgers, Lacy, Nelson and Cobb. If the defense can pull themselves together we can be in for a great run. Go Pack Go! Thanks, Since ’61
Maybe this leaves room for cobb and Bulaga.