SATURDAY, 8:45am: Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has several more details on the deal. Crosby will be paid $6.15MM in 2016, and his salary cap number will be worth $2.4MM.
The contract contains escalators that could increase the value over the final three years, and the kicker will have $1.25MM worth of prorated signing bonus as cap obligation for each year of the contract. This means if the team wanted to cut him following the 2016 season, they’d have to “absorb” $3.75MM into their cap. If they wanted to cut him a year later, they’d be responsible for $2.5MM.
WEDNESDAY, 1:34pm: The Packers have officially announced their new deal with Crosby in a press release.
TUESDAY, 6:25pm: Crosby’s contract is worth $16.1MM with a $5MM signing bonus, tweets Mike Garafolo of Fox Sports. ESPN’s Rob Demovsky tweets that Crosby’s $4.025MM average annual salary trails only Justin Tucker and Stephen Gostkowski among kickers.
5:47pm: Although the Packers decided to not slap kicker Mason Crosby with the franchise tag, there was still a belief that the long-time Green Bay standout would return to the franchise. Those sentiments proved to be accurate, as Crosby’s agent, Mike McCartney, announced on Twitter that the kicker has signed a four-year contract with the Packers.
This was presumably the ideal route for the organization, as the franchise tag would have required the team to pay Crosby $4.5MM for 2016. Our own Luke Adams wrote that Crosby would likely secure a lower annual value if he signed an extension, although he should expect more overall guaranteed money.
The 31-year-old has spent the entirety of his nine-year career with the Packers, and he’s coming off one of the best seasons of his career. Crosby finished with career-highs in field goal percentage (85.7 percent) and efficiency from 50-plus yards (80 percent). The veteran kicker was also perfect on extra points, improving his career average to 99.1-percent. The former sixth-round pick has yet to miss a game during his career.