Report: Eagles expected to sign QB Jalen Hurts before NFL Scouting Combine gets underway

Per The Boston Globe’s Ben Volin, the Philadelphia Eagles front office’s first order of business this offseason will be handing their franchise quarterback a contract extension.

Jalen Hurts, who put forth an MVP caliber season in 2022 and a masterful performance in Super Bowl 57, is expected to get signed as early as this week.

“Hurts and the Eagles declined to talk about a contract extension following the Super Bowl loss, but don’t be surprised if he has a new deal before the Combine starts in a week and a half,” Volin writes. “Prior to the Super Bowl, the Eagles had already approached veterans about redoing deals to make space for Hurts.”

Per Spotrac, Hurts’ market value sits at $44.2 million per year. In terms of the full contract, Spotrac projects it to be six years in length with a total value of $265,373,424, which would make the Eagles QB the sixth-highest paid player in the entire NFL.

The Eagles have already began the process of creating extra cap space to compensate for Hurts’ impending extension. Per Field Yates, the team restructured Jason Kelce’s deal last week in order to free up $2.4M in cap space for this offseason.

While Eagles C Jason Kelce continues to weigh his future, the team paid him a $3M bonus yesterday (the $2.75M roster bonus he was due in 2023 + $250K offseason bonus he was due in 2023).

The cap impact for now is Philly creates $2.4M in 2023 cap space.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) February 17, 2023

With Kelce’s restructure completed, the Eagles still have five options on the table to free up additional cap room. According to OverTheCap’s potential transactions chart, the team can easily free up approximately $33.2M in cap for 2023.

Darius Slay restructure (~$12.2M cap savings)
Lane Johnson restructure/extension (~$10.2M cap savings)
Quez Watkins post 6/1 cut or trade (~$2.7M cap savings)
Jake Elliott extension (~$2.5M cap savings)
Hurts contract extension (~$2.5M cap savings)

Of these five options, the only one that may be a bit far fetched is cutting/trading Watkins. Even though the wideout took a step back in 2022, I don’t think he was bad enough to warrant getting cut. He wasn’t Jalen Reagor.

Though Hurts’ monster contract seems to be atop the Eagles to-do list, expect a handful of contract restructures to key players in the coming days/weeks.