The first major domino in terms of 2023 quarterback deals has fallen, and in historic fashion. The Eagles announced on Monday that they have agreed to terms on an extension with Jalen Hurts. Tom Pelissero of NFL Network tweets that the contract is five years in length and has a base value of $255MM. 
That figure makes Hurts the highest-paid player in NFL history with respect to annual compensation, and brings his new-money average to $51MM per season. Pelissero adds that the extension includes $179.3MM in guarantees, as well as a no-trade clause, something which is a first in Eagles history. Another $15MM in incentives exists, which could push Hurts’ earnings to $54MM per season, per Pelissero (Twitter link).
The 24-year-old had one season remaining on his rookie contract, meaning he will be on the books in Philadelphia through 2028. This offseason marked the first in which Hurts was eligible for an extension, something which was quickly named as a priority for the NFC champions. The Eagles have, as expected, seen a number of notable defensive departures recently, but the foundation of their offense will be in place for the foreseeable future with this deal.
Hurts will earn the second-highest in total guarantees in league history, behind only the $230MM given to Deshaun Watson by the Browns last offseason. Pelissero and colleague Ian Rapoport detail that Hurts will receive $110MM fully guaranteed at signing, the third-highest such total in the NFL behind only Watson and Russell Wilson. The Eagles will pay out a signing bonus of $23.3MM in 2023, and give Hurts $64MM over the course of the first year of the pact. Needless to say, this news marks a massive development for all parties involved.
Hurts entered the 2022 season with questions about his ability to develop into a legitimate franchise quarterback. He put those to rest with his performance during the year, which helped Philadelphia earn the No. 1 seed in the NFC and put the former second-rounder in the MVP conversation. Hurts was named a Pro Bowler and earned second-team All-Pro honors for the first time in his career, guiding one of the league’s best rushing and passing offenses. His development in the latter category convinced the team that such a massive investment would be a safe one.
The Alabama product took a massive step forward as a passer in 2022, totaling 3,701 yards and 22 touchdowns through the air. He added 760 yards and 13 yards on the ground, remaining the focal point of the team’s ground attack. Aside from one hugely costly fumble, his Super Bowl performance garnered widespread praise and put an extension at the top of the Eagles’ to-do list this spring. With that now taken care of, the effect the deal will have on the rest of the QB market will be worth monitoring closely.
Hurts’ deal comes at the same time that Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert are all eligible for massive second contracts of their own. The Ravens, Bengals and Chargers remain in negotiations with their respective passers, though Baltimore’s talks with Jackson have been the most public and tenuous. This Hurts pact represents the latest non-Watson one to feature less than 100% in guarantees, though its AAV will no doubt help young QBs up for their own extensions establish a floor for negotiations.
The Eagles enjoyed one of the best seasons in franchise history in 2022, given the success of general manager Howie Roseman had in acquiring short- and long-term additions on the trade, free agent and draft fronts. With Hurts in place for the long-term, the team’s most important piece is on the books during what could be a lengthy Super Bowl window. Whether this sets off a chain reaction of other mega-deals at the QB position in the coming weeks, meanwhile, will have significant effects on several other teams around the league.
5 years and base value of 255 million meaning it can increase in value? Wowzers. Without knowing contract details at this moment seems like a massive overpay on the surface. Lamar Jackson’s agent is fuming right now.
I don’t think Lamar Jackson has an agent.
Don’t do his mom like that
nope not an overpay. Plus Jalen has a agent to tell him theres no team thats gonna offer you a fully guaranteed deal.
its a massive overpay. There is no timeline or reality out there where Jalen Hurts should make more than Patrick Mahomes
The next guy to sign almost always sets a new high bar. Not saying it is right, just how it is.
Mahomes has a deal that has made it very easy to pay others and to be modified in the future.
Tyreke Hill disagrees but I’m sure you’ll say that the Chiefs didn’t want him
Chiefs absolutely wanted him . . . just not at $30 mil/season. Plus they got a draft haul back for him. Chiefs would still love to have him I’m sure, but you have to weigh these decisions.
But the post I was referring to said that Mahomes contract enables the Chiefs to pay others very easily. This is a false statement. They of course wanted Hill and yet couldn’t pay him
Really? I guess you didn’t realize that Kyler Murray already makes more per year than Patrick Mahomes, and Danny Dimes is right behind him.
