GREEN BAY, Wis. -- If Tampa Bay Buccaneers backup quarterback Mike Glennon could get as much as $15 million per year on the NFL's free-agent market, just how much is Aaron Rodgers worth?
The Green Bay Packers quarterback, who has three years remaining on his current contract, is wondering the same thing -- and he thinks the league's $167 million salary cap and rapidly escalating salaries should lead to talks about a new contract.
Speaking in an interview on ESPN Wisconsin's Wilde & Tausch that aired Wednesday morning, Rodgers was asked if reports that Glennon, with 18 career starts, might get $15 million per year on the open market should lead to discussions about his own contract.
"I think it has to," Rodgers said. "I think it has to."
Rodgers then chuckled and added, "I don't think I need to expand on that."
Rodgers signed a five-year, $110 million extension a little less than four years ago, a deal that at the time was the most lucrative contract extension in NFL history. Entering the 2017 season, Rodgers' cap number of $20.3 million is tied for seventh among NFL quarterbacks. He's set to earn $12.55 million in base salary, and $1.1 million in roster and workout bonuses this year.
When the extension was announced, Rodgers called the deal one that he and the Packers were "both happy with." He had two years left on his existing deal at the time. The structure of the deal put Rodgers into the upper echelon of NFL contracts but also gave the draft-and-develop Packers the flexibility to sign free agents if they so choose.
Nevertheless, last year, 10 quarterbacks -- New Orleans' Drew Brees, Washington's Kirk Cousins, Baltimore's Joe Flacco, the New York Giants' Eli Manning, Carolina's Cam Newton, San Diego's Philip Rivers, Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger, Dallas' Tony Romo, Atlanta's Matt Ryan, Detroit's Matthew Stafford -- had higher cap numbers for 2016 than Rodgers did at $19.25 million.
Rodgers, who went on to win his second NFL MVP award in 2014 after signing the deal, said at the time of the extension that he didn't expect for the contract to run its course.
"This is like many deals, a lot of times you don't see a deal all the way through if you're playing well. It's just the nature of some of these contracts," Rodgers said that day. "That's a long way off. In order to even get to that conversation, it's going to take many years in a row at a consistently high level of play for me, which I expect to do and I'm going to get myself in the best shape mentally and physically to do that. And hopefully we can have that conversation in seven years, where I can still play and maybe we can keep this thing going."
At 33, Rodgers also said in Wednesday's interview that he believes he can play into his early 40s, as New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady intends to do.
"I still feel like I've got a lot of great football in front of me," Rodgers said. "And the way that I've taken care of myself better the last few years, I think is going to put me in position to be able to play really well late in my 30s and even in my early 40s possibly if they'd like to keep me around that long and I can still play a little bit."
Editor's note: Jason Wilde is co-host of the Wilde & Tausch show on ESPN Wisconsin. He also covers the Green Bay Packers for ESPN Wisconsin.