Report: Jaguars Agree to Renegotiated Deal With Guard Andrew Norwell

The Jaguars' starting left guard has a reworked deal with the team who gave him a mega-contract two years ago.

More than two years after the Jacksonville Jaguars gave left guard Andrew Norwell a contract in free agency that made him the highest-paid guard in NFL history (a title he held for only a few months), the veteran has a reworked deal.

According to a report from Field Yates of ESPN, the Jaguars and Norwell agreed to a renegotiated deal in which Norwell earns more guaranteed money in 2020.

"The Jaguars and G Andrew Norwell agreed to a renegotiated deal in which he earns a $9M fully guaranteed base salary, with the solid chance to earn $2.5M back in realistic incentives. Previously, Norwell was due $11.5M non-guaranteed, now he gets security," Yates said.

Norwell signed a 5 year, $66.5 million contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars, including a $15 million signing bonus and $30 million guaranteed in the 2018 offseason. Since then, Norwell has started 27 games at left guard, missing five due to injury in 2018.

Norwell, 28, spent four seasons with the Carolina Panthers from 2014-2017 after going undrafted out of Ohio State. He started 54 games for the Panthers and was named to the First-Team All-Pro team in 2017, the season before he signed with the Jaguars.

Through two seasons, Norwell hasn't quite lived up to the mega-contract that former Jaguars executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin signed him to, but he is still a starter-level player. 

He is one of the key veterans along the Jaguars' offensive line and should be expected to start once again in 2020 since Will Richardson is either an offensive tackle or right guard and 2020 draftee Ben Bartch is a project who won't be ready to start early on in his rookie year. 

Despite this, Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone didn't give Norwell the highest vote of confidence when he was asked about the state of his offensive line before the draft.

"I think Andrew [Norwell] gets beat up pretty good, and there are times when he misses the pass block - his bad plays are bad - and he gets upset with that, but I feel comfortable about that, you know, healthy," Marrone said. 

In a big-picture sense, Norwell's reworked deal doesn't impact the Jaguars' cap situation much unless it pushes down his dead cap money in 2021. As it stands today, Norwell carries an $18 million dead cap in 2020, per Spotrac.