Packers’ Rashan Gary agrees to a 4-year, $107.5 million extension

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Rashaan Gary has signed a four-year, $107 million contract extension with the Green Bay Packers, it was announced Monday.

The 2019 first-round pick was playing this season with the $10.892 million fifth-year option of his rookie contract.

Gary’s new deal includes $96 million in new money, including a signing bonus of $34,646,928, a source told ESPN. The total value of the deal, which runs through the 2027 season, could reach $107,532,706 including all bonuses.

Gary had been waiting for an extension long before that until he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee last November. The Packers chose to wait until they could see how Gary returned from the injury, and it was immediately clear that Gary was as good — if not better than he was — before the injury.

While starting the season with a limited number of reps, which has increased weekly but has been limited to just 39% of 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 wasn’t missing out on anything after the injury, it should have come in Week 3 against the New Orleans Saints. Gary had three sacks on just 23 snaps, only 18 of which were pass breakups, while the Packers still held him to a limited number of snaps.

“I don’t know what it did to me, but it definitely made me an avid player,” Gary said recently of his injury. “And I was a really hungry player.”

Gary has 27 sacks in 63 career games.

San Francisco’s Nick Bosa reset the market earlier this offseason when he signed a five-year, $170 million contract extension, making him the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history at an average of $34 million per year.

TJ Watt ranked second among superstars with $28.15 million annually followed by Joey Bosa ($27 million) and Myles Garrett ($25 million). The new money in Gary’s deal puts him just $24 million below Garrett.