Eagles Extend DeVonta Smith 3 years, $75m with $51m guaranteed. Signed through 2028

[Hawkeye]

35 minutes ago, D-Shiznit said:

$25m AAV is a steal. Going to have multiple WRs break the $30m mark this year.

I came here to say that. Chase and Jefferson are going to reset the top of the market. 

This is how Howie gets things done. No drama, no nonsense. Just like Hurts, Dickerson, Mailata, Elliott and so on. The Eagles elite young core is locked up for the foreseeable future and it all works under the cap. 

[Talonblood]

[ManchesterEagle]

Great deal. Doesn’t annoy Brown, doesn’t kick in properly until 2026. Smith gets his security, we get a top young receiver for the next 5 years. 

[Mike030270]

1 hour ago, Hawkeye said:

I came here to say that. Chase and Jefferson are going to reset the top of the market. 

This is how Howie gets things done. No drama, no nonsense. Just like Hurts, Dickerson, Mailata, Elliott and so on. The Eagles elite young core is locked up for the foreseeable future and it all works under the cap. 

Howie gives out contracts for potential. It sometimes bites back and doesn't work out but when it does work out it's great until near the end when he has to deal with the void years

[LacesOut]

Yes!!

[NJWolverEagle11]

3 hours ago, Portyansky said:

So if quick math's add up... 5yr 91m. STEAL!!!!

The math maths sir

[Hawkeye]

1 hour ago, Mike030270 said:

Howie gives out contracts for potential. It sometimes bites back and doesn't work out but when it does work out it's great until near the end when he has to deal with the void years

The cap is designed so teams never really have to pay the piper. The whole system is designed by the owners for the owners and the cap just keeps rising. 

[Mike030270]

2 minutes ago, Hawkeye said:

The cap is designed so teams never really have to pay the piper. The whole system is designed by the owners for the owners and the cap just keeps rising. 

Is that why teams have to release players because they can't pay for the new contract or extension they want?

[NOTW]

2 hours ago, ManchesterEagle said:

Great deal. Doesn’t annoy Brown, doesn’t kick in properly until 2026. Smith gets his security, we get a top young receiver for the next 5 years. 

Well said.

Plus, he feels like one of those home grown drafted guys that will retire here or at least get another extension at some point. Sometimes Howie restructures with extensions even long before it's needed, to create cap space or whatever wizadry he needs to do. 

[NOTW]

Absolutely love locking in a great receiver that came from the draft. Glad to have two 1,000 yard receivers to continue here.

[Hawkeye]

33 minutes ago, Mike030270 said:

Is that why teams have to release players because they can't pay for the new contract or extension they want?

I mean you can't keep everyone, but teams like the Eagles seem to have no issue locking up their core players, making trades and signing free agents. Hurts, Mailata, Brown, Smith, Dickerson, Johnson, Gardner-Johnson, Barkley and others are signed for the next several years. 

If you're referring to Reddick, he was set to make $22 million this year and wanted a long term deal in that range. He's over 30 so that deal would make no sense for the Eagles. Better to let them go a year early than a year late. James Bradbury is a reminder of that. 

[eggs]

Now we need a young, cheap WR or TE in the draft to develop. 

[EagleVA]

On 4/10/2024 at 11:22 AM, Mike030270 said:

he'd be a #1 on other teams

Please.

[brkmsn]

On 4/10/2024 at 3:05 PM, brkmsn said:

If we get this deal done soon, it will make the whole Cee Dee / dallas drama even more interesting. 

 

[erformc]

Howie once again bamboozles a player and his agent. Horrible deal for Smith. His agent is trumpeting the 3/$75M figure to artificially pump up the APY and make him look good to other players. But he's playing checkers and Howie is playing chess.  Smith only only $32M in newly guaranteed $ (he was scheduled to make $3.4M g'teed this year (salary/RB) and $15.6M in g'teed salary next year).  Basically, it's a 3/$51M contract ($17M APY) and in 2026 the team will either extend him or cut him. His agent should be ashamed. Dude should have not even entertained extension offers until next year. The team would have been desperate to extend him and to lower his 2025 cap number from the $15.8M 5th year option salary which can't be prorated. Plus, they would have had to decide what to do with him an AJ, as there's no way AJ plays next year on a $26M cap figure. Sure, they could convert much of it to SB, but that's not ideal. Either way, Smitty would have got paid a ton more g'teed money if he just waited a year.

[erformc]

9 hours ago, D-Shiznit said:

$25m AAV is a steal. Going to have multiple WRs break the $30m mark this year.

No offense, but I wish you and everyone would stop referencing APY when discussing NFL contracts. It's the worst possible metric to use because the money is not guaranteed. However, it is one touted by agents - and the only reports about the $ came from Smith's agent - because it makes them look good to other players, not to mention allowing the player to brag to his buddies.  The Agent also was being slick in saying that the Eagles" picked up his 5th year option". Well duh, they were going to anyway. Normally that would call for $15.6M of non-proratable salary in 2025. You know that's not happening for cap reasons. 

