Eagles News: Fully Guaranteed Contract Extension For Jalen Hurts?
Graziano: The floor has to be Murray’s deal, which came out to $46.1 million a year with $103 million guaranteed at signing. That’s the floor — where the talks have to start if I’m Hurts’ agent and he keeps playing the way he has played so far. If he wins the Super Bowl this year, or if he wins the MVP award (or both!), the average has to be in the $50 millions.
My question is whether he will follow Lamar Jackson’s lead and push for a fully guaranteed deal, and if he does, what will the Eagles do about it? As I’ve written for a number of years now, the only way NFL players are ever going to get to fully guaranteed contracts is if the star quarterbacks insist on them while they have the leverage.
Against Houston, Hurts had the second highest passer rating of his career at 128.9. When was his best game? The week before, against the Steelers. Hurts had a rating of 140.6 in that game.
For the season, his rating is 107.8, which is third in the league, behind only Tua Tagovailoa and Patrick Mahomes. Hurts had some great moments in 2021. He ran for 784 yards and 10 TDs.
He made some good throws, but was more playmaker than consistent passer. He only threw 16 TDs. He only completed 61 percent of his passes. The playoff loss to Tampa really showed his limitations. The Bucs took away the run and dared Hurts to beat them with his arm. The Eagles trailed 31-0 before scoring a couple of late TDs.
Those days are over. The throws Hurts made to AJ Brown against Pittsburgh showed how far he’s come.
If the Eagles want to talk contract extension with Hurts at the end of this season, as I believe they will, then right now it appears he will have a great deal of leverage. Remember: Hurts was not a first-round pick, so the Eagles do not hold a fifth-year option on him. He’s signed through 2023, and that’s it.
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