Not an overpay. He went from 2nd round pick to 2nd in MVP voting in three seasons. He could easily have been the Super Bowl MVP. He just
gets better while providing calm leadership.
Don’t think he’s fuming. Maybe over himself, it’s already been reported and verified Lamar turned down 200 mil guaranteed in September because he didn’t like the guaranteed verbiage. He wanted it to say fully guaranteed.
Hurts has won 3 more playoff games than Jackson, and is a much better all around player. Lamar is 1-3 in the playoffs, losing at home to SD 27-13in WC round, then as the #1 seed in the AFC lost at home 28-12 (scoring a late TD vs prevent D) in the divisional rd to #5 seeded TEN, He beat TEN at home 23-17 in the WC round the next year after AJ Brown was injured. The following week they were trounced by BUF 17-3. I wouldn’t put Lamar Jackson in the top 10 QBs ij the NFL. Mahomes, Hurts,Burrow, Allen, Herbert,Lawrence Tua,Rodgers, Prescott, D.Jones, Carr, R.,Wilson , & D.Watson are all QBs I’d rather have then L.Jackson. When he wins an important game against a good team, I’ll be happy to redact my statement.
179 mil guaranteed, WOW! Good for him, that’s a crazy contract.
Check out the contract for the 2nd or 3rd best player on any NBA team if you want to get indigestion. 100% guaranteed. The NFL players have to be jealous.
LOL
Football…..
The sport of the working man.
We’ll see how Hurts does with a gutted D and no RBs.
gutted? Don’t think so. It’s a planned move that why Davis is on the roster and why we got 2 first round picks to reload. The replacement LBs are already on the roster the only position not really defined yet are the safeties. And also if you watch the Eagles you would see that the running game is built on the Line so Gainwell should do pretty well as the primary back.
I watched alot of Philly games last year. Many of Hurt’s completions were because AJ caught the ball, not because Hurts threw it. Philly had strong lines and a good D. Not so much anymore. We’ll see.
I do agree with your take, but Philly has stocked up at the positions they let go in anticipation of this contract. Hurts will be better off than most of the QB’s getting that huge contract as his team won’t immediately be in a cap nightmare.
Philly just has to avoid big overpays elsewhere and continually try to reload. It will hurt when some fan favorites leave via free agency, but it will have to be done.
Good for you Jalen Hurts. Class act and hard worker. I don’t root for the Eagles, and Hurts crushed my Dawgs, but he is still easy to root for as a person.
Crazy overpay! He’s a system dependent QB who basically does 2 things RPO and read option. His passing skills are average at best, and this contract will end up being a complete albatross. This is Carson wentz 2.0.
It’s a good deal when they start greasing the poles in Philly.
They better win it all this year – as his style of play will inevitably lead to injury.
Jalen is 20x the leader that Wentz was. There is no comparison.
Holy overpay… But hey, good for Jalen get it while you can.
Why do owners keep thinking they have to set records, thats why contracts have gotten as high as they have. There is zero reason why Jalen Hurts should make more than Mahomes
Inflation would be the reason. Mahomes’ contract is 3 years old. Practically nothing costs the same today as it did in 2020. Why should contracts be expected to not get bigger?
Minimum wage stayed the same for decades. Has nothing to do with inflation. It has everything to do with players thinking they HAVE to be the highest paid player and team owners dumb enough to do it
Comparing minimum wage to an NFL player’s salary is silly. The NFL is exploding with revenues and the owners are drowning in money; they have a contract that stipulates the players get a certain percentage of those revenues. The local gas-station has no such agreement with their employees, and no obligation to pay a certain amount of their revenues, which is why minimum wage has remained stagnant. (Also, minimum wage is for entry-level positions, i.e., teenagers. I haven’t earned minimum wage since I was 16, and if you are, you’ve made some poor choices in your life.)
You could also state that for all intents and purposes the NFL holds a monopoly. They can simply set whatever prices they want for their product knowing fans have an addiction that they can exploit to maximum advantage.
Most minimum wage jobs are tied to tips. Fast food places and grocery stores are paying double the minimum wage and still can’t get people to work.
Why do players and agents keep thinking they have to set records?
Enjoy $15 stadium beers, $200 jerseys, $50 hats, etc.
Are NFL players contracts the reason why Gas, toiletries, and food at your local grocery store are through the roof?
