The Oakland Raiders and fourth year quarterback Derek Carr have officially agreed to a massive contract extension that will make the quarterback the league's highest paid player. This move will surely have major effects on current and future quarterback contract discussions throughout the NFL, especially for the Washington Redskins and Kirk Cousins.
The details of Derek Carr's contract extension
The extension on Derek Carr's rookie contract is for five-years and a whopping total of $125 million. This breaks down to give Carr $25 million a year, which will make the Oakland Raiders quarterback the NFL's highest paid player in terms of average money per season.
The previously highest paid player in the NFL was Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, who was making only $24.6 million per year. With this extension in place Carr is now under contract with the Raiders until 2022.
With the Raiders move to Las Vegas likely happening in 2020 to coincide with the projected opening of their stadium, there is speculation that Carr's contract may be backloaded for the last two seasons. This is because Nevada has no state tax, while California has the highest state tax in America at 13.3%. Such a move could save Carr hundreds of thousands, if not even millions of dollars.
How will this effect other quarterback situations?
First and foremost Derek Carr's deal cements the growing NFL trend that teams will have to consider paying their Pro Bowl level quarterbacks around the $20 million range in order to lock them up.
This most immediately affects the Washington Redskins and their ongoing negotiations with Kirk Cousins, who has been franchise tagged for the second consecutive year at $23.9 million. It will not likely affect the amount Cousins is asking for, but it will reinforce his notion that he should be getting a contract of at least $20 million per year.
This will also have an impact of Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, who is an unrestricted free agent in 2018. There had already been talk about Stafford being the highest pay player in the league before Carr's extension, and now it is more reinforced then ever. This will also impact Patriots backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who is also a free agent in 2018. Speculation is that if he hits the open market, he would likely see guaranteed money between what Mike Glennon got from the Bears ($19 million) and Carr's contract.
