The bar now starts with Nick Bosa.
Bosa and the 49ers have agreed to a five-year, $170 million (A$267m) contract that will make him the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history, according to ESPN.
The defensive end will receive a staggering $122.5 million guaranteed, per the report.
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Bosa had been holding out from training camp while waiting for an extension, and this mega-deal comes four days before the 49ers open the season on the road against the Steelers.
There had been concern he would extend his holdout into the regular season, but the 49ers now stand among the NFL’s elite with their defensive anchor in the mix.
Bosa has been one of the NFL’s best – if not the best – defensive players since entering the league in 2019 after being selected second overall by the 49ers.
He has 43 career sacks, including an NFL-best 18.5 sacks last season when he won Defensive Player of the Year and finished sixth in MVP voting.
Bosa has already made three Pro Bowls and won Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2019.
The 49ers previously exercised Bosa’s fifth-year option, but he had been hoping for a long-term deal that placed his salary among his peers.
He’s now above them all, including brother Joey Bosa and Rams star Aaron Donald.
Joey, a standout with the Chargers, signed a five-year, $135 million extension in July 2020 with Los Angeles, while Donald has signed multiple expensive deals.
Donald signed a six-year, $135 million extension in 2018 and then signed a reworked three-year, $95 million contract last summer.
Nick Bosa’s new contract has an average annual average of $34 million per season.
The 49ers’ defence projects to be one of the best in the league as the team attempts to return to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2020.
San Francisco has made the NFC Championship Game or Super Bowl in three of the last four seasons, including each of the last two years.Last year’s season ended with a 31-7 loss to the Eagles in Philadelphia in the NFC Championship Game, a game remembered for the injuries suffered by the 49ers’ quarterbacks.
This originally appeared on NY Post and was republished with consent.
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