The raw numbers were still a good deal. Here at APC, we broke that down last week when Christian Watson signed his new contract extension with the Green Bay Packers, initially reported as a 4-year, $110.5 million extension. That new compensation, combined with his one remaining contract year, made the deal in essence a 5-year, $116 million contract.
Or so it seemed.
With the full structure of the contract now obtained by ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, it’s an even more team-friendly than it first appeared. Instead
of $110.5 million in new money, the deal actually starts with $92 million, with incentives making up the additional $18 million and change. That puts the new-money average at just $23 million per year, down from $27.6 million, and when accounting for the year he still had left that drops the overall average to below $20 million.
That’s genuinely an amazing deal for a player of Watson’s caliber, skillset, and efficiency. And between incentives and per-game roster bonuses, the Packers have protected themselves a decent amount from potential future injury issues.
Here’s a look at the full contract structure, which :
* Note that Watson’s actual cap number for 2026 is a bit lower. Only 10/17 of his per-game roster bonuses count towards the cap during the season because he played in only 10 games last season. The actual number for now should be about $10.4 million.
Unsurprisingly, this contract is a very Packers-like deal. The only guaranteed money, as expected, is the signing bonus, and there is a heavy use of per-game roster bonuses — particularly relevant given Watson’s injury history (even though his only missed games in 2024/2025 were due to a torn ACL and rest). The Packers also have an easy out before the 2028 season, should they want to take it, as they could move on from Watson prior to paying his roster bonus and still open up some cap space.
The more likely possibility is for the Packers to convert that 2028 roster bonus into a signing bonus, which would spread the cap hit out over the following years. They could add no void years to the deal and spread it out over three seasons, dropping the cap number to $15.87 million for 2028. Alternately, the Packers could maximally restructure it over five years by adding two void years. Doing so would drop the cap hit further to about $14.14 million for 2028 season.
In any case, if the Packers intend to keep Watson beyond 2028, look for another restructure or extension to come prior to that 2029 season. Watson’s base salaries jump significantly that year, making three years out the logical time frame to look at adjusting the contract.
The major unanswered question now about this deal is how the additional compensation is tied to incentives. That’s a secondary issue, however. For now, understanding the general structure of the contract reveals two things that should be familiar to Packers fans: first, how well Green Bay maintains flexibility and a team-friendly contract structure, and second, not to trust the numbers as initially reported.