If you aren't smart enough to read through the agent's spin, you'd think that the $51M in g'tees is in addition to picking up the 2025 5th year option ($15.6M), which would make for a total of $66.6M in g'tees. It's not. What you won't hear from Klutch (Smith's agency) - is that in reality it's a 3/$51M deal ($17M APY) containing only $32M in new g'tees. This is because he was g'teed to make $3.5M in salary/RB this year and $15.6M salary in 2025.

Here's the likely numbers:
$22M Signing Bonus
$25.5M (total) in option bonuses in 2025 and 2026 (g'teed)
$3.5M minimum salaries from 2024-26 (g'teed)
$40M total in some mixture of salary & option bonuses in 2027 and 2028 (non-gteed) that he'll never see. After 2026 he'll either be extended again or cut.

[jsb235]

14 minutes ago, erformc said:

Normally that would call for $15.6M of non-proratable salary in 2025. You know that's not happening for cap reasons.

Not sure this is correct.

[erformc]

30 minutes ago, jsb235 said:

Not sure this is correct.

You think he’s getting a $15.6M P5 salary in 2025? That ain’t happening. Almost certainly a minimum $1.17M P5 salary and a guaranteed Option Bonus that prorates over 5 years. It’ll look very similar to the Dickerson contract in terms of structure. 

[jsb235]

12 minutes ago, erformc said:

You think he’s getting a $15.6M P5 salary in 2025? That ain’t happening. Almost certainly a minimum $1.17M P5 salary and a guaranteed Option Bonus that prorates over 5 years. It’ll look very similar to the Dickerson contract in terms of structure. 

Once the team picked up the option, he gets that money. Those are the nfl rules. Not sure why you think the team is exempt in this case. 

[erformc]

10 minutes ago, jsb235 said:

Once the team picked up the option, he gets that money. Those are the nfl rules. Not sure why you think the team is exempt in this case. 

Of course he’s gonna get it, but b/c of the extension that $  can be treated however the parties wish (i.e. all but the minimum salary treated as fully g’teed option bonus that prorates in the cap over 5 years). Without the extension it would all hit the cap in 2025. 

[jsb235]

56 minutes ago, erformc said:

Of course he’s gonna get it, but b/c of the extension that $  can be treated however the parties wish (i.e. all but the minimum salary treated as fully g’teed option bonus that prorates in the cap over 5 years). Without the extension it would all hit the cap in 2025. 

You may be right, but my understanding is that teams aren't allowed to change the conditions of the fifth-year option to reduce the cap hit, just as they aren't allowed to do it with the franchise tag.

This is how the frontofficenfl website explains it.

"Many terms that are allowed in other types of NFL contracts are not permitted in the Fifth-Year Option. These include Option Bonuses, Option Exercise Fees, Option Non-Exercise Fees, Option Buyouts, and other similar compensations."

 

[Dwide Schrude]

Haven’t had a homegrown WR with kind of impact Smith has since the Maclin/Desean days. I’m very happy we’re keeping him around

[time2rock]

7 hours ago, jsb235 said:

You may be right, but my understanding is that teams aren't allowed to change the conditions of the fifth-year option to reduce the cap hit, just as they aren't allowed to do it with the franchise tag.

This is how the frontofficenfl website explains it.

"Many terms that are allowed in other types of NFL contracts are not permitted in the Fifth-Year Option. These include Option Bonuses, Option Exercise Fees, Option Non-Exercise Fees, Option Buyouts, and other similar compensations."

 

The value of the 5th year option would have been $15.591M in 2025.  OTC has been updated since signing the extension - his cap number for 2025 is only $7.5M so apparently that bolded statement above is inaccurate.  

 

[jsb235]

11 minutes ago, time2rock said:

The value of the 5th year option would have been $15.591M in 2025.  OTC has been updated since signing the extension - his cap number for 2025 is only $7.5M so apparently that bolded statement above is inaccurate.  

 

Yup, i could be wrong on this. But the total guaranteed money is around 66 million, not 51 million.

[erformc]

1 hour ago, jsb235 said:

Yup, i could be wrong on this. But the total guaranteed money is around 66 million, not 51 million.

Practically, you are correct and I was wrong.  I say "practically" because the 2027 $20M OB (and minimum salary) guarantee is triggered is Smith is on the roster as of March 15, 2026. So while technically this amount isn't "guaranteed" because the Eagles could avoid it by cutting him soon after the 2025, the reality is that's not going to happen.

So practically, the following amounts are g'teed:
$4.7M - 2024-2027 total salary 
$20.351M - signing bonus
$11.42M - 2025 OB
$12.035M - 2026 OB
$19.99M - 2027 OB
$1.5M - 2026-2027 total RB/WB