THURSDAY, 3:46pm: The Jaguars officially announced Posluszny’s extension, reports Michael DiRocco of ESPN.com on Twitter. If the middle linebacker’s cap charge for 2015 is now $5MM, the Jags will have a league-high $39.5MM of cap space, according to Ryan O’Halloran and Hays Carlyon of the Florida Times-Union. This could create another busy offseason in Jacksonville next year.
THURSDAY, 12:27pm: According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter), Posluszny will now earn $15MM — or as much as $18MM, depending on whether he meets incentives — over the next three years. He had previously been slated to earn $7.5MM annually over the next two years.
WEDNESDAY, 11:20pm: Jaguars linebacker Paul Posluszny, who had been under club control for two more seasons, has agreed to a one-year extension with the team, according to Alex Marvez of FOXSports.com (via Twitter).
Posluszny, 30, signed a six-year, $42MM deal with Jacksonville in 2011 after excelling in his first few years in the league with the Bills, who selected the Penn State product in the second round of the 2007 draft. He has received somewhat mixed reviews from Pro Football Focus, sometimes being included in or near the top 10 middle linebackers in the league and other times being ranked closer to the bottom of the list of qualified players. However, he has consistently posted strong tackle numbers, and he has put up 12 sacks, 11 interceptions, and eight forced fumbles over the course of his career.
He has also been durable, as last season marked the first time since his rookie campaign that Posluszny had missed any significant action due to injury. He tore his pectoral muscle in the team’s seventh game of the season and was placed on IR shortly thereafter. He was coming off his first Pro Bowl nod, having recorded 162 tackles to go along with three sacks, two interceptions, and nine passes defended in 2013.
PFR’s Luke Adams wrote back in December that Posluszny would be open to reducing his $9.5MM cap number for 2015 in exchange for another year added to his contract, and this extension will presumably accomplish just that.