New York (AFP) - Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts, who led the Eagles into last season's Super Bowl, became the NFL's highest-paid player on Monday after agreeing to a five-year contract extension worth $255 million.
The Eagles locked up the 24-year-old signal caller through the 2028 campaign with a deal that, according to the NFL's website, has $179.304 million in guaranteed money and the first no-trade clause in team history.
Hurts went 14-1 as a starter last season, completing 66.5% of his passes for 3,701 yards and 22 touchdowns and rushing 165 times for 760 yards and 13 touchdowns.
After the Eagles' 2020 NFL Draft pick led routs of the New York Giants and San Francisco in the playoffs, Philadelphia lost the Super Bowl 38-35 to Kansas City despite Hurts throwing for 304 yards and a touchdown and rushing for Super Bowl records by a quarterback of 70 yards and three touchdowns.
While the Hurts-Eagles deal is the NFL's biggest ever in average annual value, Deshaun Watson's $230 million contract with Cleveland last year remains the largest in terms of guaranteed money and the 10-year deal for $450 million Patrick Mahomes signed with Kansas City in 2020 remains the largest in total payout.
Hurts can earn an additional $15 million in contract incentives to boost his total above $275 million in the deal, including $4.3 million he would have been paid in the final year of his original rookie contract.
With a $23.294 million signing bonus, Hurts is set to make $64 million in the first season of the new deal.
"The thing with Jalen I'm so optimistic about is he's just got this incredible...passion for being phenomenal," Eagles chairman Jeffrey Lurie said earlier this month at the NFL annual meeting in Arizona.
"You see that in the great ones.You can define them by their obsession with detail and work ethic.
"I think the future is so great for him.Honestly, I don't know if I've ever met somebody that mature at age 24."
