The Eagles made Jalen Hurts the highest-paid quarterback in NFL history, at least for the time being, by signing him to a five-year contract extension worth as much as $255 million.
Hurts is guaranteed $179.3 million, the second-biggest guarantee in NFL history, behind only Cleveland’s Deshaun Watson, who has a fully guaranteed $230 million contract over five years.
It’s a remarkable achievement for a quarterback who was selected in the second round of the 2020 draft as a backup to Carson Wentz. As recently as last summer, there were questions as to whether Hurts would be the Eagles’ quarterback of the future.
There were even rumors that the Eagles were looking into trading for either Russell Wilson or Deshaun Watson.
But Hurts, who’ll turn 25 years old this summer, answered those doubts emphatically with a 2022 season in which he was the runner-up for the MVP award while leading the Eagles to the Super Bowl. Hurts threw for 3,701 yards, ran for 760 more and tied a franchise record with 35 total touchdowns (22 passing, 13 running).
He also completed a career-high 66.5% of his passes and finished with a passer rating of 101.5. The Eagles went 14-1 during the regular season behind Hurts, then won two playoff games before falling just short in a 38-35 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
In the Super Bowl, Hurts completed 27 of 38 passes for 304 yards and a touchdown and interception. He also ran for 70 yards on 15 carries with two more TDs.
Hurts set a Super Bowl record for most rushing yards by a quarterback, and tied four other records for most points (20), touchdowns (3), rushing touchdowns (3) and two-point conversions (1).
It’s that dynamic as both a passer and a runner that appeals to the Eagles.
“Part of what makes Jalen special is everything that he can do,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni told reporters last month at the NFL owners’ meetings. “And so, we’ll do what we have to do to win football games. No matter what that is. And Jalen does a lot of things special. And we’ll try to showcase all the things that he does special. … We have a special quarterback and we’ll use his special abilities.”
Sure, the Eagles have been burned before by signing a quarterback to a record contract. Back in June 2019, they signed Wentz to a four-year contract worth as much as $128 million, with $108 million guaranteed. At the time, it was a record contract.
But the Eagles clearly feel that Hurts will live up to the contract, unlike Wentz. That’s because the Eagles gave Hurts the first no-trade clause in team history.
Perhaps the lessons from Wentz spurred that.
One year after signing Wentz to that contract, the Eagles drafted Hurts in the second round. Wentz didn’t handle that well. Then Wentz regressed to becoming one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL. Former Eagles coach Doug Pederson benched Wentz, replacing him with Hurts for the final 4½ games of a deplorable 4-11-1 season.
Wentz then demanded a trade, and the Eagles traded him to Indianapolis in February 2021. That left Hurts, who had completed 51% of his passes that rookie season, as the tenuous starting quarterback.
Still, Hurts improved and led the Eagles to the playoffs after a 2-5 start.
That was when the Eagles became a run-based offense to best utilize Hurts’ ability. But Hurts also improved as a passer, completing 61.3% of his passes for 3,144 yards with 16 TDs and nine interceptions. His passer rating was 87.2, ranking 26th among starting quarterbacks.
But Hurts improved dramatically last season, and the Eagles helped him by trading for star wide receiver A.J. Brown, who is also one of Hurts’ best friends.
Brown set a franchise record with 1,496 yards receiving. DeVonta Smith, the Eagles’ first-round pick in 2021, had 1,196 yards receiving.
And when teams tried to stop the Eagles’ passing attack, both Hurts and Miles Sanders, who had 1,269 yards rushing, burned defenses with their running ability.
It became clear quickly last season that the Eagles were convinced that Hurts would be the franchise quarterback for years to come.
Perhaps the most impressive thing, even beyond Hurts’ stats, was his leadership ability, his drive to win and his work ethic. That impressed not only the coaches, but veteran teammates like center Jason Kelce and defensive linemen like Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox.
Kelce, for example, cited Hurts as the reason why he decided to put off retirement, both after the 2020 disaster, and after the 2021 season, when the Eagles’ 9-7 season ended with a humiliating 31-15 loss in the first round of the playoffs to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Eagles chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie noticed this as well. It was just a question of clearing out enough salary cap space, and that fell to general manager Howie Roseman.
“I think the most important aspect of that is to have the right quarterback,” Lurie told reporters last month at the NFL owners’ meetings. “Assuming you have the right coach, the right staff, the right general manager, the right culture, all that goes into all the resources necessary. But then, I think it’s so helpful to have a dynamic quarterback who’s a great leader, a special person, and someone who is so hungry − not just to win it once, but to win it multiple times − and obsessed.
By signing Hurts now, with one year remaining on his rookie contract, the Eagles are able to put some of the signing bonus on this year’s salary cap. Hurts counts $4.8 million on the 2023 cap, and the Eagles were still about $20 million under the cap for this season.
The NFL Network reported that Hurts will get a $23.3 million signing bonus this season and will make $64 million by March 2024.
The extension begins in earnest in 2024.
Hurts can earn an additional $15 million in incentives, giving him an opportunity to make as much as $274 million through 2028. At that point, Hurts will be 30 years old. And if he continues to improve, this new contract will seem like a pittance.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
