It showed the Panthers really, really want to pay their way into being a contender.<\/p>\n
Bleacher Report\u2019s Gary Davenport<\/a> recently called out Phillips\u2019 massive new deal as the NFL\u2019s \u201cWorst Free Agent Signing\u201d \u2014 even though the Eagles have done little to fill his spot on defense with the NFL draft looming.<\/p>\n \u201cOf the five biggest contracts given out in free agency this year, three went to edge-rushers, with Jaelan Phillips getting the biggest of the lot when the Carolina Panthers gave the 26-year-old a four-year, $120 million contract,\u201d Davenport wrote. \u201cThirty million a season is a lot to give a player whose career high in sacks (8.5) came as a rookie with the Miami Dolphins in 2021. But the fact that only New York Giants<\/a> edge-rusher Abdul Carter had fewer sacks last year with more than 50-plus pressures isn\u2019t the only issue with Phillips. His pass-rush win rate last year with the Philadelphia Eagles was under 10 percent, and he has a lengthy injury history\u2014he ruptured his Achilles tendon in 2023 and tore his ACL the following year.\u201d<\/p>\n Phillips\u2019 Free-Agent Contract Made NFL History<\/p>\n The Eagles made a deft move trading with the\u00a0Miami Dolphins<\/a> for Phillips right before the NFL trade deadline, and he ended up being the missing piece on a defense that wound up being elite down the stretch.<\/p>\n \u201cPanthers wanted a top rusher, circling on Jaelen Phillips and\u00a0Odafe Oweh<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Fowler wrote<\/a>\u00a0on his official X account. \u201cCould still add a top linebacker and\/or slot corner.\u201d<\/p>\n Paying $30 million per year for Phillips was probably never in Philadelphia\u2019s plans, and he far exceeded his market projections,\u00a0with\u00a0Spotrac predicting <\/a>a 3-year, $52 million contract. There was little doubt that the number could go much, much higher \u2014 some thought\u00a0as high as $80 million.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Philllips\u2019 deal with the Panthers ended up being the largest contract for a non-skill player in\u00a0NFL<\/a>\u00a0free-agent history.<\/p>\n Tracking Brutal Injury History for Jaelan Phillips<\/p>\n Even though the 6-foot-5, 260-pound Phillips played all 17 games in 2025, he missed 19 games over the previous 2 seasons due to a torn ACL in 2023 and a torn Achilles tendon in 2024. Those are the type of injuries that put a big question mark on making any sort of deal for him.<\/p>\n \u201cPhilly vastly overpaid for\u00a0Phillips (in the trade),\u00a0whose sack production has been average since his rookie year,\u201d\u00a0former NFL scouting director Greg Gabriel<\/a>\u00a0wrote on his official X account. \u201cAnd he\u2019s coming out of contract, so he\u2019s a rental.\u201d<\/p>\n If you know anything about how the Eagles have paid players in recent years, it\u2019s not a leap to think they would be loath to cough up another big contract to a free agent edge rusher who wasn\u2019t a bona fide star.<\/p>\n It\u2019s kind of where all these problems started for the Eagles in the first place. Before the 2024 season, they coughed up a 3-year, $51.1 million contract for free agent edge rusher\u00a0Bryce Huff<\/a>\u00a0and gave the in-house guy,\u00a0Josh Sweat<\/a>, a 1-year, $10 million contract.<\/p>\n Huff was traded to the 49ers<\/a> after 1 disappointing season. Sweat, who led the Eagles in sacks in 2024, signed a 4-year, $76 million free-agent contract with the Arizona Cardinals<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It showed the Panthers really, really want to pay their way into being a contender. Bleacher Report\u2019s Gary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-606347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}