PHILADELPHIA — It’s easy to forgive Philadelphia Eagles fans for being hesitant about large, guaranteed contracts for quarterbacks. The last time they did this was a four-year, $128 million contract handed to Carson Wentz, which at the time included the largest guaranteed contract ever given to an NFL player.
Wentz won 12 of his next 28 starts before he was sent to Indianapolis after the 2020 season, getting replaced by rookie Jalen Hurts.
Now, Eagles GM Howie Roseman said the team hopes to ink Hurts to a new deal as soon as possible, and it is a near certainty he will not only top the $128 million figure given to Wentz, but he will blow straight past it.
Of course, Hurts is coming off an outstanding season, an incredible performance in the Super Bowl, does not have lingering injury issues, and is much younger than Wentz was when he received his extension.
That makes it much easier to stomach shelling out what could end up being roughly $50 million per year for the 23-year-old’s services, although that kind of deal will hamstring what Philadelphia can do with the rest of their roster, with Hurts expected to take up roughly 25 percent of the team’s cap space.
While losing that kind of financial flexibility is no doubt concerning, Locked on Eagles podcast host Gino Cammilleri believes the Eagles have the right general manager, Howie Roseman, to navigate this situation for Philadelphia.
“They’re going to have to get creative with the salary cap,” Cammilleri commented. “And who else is better suited to do it than Howie Roseman, who has gotten out of [salary cap] scenarios and even extended a former franchise quarterback to a deal under a half decade ago.”
Roseman will have his work cut out for him, even with a salary cap that’s likely to continue rising every year of Hurts’ potential extension.
The Eagles will want to keep as many of their impending free agents as possible, including Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, Javon Hargrave, Kyzir White, and TJ Edwards, but doing so with a significantly smaller pool of available funds is no easy feat – even for a GM with experience in this area.
“James Bradberry is a free agent this year,” Cammilleri continued. “Darius Slay has a big cap number going into 2023. Chauncey Gardner-Johnson is a free agent…Howie Roseman has to do some maneuvering. Are they going to lose some good players? Yes.”
Hurts proved he is the kind of franchise quarterback Philadelphia can build around, but losing talented players due to cap reasons is always a tough pill for fans to swallow – especially after coming so close to bringing another Super Bowl trophy to the city of Brotherly Love.