The Bears have locked down star safety Eddie Jackson for years to come. On Friday, his agents announced the signing of a four-year add-on worth $58.4MM. 
The new deal includes $33MM in overall guarantees and $22MM fully guaranteed. The $14.6MM average annual value of the deal ranks as the highest of any safety in the NFL.
Jackson, 27, still had one year to go on his paltry four-year, $3.065MM rookie deal. But, after back-to-back Pro Bowl nods, the Bears didn’t want to wait until the asking price jumped even further.
The Bears were somewhat limited on cap space for 2020, but thanks to some help from Kyle Fuller, they were able to carve out enough room to extend Jackson through the 2024 campaign.
Jackson entered the league as a fourth-round pick of the Bears in 2017. Since then, he’s started in 100% of his games and solidified himself as one of the league’s premier safeties. Over the last three seasons, he’s notched ten interceptions and returned three of those picks for touchdowns.
The advanced metrics back up the traditional stats, too. In 2018, Jackson earned an eye-popping 93.2 score from Pro Football Focus, tying him for the highest grade ever given to a safety. He wasn’t quite as sharp in 2019, but the Bears believe that he’ll bounce back in 2020, along with the rest of the team’s high-priced defense.
Before Jackson’s deal, Titans safety Kevin Byard had the highest AAV at the position ($14.1MM) thanks to the five-year, $70.5MM extension he signed last summer. In terms of overall compensation, Redskins standout Landon Collins still reins supreme at safety with his six-year, $84MM deal.
Good move. Glad to get the extension out of the way
Agreed. It makes a lot of sense with QB and RB on very team friendly deals (for now).
That’s what she said
That means Harrison Smith will get more once his is up
He didn’t start 100% of his games. He missed the playoff game with the Eagles last year. Hope he steps up next season cause he took a step back this season from last.
The step back wasn’t by a regression on his part but rather play calling design. He played about 29% of his snaps in the box and just 51% at free safety. That’s down from 2018 when he was 72% in the free safety position. This was cited from an article in November by NBC sports. The Chuck Pagano play calling plus the subtraction of Adrian Amos played a role.