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UPDATE: The numbers are in on the Rhodes contract extension, and it’s a five-year, $70 million deal with $41 million in guaranteed money. Cha-ching!
The bank account done caught the Holy Ghost!!!!
— Xavier Rhodes (@XavierRhodes29_) July 30, 2017
Original story follows below.
At the beginning of Training Camp, the Minnesota Vikings surprised us. . .well, some of us, anyway (myself included). . .with a big contract extension for defensive end Everson Griffen. Today, it sounds like they’re going to get around to finalizing the deal that we’ve all been expecting to see for a long time now.
Numerous sources are reporting that the Vikings will be finalizing a five-year contract extension with cornerback Xavier Rhodes sometime today.
Rhodes, the 25th overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft out of Florida State, is currently in the fifth-year option season of his rookie contract. He has slowly developed into one of the best cornerbacks in the National Football League, and had an outstanding season in 2016. Rhodes led the team with five interceptions last season (three more than he had in his previous three seasons combined), and when asked to take on some of the league’s best receivers one-on-one, he pretty much locked them down. The biggest highlight was likely the team’s victory over the New York Giants in Week 4 on a Monday night when he held Odell Beckham, Jr. to one of the worst performances of his career. OBJ had 23 yards that night, and was clearly frustrated with the way Rhodes was all over him for the entire evening.
According to Andrew Krammer of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the league’s highest-paid cornerback is Josh Norman of the Washington Redskins, who signed a five-year, $75 million deal last season. Rhodes’ contract is certainly going to be in that neighborhood, and it wouldn’t be at all shocking if he eclipsed it.
The extension would put Rhodes under contract to the Vikings through the end of the 2022 season, much like Griffen’s extension did for him. (Griffen signed a four-year extension with two years left on his current deal.)
Congratulations to Xavier Rhodes on getting a well-deserved pay day, and to Rob Brzezinski and the Vikings’ front office for getting it done once again.