Eagles Decision To Pick Up Fifth Year Options Was Easy, Now Comes Tricky Part

PHILADELPHIA – The Eagles had a few more days to decide if they wanted to bring back Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith on the fifth-year team option on their rookie contracts. They didn’t need until the May 1 deadline to make the decision, because, really, it’s a no-brainer. Especially for Carter.

The surprise would be if the Eagles don’t try to get Carter signed to a long-term contract and do it before his price tag could rise exponentially if he has the best season of his career.

For Smith, it’s a bit trickier. He could have the best season of his career, and a long-term contract may not be in the offing.

Why? Two reasons:

First, the Eagles just signed edge rusher Jonathan Greenard to a four-year deal worth $100 million.

Second, Jalyx Hunt’s rookie contract, which is just four years because he wasn’t a first-round draft pick, is up after the 2027 season. That is the same year the Eagles have locked down Carter and Smith.

Hunt looks like an emerging star after becoming the first player in Eagles history to lead the team in both sacks (6.5) and interceptions (three). Smith’s road to stardom was derailed y injury last year, and perhaps his loner attitude in the locker room and among his teammates and gruff demeanor toward the media wears thin after two more years.

Nolan Smith Has Work To Do To Earn Long-Term Deal

Still, Smith’s fifth-year contract is expected to be just shy of $14 million. That’s a bargain for a player with double-digit sack potential, though his career-high in those is 6.5 set in 2024, and he has just 10.5 in three seasons.

As for Carter, the Eagles would be rolling the dice by not trying to work out a long-term deal before the start of the season. The team option is for $27.1 million. An extension could lower the salary-cap charge.

Of course, he could have a say in that, too. Maybe he wants to bet on himself having a big season to get more money in an extension, but you would think he’d want to stick around a while with Jordan Davis. Carter has said he looks up to Davis like a big brother. You’d also think that, given Carter's shoulder ailments last year, he’d want a new deal sooner rather than later.

Davis signed his contract extension on March 7, one of the first move the Eagles made. It was last year, just one day before the deadline, that the Eagles picked up the team option on Davis’s rookie contract.

Davis had the best year of his career and was rewarded with a three-year, $78 million dollar deal that will keep him around through 2029. If Carter gets his extension, the two will be teammates for about a decade, dating back to their time together at the University of Georgia.

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