By Nick Murray
The following article references the NFL salary cap numerous times. The NFL Salary cap is a system in which the amount of money paid to players, agreed upon by the NFL Players Association, is divided evenly amongst all 32 teams. Teams are not allowed to exceed the salary cap. However, teams can use loopholes to reduce a player’s cap hit or the amount of salary cap space they consume. A player’s yearly salary is not necessarily indicative of their cap hit. Bonuses such as signing bonuses and roster bonuses can be used to reduce a player’s cap hit. For more information on the NFL Salary cap visit Diario Sports Newspaper.
On Tuesday, April 18, quarterback Jalen Hurts signed a new contract with the Philadelphia Eagles making him the highest paid player in NFL history annually. Selected by the Eagles in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft, Hurts was originally intended to be an insurance policy following the decline of former Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz. After an injury in 2017 Wentz was never able to return to his prior MVP caliber form and Hurts found himself starting the final 4 games of the 2020 season. In Hurts first full season starting, 2021, he served as a sufficient replacement for Wentz but struggled with decision making and accuracy. However, his 2022 performance solidified him as the Eagles franchise quarterback.
Winning 14 of his 15 starts in 2022, leading the Eagles to first seed in the NFC and throwing for 22 touchdowns to just 6 interceptions, Hurts finished second in MVP voting behind Chiefs Quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Hurts led the Eagles to the Super Bowl where they fell short to a familiar name, Patrick Mahomes. Despite the loss, Hurts still had one of the best Super Bowl performances by a quarterback in recent memory, throwing for 304 yards, one passing touchdown, and 70 yards on the ground with 3 more scores as well as a game tying 2 point conversion.
Eagles management and Hurts agent were in the process of negotiating a potential new contract for some time until the team and Hurts agreed on a new $255 million, 5 year contract with $179.3 million guaranteed. Despite appearing to be overspending on the part of the Eagles front office, Hurts contract somehow manages to remain affordable against the salary cap which currently stands at $224.8 million. Per Adam Schefter, Jalen Hurts 2023 cap hit is a mere $6.15 million. His cap hit progressively increases (2024: $13.56 million, 2025: $21.77 million, 2026: $31.77 million) but continues to be affordable in comparison to similar contracts. For reference, Aaron Rodgers who signed a 3 year, $150.8 million contract in 2022 had a $28.5 million cap hit in 2022 and will have a $31.5 million cap hit in 2023, rising to a staggering $40.7 million cap hit in 2024.
Hurts contract clearly proves the Eagles are in win now mode and intend to be contenders for the Lombardi Trophy for the coming years. Much of the Eagles success in 2022 could be attributed to improvements in the passing game, thanks in part to Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman trading for Pro Bowl Titans receiver AJ Brown. Immediately following arrival in Philadelphia, Brown signed a similar contract worth $100 million dollars over 4 years, but with a perplexingly low cap hit of just $5.6 and $8.3 million dollars over his first two years.
Cap hit manipulation seen in both Hurts’ and Brown’s contracts allows teams like the Eagles to retain young talent and build strong rosters for Super Bowl contention. However, Hurts wasn’t the only young stud quarterback drafted in 2020. Many of the league’s premier passers such as Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, and Tua Tagovailoa were all first round picks in 2020. While Hurts second round, 4 year rookie contract necessitated an extension sooner, quarterbacks drafted in the first round play under contracts that offer a fifth year option. Therefore, in the next year, teams such as the Bengals, Chargers, and Dolphins will be signing their quarterbacks of the future to potentially market resetting contracts. Hurts was an elite quarterback in 2022 but had been no more than average for the previous 2 years. Conversely, Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow have both been among the league’s best for the better part of their young careers and have put up superior passing numbers to Jalen Hurts 2022 campaign almost every year of their careers. Pro Football Focus projects Joe Burrow to receive a 4 year $214 million extension. However, the very same projection suggested Hurts would receive a 4 year $195 million dollar contract, nearly 8 million less than Hurts new deal. Therefore chances are, the Bengals will be forced to reset the market with a colossal new contract for their quarterback of the future, likely leading to similarly massive contracts for Justin Herbert and Tua Tagovailoa.
In addition, Baltimore Ravens’ Quarterback Lamar Jackson is currently in the process of negotiating his third contract with the team. Current reports suggest the Ravens offered Jackson a $250 million contract with over half the money guaranteed but he turned down the offer. Jackson finds himself in a unique position because instead of having an agent, Jackson represents himself in contract negotiations. Further complicating the matter, the team has failed to show full support for their quarterback by placing a non-exclusive franchise tag on him for the 2023 season, worth only $32.5 million. The non-exclusive tag allows Jackson to negotiate potential contracts with other teams and would allow other teams to sign the former MVP. This treatment strays away from traditional treatment of your franchise quarterback in which most teams would only place the exclusive franchise tag on a quarterback and only for the purposes of creating more contract negotiation time. Ultimately, fans should anticipate a massive shift in the quarterback market as the next generation of the league’s elite passers look to sign their second or third contracts having potentially advantageous or catastrophic effects on their teams for years to come.