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The New York Giants just handed Daniel Jones a $160 million contract that pays him roughly $40 million per year. Yikes. That’s a ton of money for a pretty average quarterback, albeit one coming off his best season to date anchored by a playoff appearance.
Jones’ deal — there’s more to it, the actual numbers are far lower — is further evidence that the market for starters is through the roof right now (see: Geno Smith and the Seattle Seahawks). Either way, Jones is a rich man. And his new-found wealth has pushed financial estimates for Jalen Hurts’ potential extension to unfathomable levels.
“That, more than anything else, will set the market for Hurts’ next contract,” wrote Martin Frank of the News Journal. “And that will most likely make Hurts the highest-paid quarterback in the NFL.”
Spotrac recently upped their market value on him to $44.2 million per year or six years at $265.3 million. While some in the media have suggested Hurts should take a pay cut — why would he ever do that? — the price tag is going to be steep. The Eagles really have no choice. Back up the Brinks truck, baby!
If not, the front office stands to leave a bad taste in their franchise quarterback’s mouth next off-season when he’s eligible for free agency. Hurts has said and done all the right things while developing into an MVP candidate.
The other option is to wait and slap the franchise tag on him in 2024, but that’s not the way the Eagles have traditionally conducted business. They have gone 15 straight years without using the tag. It seems unlikely they would start a new tradition and make the most important position on the field the guinea pig.
Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert Looking at Bank-Breaking Deals
Hurts isn’t the only one searching for a contract extension. Joe Burrow (Bengals) and Justin Herbert (Chargers) hail from the same 2020 draft class as negotiations heat up in the AFC. The Eagles want to make sure they set the market instead of reacting to it, and the only way to do that is to lock Hurts up first.
Burrow is staring down the barrel of a 6-year, $264 million deal; Herbert is looking at six years at $254.5 million (Spotrac). Those three quarterbacks have established themselves as “franchise cornerstones,” according to Bleacher Report’s Doric Sam. They were all going to get paid. Jones’ mega-deal just shifted the Plinko chips.
Burrow, Hurts and Herbert have all established themselves as franchise cornerstones who have the potential to go down as some of the top signal-callers of their generation, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see their respective teams empty their pockets to keep them in the fold for the foreseeable future.
Howie Roseman Already Addressed Contract Negotiotians
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman was asked how contract negotiations were going with Hurts during the NFL Scouting Combine. Predictably, Roseman wanted to keep those conversations in-house but he did take time to express his desire to keep Hurts in midnight green.
“You want to find something that he feels really good about,” Roseman told reporters on February 28, “and at the same time that we feel good about and surround him with good players. He knows that. He’s a smart guy. He understands that. That doesn’t mean that it’s not going to be a tremendous contract for him because he deserves that, too.”
Word will eventually leak out, as things get finalized, but there is an overwhelming feeling it gets done soon. Roseman loves Hurts. Hurts loves Philadelphia. It’s a match made in football heaven.
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