Reports: Former Oklahoma QB Jalen Hurts Lands Record NFL Contract

Hurts impressed NFL scouts with his one record-breaking season with the Sooners and now reportedly has one of the largest contracts in league history.

John E. Hoover | Apr 17, 2023

In this story:

Oklahoma Sooners

Jalen Hurts continues to ply his one big season at Oklahoma into a successful NFL career.

According to reports, the Philadelphia Eagles reached a contract extension with their quarterback that will pay Hurts $255 million over the next five years, including $179.304 million guaranteed.

It’s the largest contract in NFL history in terms of average annual value. The Cleveland Browns last year signed quarterback Deshaun Watson to a deal worth $230 million — all fully guaranteed.

Hurts' extension also reportedly includes a no-trade clause, the first in Eagles history, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, citing an unnamed source.

The annual value of Hurts’ new contract is $51 million, the largest in NFL history. The $179.3 million is the third-largest in NFL history behind Watson and the player he replaced at Oklahoma, Kyler Murray, who landed $189.5 million in guarantees from the Arizona Cardinals.

It was Hurts’ 2019 season at Oklahoma that elevated his NFL Draft stock to a second-round pick in the 2020 draft.

Hurts was a 4-star prospect out of Houston’s Channelview High School. He signed with Alabama and immediately became Nick Saban’s first freshman to start at QB, throwing for 2,780 yards and 23 touchdowns. In 2017m, he threw for 2,081 yards and 17 touchdowns, but was infamously benched at halftime of the national championship game at the end of his sophomore season.

He lost his job to Tua Tagovailoa and threw for just 765 yards and eight touchdowns in 2018, including a dramatic comeback victory over Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.

After Hurts’ Crimson Tide beat Oklahoma in the College Football Playoff, he decided to play for Lincoln Riley as a graduate transfer at Oklahoma.

His one season at OU, Hurts went from castoff backup to Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, completing 70 percent of his passes while throwing for 3,851 yards and 32 touchdowns and also rushing for 1,298 yards and 20 touchdowns — a program record for quarterbacks — and finishing second to Joe Burrow in the Heisman Trophy voting.

Hurts’ NFL career began as a backup to Carson Wentz and situational QB in 2020, as he started the final four games of the season.

In 2021, Hurts was the starter all year and threw for 3,144 yards and 16 touchdowns while rushing for 784 yards and 10 TDs.

Last season Hurts, 24, was runner-up in the NFL MVP race behind Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes, throwing for 3,701 yards with 22 touchdowns to six interceptions and rushing for 760 yards and 13 scores. He missed two games with a shoulder injury but went 14-1 as a starter.

Hurts also made a run at Super Bowl MVP in the Eagles’ loss to the Chiefs, compiling 374 total yards and four touchdowns.

His 43 total touchdowns in 2022 broke Donovan McNabb’s team record and made him second-team All-Pro.

Published Apr 17, 2023

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.