Extending A.J. Brown upon buying and selling for him in the course of the 2022 draft, the Eagles paired that contract with DeVonta Smith‘s rookie deal for 2 seasons. Philadelphia now seems ready to have two extremely paid receivers.
The Eagles have begun extension discussions with Smith, ESPN.com’s Tim McManus reports. This may very well be difficult, because the workforce additionally has Jalen Hurts on a top-market QB deal. The workforce additionally just lately re-upped Landon Dickerson on a guard-record pact and reached a third contract agreement with Jordan Mailata, pairing with Lane Johnson‘s deal — one which leads the precise sort out market.
Philly’s cap sheet makes Smith’s extension talks fascinating. The team has been good at managing its payroll, with restructures and void years regularly coming into play to help Howie Roseman‘s club afford some of the high-priced talent brought in. But this many upper-crust deals on one offense would be an interesting NFL roster-building chapter.
Even with their bevy of high-end contracts on offense — Dallas Goedert‘s and Saquon Barkley‘s included — the Eagles sit fourth within the NFL in cap house, holding simply greater than $30M. The workforce packed in seven void years on Hurts’ deal, holding the cap hits manageable within the close to future. The QB is just connected to $13.5M and $21.7M cap numbers in 2024 and ’25. That stands to assist the Eagles afford a few of their latest extensions. However groups don’t habitually roll out two big-ticket receiver offers, and what the Eagles goal to do would surpass the place the Chargers and Buccaneers have gone just lately. A Smith extension now would additionally break new floor because of the phrases of his rookie contract.
For the reason that 2011 CBA launched the fifth-year possibility, 10 offseasons have introduced Might deadlines connected to first-rounders’ contracts. In that span, no workforce has approved an extension for a rookie-deal huge receiver with two seasons of membership management remaining. Via the choice, the Eagles can preserve Smith on his rookie contract by 2025. That buys them a while, leverage-wise, and the likes of Justin Jefferson and CeeDee Lamb performed 4 seasons on their rookie offers. As a result of Jefferson and Lamb did so, the receiver market appears to be like set for an additional spike.
Each gamers are going into their fifth-year possibility seasons, and every is able to break Tyreek Hill‘s receiver AAV file ($30M). Every may achieve this by a notable margin as nicely. With Ja’Marr Chase ticketed for a record-setting deal in 2025 (in all chance), the Eagles — who’ve been early on extensions for O-linemen and QBs, with Carson Wentz being re-upped forward of Yr 4 again in 2019 below Roseman — could also be motivated to strike early right here.
Smith, 25, doesn’t have a case to land a record-setting contract. Though the slender Eagles move catcher has put collectively back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons, he isn’t the No. 1 receiver on his personal workforce. Brown broke a longstanding Eagles single-season receiving yards file in 2022; he’s connected to a $25M-per-year extension. The Brown-Smith tandem has crossed the 1,000-barrier in every of its two seasons collectively.
With the wage cap ballooning at a file price this yr, although, gamers are cashing in. This represents excellent news for this wideout crop, although will probably be fascinating to see the place the Eagles are snug going for the 2020 Heisman winner.