Packers’ contract with Geronimo Allison will pay him $2.8 million in 2019

Geronimo Allison will remain in a Green Bay Packers uniform for 2019. That much was revealed a few days ago, when Allison reportedly signed a one-year contract after receiving the $2.025 million “right of first refusal” tender as a restricted free agent. However, questions about the Packers’ handling of Allison remained, most notably why the team elected not to tender him at a higher level.

I, for one, have been on the record as saying I believed the team should have used a second-round tender instead. That would have cost the team (roughly) another one million dollars and would have protected the team against losing him to an offer sheet from another team. Indeed, it appeared that several teams were considering trying to sign Allison to offer sheets prior to his signing on a one-year deal.

As a result, the Packers seemingly got lucky that Allison was happy to sign his new contract rather than entertaining offers elsewhere. Now we know just how that deal is structured, and it appears to almost make up the entire difference between the two tenders.

Rob Demovsky of ESPN reported the contract details, and Allison is scheduled to earn $2.8 million in 2019. That’s about $300,000 less than the second-round tender of $3.095 million would have been and about $800,000 more than the tender he received. Furthermore, the deal is structured in such a way that it gives both sides a little bit of extra security. The Packers have half a million dollars committed in the form of per-game active roster bonuses, giving them some relief if Allison misses time with an injury; meanwhile, Allison gets the benefit of a $750,000 signing bonus, all but ensuring his place on the 53-man roster come September.

This does appear to be a solid compromise for both sides. However, getting to this point still came with some risk, and the Packers only ended up saving around $300k. Had Allison fielded those external contract offers, this could have ended very badly for the Packers, but the team is fortunate that the receiver wanted to stay in Green Bay and play with Aaron Rodgers.