There are usually a lot of bad contracts in the NFC East, so it's fun ranking the top 10 each year and watching fans get all riled up about it. So, you know, let's just do this.

10) DaRon Bland, CB, Cowboys: Bland had a great rookie season in 2022 in which he picked off 5 passes. He followed that up with an amazing second season in 2023, when he had 9 INTs, 209 return yards, and 5 (!) pick-sixes. I mean, every year there are plenty of starting receivers who didn't even have 5 TDs. Bland was named first-Team All-Pro and he finished fifth in Defensive Player of the Year voting. Frankly, it's ridiculous that he only finished fifth.

He was rewarded with a four-year deal worth $90 million in new money, and is presently the seventh highest paid corner in the NFL.

The last two seasons have not been great. Bland has missed 15 games, and his takeaway production has plummeted, with just 1 INT during that span. To be fair, the Cowboys weren't wrong for paying Bland, but it is not looking like a good contract at the moment.

9) Cam Jurgens, C, Eagles: After playing through a bad back injury during the Eagles' Super Bowl run in 2024, Jurgens had a procedure in February of 2025 to alleviate nerve pain.

In April of 2025, the Eagles signed Jurgens to a four-year deal worth $68 million, making him the second highest paid center in the NFL at the time (he's now third).

Jurgens missed most of training camp, and acknowledged that he wasn't fully recovered from that procedure. It showed on the field, as Jurgens did not play to his standard, despite being voted into the Pro Bowl.

Maybe there's an argument to be made for rewarding Jurgens' toughness, as well as proactively getting a deal done a year prior to the end of his rookie contract, as the Eagles have successfully done with linemen for a long time. But it's also fair to wonder if the Eagles misjudged Jurgens' injury and recovery timeline when they did his deal.

8) Patrick Ricard, FB, Giants: Ricard signed with the Giants this offseason on a two-year deal worth $7.6 million. It's not a lot of money relative to other players on this list, so it's really not an awful contract. We’re definitely nitpicking here. But to me, it's just funny that he's making triple the veteran minimum when he only plays like 40% of the snaps when he's healthy, and he touched the football twice last season (lol).

Ricard and Kyle Juszczyk make the Pro Bowl every year as the NFL's token fullbacks. Ricard makes more money than Juszczyk, who actually makes an occasional play with the ball in his hands.

I could see if defenders are bouncing off this guy’s blocks like he’s Christian Okoye in Tecmo Bowl, but that’s not what is happening. Paying a guy $7.6 million just to tell the defense you’re running it is a waste of money.

7) Jake Elliott, K, Eagles: Elliott is pretty comfortably the best kicker in franchise history, and after a near-automatic season in 2023, he signed a four-year contract extension worth $24 million, making him one of the highest-paid kickers in football.

But that season, concerns started creeping up, as Elliott dropped to a 77.8 field goal percentage and struggled especially on kicks from 50-plus yards out (he was 1-for-7 on them during the regular season). The Eagles winning the Super Bowl heavily masked that, but 2025 left nowhere to hide. Elliott's field-goal percentage dropped further to 74.1, going 4-for-8 on kicks from 50-plus yards and 7-for-10 on attempts from 40-49 yards. 

In several games late in the season – all losses to Dallas, Chicago, the L.A. Chargers, and then in the playoffs to the 49ers – Elliott missed kicks that ended up being crucial points left off the board for the Eagles.

This offseason, the Eagles restructured Elliott's contract, reducing his base pay from $6 million down to $5 million, but guaranteeing all of it for 2026. They probably should have just gotten a new kicker, but are letting past achievements cloud what he is as a player currently.

6) Jevón Holland, S, Giants: Holland signed with the Giants last offseason on a three-year deal worth $45 million. Over his four-year career in Miami, Holland had 301 tackles, 5 sacks, 25 pass breakups, 5 forced fumbles, and 5 INTs. He averaged roughly 75 tackles, 1 sack, 6 pass breakups, a forced fumble, and an INT per season. That was worth $15 million per season to the Giants, somehow.

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On the surface, the Holland signing was an overpay. But what makes it even worse is that the year before they signed Holland, the Giants let Xavier McKinney walk in free agency without making any real attempt to re-sign him, as HBO's Hard Knocks showed during the 2024 offseason. McKinney signed with Green Bay for a mere $1.75 million more per season than Holland, and he was named to the All-Pro team in each of his first two seasons with the Packers.

