Philadelphia Eagles WR DeVonta Smith: Why Signing Extension is More Complicated Than It Seems

The Philadelphia Eagles always want to get extensions done early with foundational pieces.

PHILADELPHIA - It should hardly come as a surprise that the Philadelphia Eagles have been hard at work on a contract extension for receiver DeVonta Smith.

That's business as usual for the Howie Roseman-led Eagles, whose organizational philosophy is to identify foundational pieces and extend them as early as possible because the price tag rarely comes down when playing the waiting game.

In the case of Smith, 25, if it were solely up to the Eagles, the fourth-year pro would likely already have an extension much like Landon Dickerson, who signed a market-setting extension for offensive guards in March at four years and $84 million.

Minnesota's Justin Jefferson is expected to reset the WR market with his extension.

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Smith, the No. 10 overall pick in the 2021 draft, is the more complicated deal for several reasons, starting with the fifth-year option. Only first-round picks come with the team option for an extra year so the urgency is diminished at least somewhat vs. a player like Dickerson, who would have been playing on an expiring deal this season if nothing was worked out.

Positional value and outside measuring sticks are also murkier when trying to gauge the value of Smith. In the case of Dickerson, who is in the conversation for being one of the better left guards in the NFL, a new high point when it comes to average annual value against a little less in guarantees was a nice give-and-take for an ascending player with the understanding that the next top-tier option at the position will almost surely bypass Dickerson.

At WR, Smith has been very good, piling up 240 receptions for 3,178 yards and 19 touchdowns over his first three seasons with the Eagles, hitting the ground running as a rookie with a franchise freshman record of 916 yards. By 2022, it was a single-season franchise record for receptions by a WR with 95, and Smith has eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark over the past two seasons.

That said, Smith is not even the best WR on the Eagles, a mythical title reserved for All-Pro A.J. Brown, never mind the kind of player who should reset a market currently paved by Miami superstar Tyreek Hill at a $30 million AAV.

Former LSU teammates Justin Jefferson and Ja'Marr Chase are those types of players, however, and both are currently eligible for extensions as well. The Minnesota Vikings' Jefferson is expected to lap Hill and Cincinnati's Chase will not be far behind.

Meanwhile, Brown is currently at a $25M AAV and it would be hard from a political standpoint for the Eagles to put Smith above that bar.

Smith is currently under contract through 2024 and the Eagles have until May 2 to exercise the fifth-year option on Smith's rookie deal. His salary this season is a relatively modest $1.055M and would spike to $15.59M under the team option which will surely be exercised by the Eagles barring an extension in the next couple of weeks.

The ball is in Smith's court here.

The Alabama product could agree to a team-friendly extension that offers life-changing money immediately or follow a Kirk Cousins-inspired path in which the goal is to maximize every penny of earning potential.

The latter path would require the waiting game and allowing the Jefferson/Chase tide to raise Smith's own boat with the comfortable knowledge of an insurance policy that would pay out nearly $16M in the worst-case scenario.

For now, an NFL source told Eagles Today that Smith's camp is willing to show patience with the understanding of what's coming for the WR market.