Tom Brady's new contract extension includes big-time up-front money
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady agreed to a two-year contract extension through 2019 on Feb. 29, but the value of that deal wasn’t known until Thursday morning.
It turns out that Brady will get $41 million over two years, with a massive $28 million signing bonus. ESPN first reported the value of the deal, and FS1’s Mike Garafolo confirmed it.
Tom Brady might be cutting Pats a break here and there but this isn't charity. $28m bonus and $20.5m avg in new money, as @FieldYates said.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) March 10, 2016
Before the extension, Brady had two years left on a contract that would have paid him $9 million in 2016 and $10 million in 2017. His base salary in both 2016 and 2017 is now $1 million, according to Garafolo, but he’ll be doing just fine with that $28 million signing bonus. He'll then make $15 million in both 2018 and 2019.
Brady, at age 38 now the oldest non-kicker in the NFL after the retirement of Matt Hasselbeck on Wednesday, is now tied to the Patriots through age 42. He ranks fifth in NFL history in career passing yards, behind Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Dan Marino and Drew Brees.
Although Brady will earn only $1 million in base salary next season and in 2017, the bonuses will increase his cap hit to $14 million in each of those seasons. His base salary for 2018 and 2019 would be $14 million, with cap hits of $22 million each, although Brady is likely to redo those deals, too, if he is still playing.
Brady, who says he wants to play well into his 40s, has reworked his contract several times during his career, in which New England has won four Super Bowls and he has two NFL MVP awards.
The main reason to reduce Brady's salaries is to decrease how much he will cost New England against the salary cap. But Brady also could face a reinstatement of his four-game suspension in the deflated footballs saga from the 2014 AFC title game. If that happens, he would lose less than $250,000 in salary.
With the extension, Brady now ranks 14th among quarterbacks in guaranteed money. That puts him behind Super Bowl winners Eli Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, Brees, Russell Wilson and Joe Flacco. It also trails the likes of Matthew Stafford, Tony Romo and Jay Cutler, none of whom has ever sniffed a Super Bowl.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.