Receiver Alshon Jeffery opted in free agency to sign a one-year deal with the Eagles, in the hopes of cashing in on the open market next year. He didn’t have to wait that long.
The Eagles have announced that Jeffery has signed a four-year extension, which puts him under contract through 2021.
Per multiple reports, the deal has a base value of $52 million, with $27 million generally guaranteed. (As usual, the initial reports don’t reveal the most important number: Amount fully guaranteed at signing. That number is always lower than the puffed-up, broad guarantee.)
Jeffery has 619 receiving yards in 11 starts this season, putting him on pace for only 900 total yards. He last broke 1,000 yards in 2014, his third year in the league.
The $13 million annual average puts him well behind the current NFL high-water mark of $17 million, which the Steelers gave to Antonio Brown earlier this year.
Jeffery, whose team is destined to play in January, could have waited to see whether a few big catches in the postseason may have resulted in an even bigger deal elsewhere, but he swapped the injury risk for certainty, and he finally has a big-money multi-year deal -- even if the money isn’t as big as what he seemed to be destined to get when he emerged in his second NFL season with 1,421 yards in Chicago.