Philly Front Office

We are obviously talking about extensions. Howie is known for extending young players to team friendly deals as soon as possible. Some of them aren’t even team friendly at first, but because they come ahead of the free agent market they look like steals in retrospect. A rookie cannot be extended until after his 3rd season in the league. This means the 2022 draft class is up for deals while Nolan Smith and Jalen Carter have to wait another year. Crazy as it sounds, the Eagles have 6 guys (including undrafted) from this class who could possibly get extended! 3 of them are first rounders. This is important because first rounders have the possibility of a 5th year team option that others do not have. A first rounder like Jordan Davis has 2 possible years to extend while a second rounder like Cam Jurgens only as 1. That being said, it is certainly on the table that the 5th year options for all 3 are declined. Those decisions must be made soon.

Cam Jurgens – Jurgens’s situation is very different from Jordan Davis. He is a full-time starter that has shown the Eagles everything they needed to see in replacing Jason Kelce. He is also in the final year of his contract. The top of the market for centers is Creed Humphrey by a country mile (i’m assuming that’s more than a regular mile) who signed for 4/$72m last year. Once Kelce retired, Humphrey became the new undisputed gold standard. Is Jurgens getting that money? No. Humphrey had two Pro Bowls and an All-Pro team under his belt when he was extended. Frank Ragnow of Detroit is second at $13.5 AAV, but his deal was signed 4 years ago and is also ready to be extended. 3rd place Lloyd Cushenberry is a better comp considering he had no accolades before signing his 4/$50m contract last season. Jurgens is going to come somewhere in the middle of Cushenberry and Humphrey and will probably look like a bargain in about two years. A deal will almost definitely get done and I expect it to come in at 4 years and between $60m-$64m.

Jordan Davis

There is a portion of the internet that really wants Milton Williams to come back. Not only is he going to be expensive, but they seem to forget that Jordan Davis is here, has 2 more years of control, and is from Georgia. The knock on Davis is that he has not been an every down lineman. He can stop the run like no other, but can he get to the QB? So far, not really. But then every once in a while, he shows off how crazy athletic he is, and you start to think he might be able to put it all together. Look at his spider chart from the draft. He does not have any real positional comparables!

What do you do with someone who might break out next season, but who also might just stay as a 3rd DT run stopper his whole career? They know they are going to have to pay Carter a year from now, so this one has to be a deal or there is no deal. These are a little dated, but two pre-breakout nose tackles signed to rookie extensions were David Onyemata of the Falcons and Grover Stewart of the Colts. Both were 4th round picks, but signed for just under and just over $10m AAV in 2020. I can see Davis pushing it to maybe 3/$45m if they really believe in him, but if a deal gets done, it would more realistically be for 3/$36m.

Nakobe Dean

You really have to feel for Dean. He finally broke out to become the player he was supposed to be when he lead the best college defense you ever saw. Then he got hurt in the playoffs. Dean will likely miss most of next season and probably won’t be the same player upon his return. Not that he can’t get there, it just won’t be there right away. Will the Eagles want to extend him while he’s hurt? Will Dean want to extend before he has a chance to reprove himself? Will he even get that opportunity? It also doesn’t help that it took 3 years for Dean to realize his best self so he doesn’t have the track record or accolades of someone who will get paid no matter his injury status. It’s a tough spot for everyone. I am not bullish on a deal getting done for all these reasons. However, if the Eagles want to symbolically show all the Philly Dogs what they are about, I can see a 2 year, $14m-$18m bridge contract happening between the two. Remember, Dean is young. He just turned 24. This would allow them to extend him again at age 26.

Kenny Pickett

The Eagles are not going to extend Pickett. In fact, he is more likely to be traded than anything. He just isn’t much of an upgrade over Tanner McKee if at all. The going rate for a veteran backup is in the $5m to $6m range and the Eagles aren’t going to pay that. They will continue to draft backup QBs and try to flip them for draft picks while playing on the minimum.

Jahan Dotson

Dotson is a former first round pick but came to the Eagles last year for a third rounder. He is fine as a 3rd receiver but is not someone they need to extend early. This position is not unlike Kenny Pickett’s backup role. Even though the position gets paid in this league, the Eagles have been fine in the past filling it with draft picks. They will probably draft his eventual replacement this season in the mid rounds rather than extend him. Testing the market is the better route for him anyway. After dropping away the Lions season 2 years ago, Josh Reynolds signed a 2 year, $9m contract with Jacksonville. Would Dotson accept a similar 2 year, $10m extension? Probably not.

Reed Blankenship

Blankenship and the Eagles are going to sit down and have a serious extension talk fairly soon. I’d say it’s 70/30 it gets done. Considering he was undrafted, the Eagles might think they can get a serious deal on Reed’s first real payday. He might be thinking he has them by the balls since safety might be the least fortified position on the roster. The free safety market is a strange one. Antoine Winfield broke the bank 2 years ago getting $21m AAV after getting franchise tagged. Jessie Bates is behind him at around $16m AAV. Reed isn’t getting that kind of money. 3rd place though is Julian Love at $11m. Look, he’s not getting that either, but Love had previously signed as a free agent for 2/$12m. Reed’s back line mate CJGJ signed a 3/$27m contract last year. The Eagles are looking for the former while Reed is looking for the latter. Would 3/$21m make sense for both sides?

Dallas Goedert

Goedert has 1 year left on his 4/$57m extension signed 3 years ago. There is talk that he is a trade candidate. Though I don’t see a trade happening considering he played so well down the stretch, his replacement is almost guaranteed to get drafted in the second round this year. For that reason and his injury history, Goedert is not getting a new contract. However, should the team completely strike out during the draft, Goedert will have some leverage. Simply playing out his contract comes with a $23m cap hit next year but no actual salary. That’s bad. He is currently the 4th highest paid tight end, but at 30 years old we all hope he isn’t expecting a raise. They could try to work out a 2-year deal to smooth that cap number. Maybe 2/$24m? Maybe as high as 2/$30m?

Grant Calcaterra

I forgot Calcaterra in my original draft, but he is a legit extension candidate. What’s the going rate for a backup tight end? Brock Wright got 3/$12 from Detroit. Brevin Jordan 1/$2m from Houston. Adam Troutman 2/$7.5m from Denver. Do the Eagles like Calcaterra enough to make him the 3rd string TE this season and back up going forward? I don’t know. If the going rate is $2m to $4m per year, does 3/$9m make sense?

Darius Slay

Rumor has it that Slay will not be coming back next year. Its very possible he could get a $15m AAV from someone either on a one or two year deal, but it won’t be from the Eagles. The problem with returning is that he has a $16m option bonus that guarantees at the start of the new league year. The Eagles don’t want that. Can they agree to something smaller for his swan song season? Probably not. He already costs $13m this season so even a $10m bonus would just make it that much worse. They could give him a 2 year extension but they made that mistake with Bradberry once already. You’d rather pay Rodgers than Slay going forward. Expect him to be a post-June 1 cut along with James Bradberry who we won’t be discussing today.

Eagles Preference

Cam Jurgens and Reed Blankenship are the most likely of this group to get extended with Pickett, Dotson, and Slay being the least. I would assume Davis and Dean are toss ups, but extensions will definitely be on the table.