Prices go up everywhere and that’s due to politics. NFL players contracts go up because there is a CBA that states players are to be paid x amount of the revenues….
If you’re tired of high prices go out and vote for a candidate who’s going to change that, not cry about NFL players getting their money….
The highest paid state employee is usually a college sports coach, so high prices on your toiletries is much more likely to be due to one of their massive overpays instead of anything from the private company and collectively bargained NFL.
Of the top 15 highest paid state employees in my state, not a single one is a college coach, pro sports coach, or anything to do with sports. 8/15 work in ‘Human Services’…. Sports and their contracts are not the issue….
Football (and all sports teams/businesses) will charge what the public will pay, regardless of how much they pay employees. Teams don’t say…”Okay, we want to pay players X so we’ll charge fans Y”; they say…”What can we realistically get the public to pay?” and then the revenue generated is the basis for how they structure payroll and team financials.
You (and I as well as many others) may never be willing to pay $15 for beer (I hate beer, I wouldn’t pay 50 cents for it) or $25 for a burger, but there are enough people out there who will.
Another contract showing the stupidity of the Browns and the naivete of Lamar Jackson.
Yeah instead of 100% guaranteed, the Eagles are only guaranteeing 80%
Because fans keep paying those salaries. Until their pockets hurt they won’t change.
that seals it, Lamar is gone. Lamar when*** healthy is a better QB then Hurts, he’s gonna get a deal that is at least this or he is going to the Colts
Umm. I don’t know how this seals it. If anything is shows Lamar overplayed his hand.
Lets be honest here. Any QB making more than Mahomes is overpaid right?
Great for Hurts.
$179 million guaranteed is huge. It is also another sign the Watson deal is an outlier not a new normal.
The percentage of guaranteed money keeps rising. Is there really a big difference between guaranteeing 230 million instead of 179 million?
Obviously the $51 million.
But also the Watson deal is 100% guaranteed and continues to be the only 100% guaranteed deal.
So in two major ways the Watson deal continues to be an outlier. And with every deal signed, becomes more of an outlier.
Lamar using an outlier as his benchmark shows just how little he understands finance and contracts.
Watson has definitely raised the guaranteed money for quarterbacks. None have fully guaranteed but they are getting there. Well done Deshaun
Bad for the game when one player eats up that high a percentage of the cap. It is working in KC as Mahomes has the talent to make chicken salad out of a chicken sh-t wide receiving corps – but it isn’t working anywhere else.
Dead Cap Space kills. Option years are a great tool to spread out up front dollars. The Bucs did it and got a SB win for it. Now, they have $75M in dead cap space, about 1/3 of their cap isn’t on the team.
Collectively there is $668M in dead cap hit for 2023 across the league. With a $225M Cap x 32 teams that’s $7.2B in salary cap, that’s 9.2%, enough to for nearly 3 full teams. It will only grow throughout the year.
Hurts earned sound $8 million for his first three seasons so when you factor that into his eight or nine years his yearly a average isn’t outrageous.
“EVERYBODY HUUUURTS! SOMETIMES!”
I’d consider going NIGHTSWIMMING for $255MM.
good for him hopefully he can keep up his high level of play
FYI – Youtube is charging $449 for NFL TICKET and it does not include RedZone
349
Brace yourself, Bengals
Good that they did it before the other better QBs signed instead of following the bar from those guys. They did the same thing with Wentz so imagine of they waited and put out even more money before he imploded.
Now have to see how the offense goes bc contending teams losing coordinators don’t have a real good batting average of actually getting better when that happens. Also, the league will have an entire off-season to figure him and this simplified offense out.
That being said, after going to the SB you have to do this.
I’m very happy Philly did this. He is nothing more then a flash in the pan the product of a historically weak NFC. Lets be honest it was the easiest path to a super bowl in NFL history. He will be lucky if he’s even as good as Dak Prescott the next few years.
Holy L
Ridiculous ignorant troll take. The NFC East was 20 games over .500 with three teams in the playoffs and the last place team was 8-8-1. Hurts passed for over 300 yards no interceptions and ran for three TD’s in the Super Bowl.
I wasn’t talking about the NFC East. Obviously Dallas is a powerful team. I’m talking about beating the pitiful Giants and the Niners without a QB. Has there ever been an easier path to a championship game in any sport history?
Didn’t Dak Prescott just lead the league in interceptions while still missing 5 games?
