Jalen Hurts contract states the obvious with Deshaun Watson deal
By Randy Gurzi
It happens every year and every year the masses freak out. For the Cleveland Browns, this happened in 2022 when they added Deshaun Watson and signed him to a massive $230 million deal over five seasons.
Now it will happen with the Philadelphia Eagles, who just signed Jalen Hurts to a five-year, $255 million extension.
Each and every time a quarterback gets paid, fan bases erupt into an unbelievable rage. They always say it's too much money, and that no one will be able to pay for a competitive roster with such an albatross of a deal.
This was said when Derek Carr got a five-year, $125 million deal in 2017. The same when Jimmy Garoppolo got $137.5 million over five years later that year.
Several years later, Dak Prescott was said to be overpaid with $160 million over four years. And don't even get us started on how bad Josh Allen's six-year, $258 million contract is. That definitely meant the Bills wouldn't be able to build around him.
Of course, that's not true. Buffalo continues to field a strong roster, as do the Cowboys despite paying Prescott. The Chiefs, who gave Patrick Mahomes 10 years and $503 million have also been able to pay enough players that they just won the Super Bowl.
So not only is it false that the contract will hold a team back, but this latest contract is proof that teams need to just bite the bullet and pay their guy. Why? Because the price only increases.
It will always be more expensive to pay a quarterback tomorrow than it will be today. Watson and Hurts are perfect examples.
Watson has a contract that pays $46 million per season on average (ignore the fact that it's fully guaranteed, that was just what it took to get him to Cleveland, he was getting $230 million wherever he went). Hurts now has $51 million per season.
Just one year later and it's $5 million more to pay the quarterback. And let's not even try and use the "Hurts is better than Watson" argument because that's not the key factor. All that matters is that you're the guy your team believes in.
Need proof? Hurts now makes more than Patrick Mahomes who has an average per-year salary of $50.3 million. There's no planet where Hurts is the superior player but he makes more because he got paid later than Mahomes.
All of this is being said to point out that everyone who freaked about Watson's per year average simply isn't paying attention to how the market works. And those same people will likely lose their collective minds when Watson gets an extension in three-to-four years.