The Eagles and quarterback Jalen Hurts have reached a deal.
Beating out the other two teams in the exact same situation (Joe Burrow and the Bengals, Justin Herbert and the Chargers), the Eagles and Hurts are the first to reach the finish line.
The team officially announced the five-year extension Monday. Ian Rapoport reports the deal is worth $255 million and has a no trade clause.
While the structure of the deal is unknown and surely isn’t broken down evenly, that puts the AAV at $51 million.
The cap hit each season is what will be important, of course, to the Eagles being able to consistently field a competitive team around Hurts, including doing things like extending DeVonta Smith.
The $51 million AAV on the deal is a new record and probably not what many fans wanted to see in relation to the salary cap implications.
Still, fans should be happy to have Hurts locked in, particularly before Herbert and Burrow, each of whom are likely to get deals that will have to beat the one Hurts just agreed to – that record AAV may not last too long. That doesn’t even mention Lamar Jackson. Getting this deal done now may result in the Eagles getting the best deal of four QBs signed this offseason.
The $179.3 million in guarantees on the deal are nearly a record of their own – bested only by the ridiculous 100% guaranteed contract the Browns handed DeShaun Watson.
The Eagles will enter the 2023 season with Hurts on the last year of his rookie deal ($4.8 million cap hit) before this extension takes effect in the 2024 season. Of course, the Eagles could also choose to backload some of it and increase his cap hit this year to get some of that new money out of the way.
Hurts, of course, was an MVP finalist last season and lead the Eagles to Super Bowl LVII.
He’ll hope to keep the team rolling for at least the next six years, too.
