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Rob Demovsky, ESPN Staff Writer
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Rashan Gary has signed a four-year, $107 million contract extension with the Green Bay Packershe announced Monday.
The 2019 first-round pick had been playing this season on a $10.892 million fifth-year option of his rookie contract.
Gary’s new deal includes $96 million in new money, including a $34,646,928 signing bonus, a source told ESPN. The total value of the deal, which runs through the 2027 season, could be worth up to $107,532,706 including all bonuses.
Gary was in line for an extension well before this until he tore the ACL in his left knee last November. The Packers opted to wait until they could see how Gary came back from the injury, and it was apparent right away that Gary was as good as — if not better than — he was before the injury.
While starting the season on a limited rep count, which has increased weekly but has limited him to just 39% of the defensive snaps this season, Gary has 4.5 sacks and 15 pressures through seven games. He played a season-high 46 defensive snaps in Sunday’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
If the Packers needed any convincing that Gary hadn’t lost anything following the injury, that should have come in Week 3 against the New Orleans Saints. Gary had three sacks in just 23 snaps, only 18 of which were pass rushes, while the Packers still held him on a limited snap count.
“I don’t know what it did to me, but it for sure made me a hungrier player,” Gary said recently of his injury. “And I already was a hungry player.”
Gary has 27 sacks in 63 career games.
San Francisco‘s Nick Bosa reset the market earlier this season when he signed a five-year, $170 million contract extension that made him the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history with a $34 million per year average.
T.J. Watt ranked second among edge rushers at $28.15 million per year followed by Joey Bosa ($27 million) and Myles Garrett ($25 million). The new money in Gary’s deal puts him just below Garrett at $24 million.
