On April 17, the Philadelphia Eagles made history by extending starting quarterback Jalen Hurts to a five-year deal, one that made him the highest paid quarterback in NFL history.
The deal amounts to $225 million with $179.304 million guaranteed. Of that $179.304 million in total guarantees, $110 million will be guaranteed upon signing the new contract, and $126.5 million is guaranteed by March of 2024. Along with the monstrous price, the Eagles have agreed to a no-trade clause – meaning that the only way that they can forcefully remove Hurts from the team is by cutting him, and in that case, the guaranteed money would still be guaranteed.
The strategy behind this clause means that if the Eagles decide that they don’t want Hurts three years down the line, they can’t simply trade him to another team and not have to worry about his paycheck anymore.
Some are calling the extension an overpay, as Jalen Hurts has yet to win a championship with the team.
He was drafted in the second round of the 2020 NFL draft, and he only started four games in his inaugural season. In 2021, he didn’t exactly wow fans with his development, throwing for just 3,144 yards, 16 touchdowns and nine interceptions. The silver lining in 2021 was his rushing ability, as he ran for 784 yards and 10 touchdowns in that season.
In 2022, he took a major step in his development, putting on his first career 100+ passer rating season. Hurts threw for 3,701 yards, 22 touchdowns and six interceptions in 2022. Along with this, he ran for 760 yards and 13 touchdowns. All of this, of course, en route to a Super Bowl LVII visit, in which the Eagles lost 38-35 against the Kansas City Chiefs.
In that Super Bowl, Hurts had a combined 374 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions thrown. Had the Eagles pulled off the victory, Hurts would’ve undoubtedly been named Super Bowl MVP in just his third year in the NFL.
In the current market, a quarterback that can get you to the Super Bowl (regardless of the result) is a must-buy regardless of price.
All of this is to say that the Eagles deal with Hurts is not out of the ordinary given his track record with the team. After all, the quarterback market is consistently growing in pricing year to year, and Hurts simply received the first big pay day of 2023.
Whether or not the Eagles grow to regret this deal is unknown, but in a quarterback market where teams have seemingly been negotiating for months on end for quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson, the Eagles can find comfort in the fact that the quarterback position is firmly set for the next five years.
“The thing with Jalen that I’m so optimistic about is he’s just got this incredible – I’m not telling you anything you don’t know here,” Eagles CEO Jeffrey Lurie said per an NPR article. “But seeing him virtually every day, he’s got an incredible passion for being phenomenal.”
