The Jalen Carter contract may be a risk, but it's a risk the Eagles had to take

Carter's extension makes him the highest-paid defensive tackle in NFL history.

By Reuben Frank • Published July 29, 2026

Jalen Carter has had one elite season in three years, and $152 million is an awful lot of money for someone who’s had one elite season in three years and carries with him a little bit of baggage.

But that's where we are.

The Eagles on Tuesday made Carter the highest-paid defensive tackle in NFL history and the 7^th-highest-paid defensive player in the league, locking him up with a four-year extension on top of the fourth year of his rookie contract and the 2027 option year.

Risky? Yeah. It’s not a slam dunk Carter will be worth that kind of money over the next several years. This might not work. He’s got to be better than he was in 2025 for this to pay off. But if it does, watch out.

Carter was very good as a rookie, as good as any interior lineman in the NFL in the 2024 Super Bowl season and just OK last year as he dealt with twin shoulder injuries and fitness issues.

And then there are lingering off-the-field questions. He was benched for the start of a game against the Falcons early in 2024 after being late for a meeting. He was out of shape early last year, Vic Fangio observed in September without being asked. And there was the spitting incident with Dak Prescott on opening day. The Eagles wouldn’t have gotten Carter with the ninth pick if there weren’t serious questions about him league-wide. There are also durability concerns after he missed six games last year, most of them with his shoulder injuries.

So with that many questions, so many unknowns, why make this sort of commitment to Carter?

Because when he’s right, he’s a flat-out beast. And when you have a chance to lock up a game wrecker, you lock him up.

When Carter is healthy, fit and motivated, he’s as good as anybody in the league. Just watch those last few snaps of the Rams playoff game in 2024, and you see a player simply taking over a football game at its most crucial point. The Eagles don’t even get to the Super Bowl without Carter’s 3^rd-down sack on Matt Stafford and 4^th-down pressure on the last two plays of the game.

At 25 years old, Carter is already a top-three NFL defensive tackle along with Chris Jones and Jeffrey Simmons and at this point he’s probably No. 2 behind Simmons. And there’s no reason to think he won’t keep getting better.

The other stuff? Jeffrey Lurie, Howie Roseman, Nick Sirianni and Clint Hurtt have spent enough time around Carter to feel comfortable paying him this kind of money.

Where else are you going to find a defensive lineman this gifted?

It’s a lot easier to help an immature kid who’s a stud on the field become mature than turn an average defensive tackle into a superstar. When you have a talent like Carter with an unlimited ceiling, you take that risk. You have to.

But all of that made this a tricky negotiation because as much as the Eagles may trust that Carter will grow up a little and become a more consistent player, it’s all a projection. And a projection is a risk.

Roseman and Drew Rosenhaus figured it out and found common ground, and now the Eagles have Carter locked up through 2031 with the final year of his rookie deal, his 2027 option year and the four new years on this contract.

If Carter can stay healthy and play the way he did in 2024, you’re looking at not only a perennial all-pro but a potential Defensive Player of the Year. We’re talking Jerome Brown or Fletcher Cox level. 

The Eagles aren’t in the business of letting elite young players go, and Roseman’s ability to navigate the salary cap and keep paying out these huge contracts for all the Pro Bowlers that he keeps drafting allows the Eagles to remain competitive year after year. Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean are up next, and Howie will find a way to get them extended as well.

The Eagles don’t miss very often on these type of signings. They know Carter better than anybody, and if they’re confident he can consistently be the player we saw in 2024 while continuing to show maturity and growth as a person and teammate, there’s no reason to doubt them. They’re pretty good at this stuff.

We throw around phrases like "generational talent” pretty freely, but Carter has the potential to be exactly that. And if he falls short of expectations playing under this new contract? That would be unfortunate, but giving him this deal is still the right thing to do just because of the possibilities, the vast potential.

It’s a risk, but it’s a smart risk and a risk that could pay huge dividends over the next several years.

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/jalen-carter-contract-extension-howie-roseman-eagles-training-camp/744275/

Hard to disagree really! He’s such a talented player I think the risk of trading him elsewhere and seeing him excel would have been a huge gut punch.