Jake Elliott was already having a perfect season and it just got even better on Wednesday.
The Eagles signed the 24-year-old kicker to a five-year contract extension that will keep him in Philadelphia through the 2024 season.
The extension is worth over $21 million, with around $10.5 million in guarantees, according to NFL reporter Adam Caplan. The highest AVY for a kicker in the league is Justin Tucker at $5 million per season.
While plenty of teams have struggled to find consistency at the kicker position, the Eagles have been lucky with Elliott. He hasn’t had a ton of opportunities this season, but he’s 14 for 14 on field goals, which includes a 53-yarder.
This move comes less than two weeks after the Eagles extended long snapper Rick Lovato. Don’t be surprised to see punter Cameron Johnston get locked up long term soon to keep the trio together for the next several years. Elliott was scheduled to become a restricted free agent after this season.
Earlier this season, before playing the Bears, who have had a notable problem with their kickers, head coach Doug Pederson was asked about the Eagles’ stability at the position.
“Any time that you have a kicking situation — we're blessed,” Pederson said. “We've been blessed here in Philly for a lot of years to have great kickers and the history of kickers here and Jake is no exception. I think sometimes, too, playing in outdoor stadiums, you just get used to the wind. You get used to a lot of things, and I'm kind of glad I don't have those types of issues right now where we can just kind of focus in on our team.
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“I played in Green Bay where we've had great kickers and a lot of years. I don't know why necessarily that is, but I'm very pleased with Jake and really our two kickers.”
The Eagles picked up Elliott early in the 2017 season after Caleb Sturgis was placed on IR and now we’re talking about Elliott being the kicker in Philly for the better part of a decade. Out of Memphis, Elliott was a fifth-round pick by the Bengals in 2017, but he lost the kicking competition in training camp, which made him available for the Eagles.
Of course, Elliott’s first big moment with the Eagles came when he drilled a 61-yard game-winner against the Giants on Sept. 24, 2017. That’s the longest field goal in Eagles history. Elliott also has the longest field goal in Eagles playoff history (53 yards).
In fact, Elliott owns two of the four longest field goals in Eagles regular-season and playoff history. His five field goals of 50-plus yards in 2017 were a franchise record.
Elliott also went 3 for 3 on field goals in Super Bowl LII.
This season, he became the first kicker in team history to start a season with 14 straight field goal makes.
And since the start of the 2017 season (including playoffs), Elliott ranks tied for fifth in the NFL in 40-plus-yard field goals.
He isn’t going anywhere for a while.
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