5) Darius Slayton, WR, Giants: The funniest Giants signing during the 2025 offseason was Darius Slayton, who got the same exact deal that the Giants wouldn't give Saquon Barkley the previous year:

Even with Malik Nabers missing 13 games in 2025 with a torn ACL (thus opening up opportunities for more targets), Slayton had just 37 catches for 538 yards and 1 TD.

4) Daron Payne, iDL, Commanders: Payne had a monster season in 2022, when he had 11.5 sacks. The following offseason he scored a four-year deal worth $90 million. His production has dropped off sharply since. He has 11 sacks in the last three seasons combined, and hasn't been the same run defender either.

Payne will count for just under $28 million on the Commanders' cap this season. The Commanders could have cut Payne this offseason and saved over $16 million, which felt like a no-brainer to me, but they chose to keep him. 🤷‍♂️

3) Odafe Oweh, EDGE, Commanders: Oweh's career got off to a slow-ish start for a first-round pick (selected 31st overall by the Ravens in 2021), as he had 13 sacks his first three seasons. He turned it on a bit in 2024 (10 sacks), followed by a 7.5-sack season in 2025. 

Oweh's 2025 season was with two teams. He played the first five games of the season with the Ravens, and was then traded to the Chargers for very little:

All of Oweh's 7.5 sacks in 2025 came in his 12 games with the Chargers. However, in cutting up video of his sacks, I count 6 coverage sacks, and the vast majority of the guys he beat are stiffs. Some of them include Julian Hill (TE), Walter Rouse, Dan Moore x2, Esa Pole, Chukwuebuka Godrick, Will Campbell, and Morgan Moses x2. I've never even heard of four of those guys.

The Ravens and Chargers did not often play Oweh on run downs. His snaps were limited mostly to passing downs.

The Commanders gave him a four-year deal worth $96 million. Oof. I do understand the Commanders' impulse to do whatever it takes to improve their pass rush since they couldn't get after the quarterback a year ago, but man is that an overpay for a guy who has really only played on obvious passing downs. This reminds me a lot of the Eagles' signing of Bryce Huff, but for $7 million per season more.

Side note: The Commanders also signed K'Lavin Chaisson this offseason for $11 million. Like Oweh, Chaisson is best used as a situational pass rusher. In other words, the Commanders — who ranked 27th in run defense DVOA in 2025 — are paying over $40 million in cash in 2026 to a couple of guys who should really only be playing on obvious passing downs.

2) Javon Kinlaw, iDL, Commanders: In one of the biggest surprises of Day 1 of 2025 free agency, league-wide, Kinlaw somehow scored a three-year deal worth $45 million. Kinlaw spent his first four years with the 49ers, and the 2024 season with the Jets. At that point in his career, he had 9.5 sacks in five seasons. His lack of pass rush production aside, Kinlaw has a hulking frame but had been an atrocious run defender throughout his five-year career.

Kinlaw got overpaid on a one-year "prove it" deal worth $8 million with the Jets in 2024. He proved nothing, and the Commanders were like, "Hey, why don't you come play here for $45 million?"

In his first season with the Commanders, Kinlaw had 43 tackles (only 5 for loss), 0 sacks, and just 3 QB hits despite playing 724 snaps.

1) Dak Prescott, QB, Cowboys: Prescott had the best season of any quarterback in the NFC East in 2025, and he made our First-Team All-NFC East team. So, you know, he's a good player, though inconsistent from year to year.

However, if you were asked to make a list of all the quarterbacks you would want to have heading into the 2026 season, would Prescott make your top 10? (Personally, I think he's borderline. I'd have him somewhere in between 9 and 12.)

The Cowboys have botched Prescott's contract situation since 2019. For the sake of brevity we won't get into the ugly year-by-year details, but the end result was that he was able to score the league's first $60 million per year contract, and he remains the highest-paid player in the NFL, still by a fairly decent margin.

I imagine Cowboys fans will object to Prescott's placement on this list, given his productive season in 2025. I get that. Certainly, there are plenty of teams around the league who would take Prescott over their trash at quarterback.

But ultimately the highest-paid player in the NFL should be elite, not a guy who has been in the league for 10 years who only has two playoff wins.

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