Considering the style of play in which they use him…
I doubt he makes it the length of that contract without missing the majority of a season (or 2) because of an injury.
You could say that about Mahomes and Burrow too. Mahomes has been limited in the playoffs and Burrow has already missed with an ACL. Burrow gets sacked a ton too
Eagles Fans: And now, the end is near… and so I face the final curtain, my friend I’ll say it clear, I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain..
Nah, as we’ve seen – these NFL contracts and the salary cap mean absolutely nothing. When the time comes, they’ll extend him again, add 15 void years, and kick the can.
THIS IS WAY TOOOO MUCH FOR HURTS. I 1st saw $225 and was thinking $45 per year sounds about right. Now I see $255!!!!!! This is a massive overpay IMO
Jalen certainly deserves this, but this deal hurts for the Eagles. By the team this contract gets to surplus value area, Jalen’s gonna be looking at an even higher AAV.
Deserves this? He’s won virtually nothing but a runner up trophy… come on now
He’s won more than Jackson, Herbert, Murray…
And I never said any of them are worth money here did I?..
The Eagles lost the Super Bowl because the DC made no in game adjustments ( I’m so glad he’s gone).If the D had done anything Hurts would have been the MVP of the game. He was 16-2 in his starts last year.
Guess Burrows price just went to 60 million plus if this guy is worth 50 million a year. Mahomes has to be worth 60+ instead of the 40 something million he signed for. Imagine if they had a QB who had actually done something what the price tag would have been
With his new extension Jalen
can now REALLY afford to
go rent a car long term from
HURTS !!
Can you say Cap Hell when all the rookie contracts expire.
They just have to let those guys leave and not resign them to big first contracts, or better yet, trade them in their last contact year for draft capital. No cap hell from this if they keep rolling in draft picks. Yes, the talent might drop off a little here or there while they get experience, but the Pats showed it can be done.
Yeah, because all great teams build their teams up by having lots of 5th, 6th, 7th and UDFA’s on their team while having the highest paid QB leading the charge. The Patriots were consist winner’s because Brady never took a top contract, he left a lot on the table so the team could sign additional pieces. Plus they had great coaching. What are the Eagles gonna do when players like AJ, Devonte Smith, Lane Johnson, Riddick, Slay and Sweat are all ready for new contracts? Oh yeah let them walk, or trade them for what 3rd day draft picks? Yeah let me know how that works out.
Howie keeps restocking with great trades. The last two the Eagles had two 1st Round picks ( and traded one for Brown). This year they have two more 1st round picks and next year two 2nd round picks and a bunch of compensatory picks which allow them to maneuver up in the draft. He’s always balancing the present and future. 3 of last years higher picks will slide into positions vacated by free agents.
Wasn’t Brady a 6th round pick ?
Lock him up before Burrow’s extension. Last thing Eagles want is to have a Lamar “look at Watson’s contract” Jackson scenario in their locker room.
Eagles also might’ve remembered why they drafted Hurts: the saw the same player I did at Alabama & OU
Cowboys say thank you! How are they going to pay AJ brown and the rest of their team ? Hurts isn’t even a top 5 qb what an overpay
His cap hit the next few years is low. The Eagles
have 3 first round picks for the 3rd year in a row . The Cowboys haven’t been to the Super Bowl since the mid-90’s.
And you are stuck with Dak
And you are stuck with Dak . Hurts was runner up for MVP .
Took you 3 replies to say all that ?
Cowboy fans. The most delusional fan base in all of sports never disappoints
How was that delusional? If you don’t think hurts just for over paid I think you’re the delusional one. QBs better than hurts
Maholmes
Allen
Burrows
Watson
Lamar Jackson
So at best they just gave the 6th best qb playing today the most money EVER for a football player. Ya but I’m the delusional one
Yes. You are
And you are muted enjoy
The NFL is going to blow it all up after passing Baseball as America’s Game… These stupid contracts are simple proof that NONE of them know anything about economics.
Economics don’t matter when Media outlets keep paying, advertisers keep paying, and fans keep paying. Is it crazy to think that one day CBS will move their NFL to a paid stream on Paramount+? What about Fox and NBC? You already had ABC move MNF to ESPN.
Joe Burrow’s price just went up.
Alabama product? Isn’t there where he was bench and transferred?
Isn’t Oklahoma where he was runner-up Heisman and a Round 2 steal?