April 27, 2026
The Philadelphia Eagles have exercised their fifth-year options on iDL Jalen Carter and EDGE Nolan Smith, who were both selected in the first round of the 2023 draft.
To begin, Carter and Smith are both under contract in 2026. The decision to pick up their fifth-year options is for the 2027 season.
Players selected in the first round of the draft who have completed their third year in the league are eligible to have a fifth year added onto their contract by their team. It typically isn't cheap, and there are four pay tiers for fifth-year options, as laid out by OverTheCap:
• Tier 1 (Basic): Players who do not meet any of the requirements below will be eligible for a fifth-year base salary calculated from the average of the 3rd to 25th highest salaries at their position over the past five seasons.
• Tier 2 (Playtime): These players will be eligible for a fifth-year base salary calculated from the average of the 3rd to 20th highest salaries at their position over the past five seasons, provided that their snap counts over their first three seasons meet one of the following three criteria:
• Tier 3 (One Pro Bowl): Players who are named to exactly one Pro Bowl on the original ballot (not as an alternate) will be eligible for a fifth-year base salary equal to the transition tender at their position.
• Tier 4 (Multiple Pro Bowls): Players who are named to two or three Pro Bowls on the original ballot (not as an alternate) will be eligible for a fifth-year base salary equal to the franchise tender at their position.
OverTheCap's projected tiers for Carter and Smith are as follows:
| Fifth-year option | Tier 1 (Basic) | Tier 2 (Playtime) | Tier 3 (1 Pro Bowl) | Tier 4 (2+ Pro Bowl) |
| Jalen Carter | $27,127,000 | |||
| Nolan Smith | $13,752,000 |
Carter has made two Pro Bowls, so he qualifies for Tier 4 status. Smith has not made a Pro Bowl, and has not hit play time benchmarks, so he's stuck in Tier 1.
Fifth-year options become fully guaranteed as soon as teams exercise them. It's worth quickly noting that all non-guaranteed salary in the player's fourth season also becomes fully guaranteed. Before the new 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement, they were only guaranteed for injury. Since that change, the utilization of fifth-year options around the league has decreased.
Since the change to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the only time the Eagles have exercised their fifth-year option was with Jordan Davis, last offseason. Technically, they kinda-sorta also exercised DeVonta Smith's fifth-year option and included that as part of his contract extension two offseasons ago. They declined to exercise fifth year options on Jahan Dotson and Andre Dillard. They also traded Jalen Reagor and Kenny Pickett before needing to make the obvious decisions not to exercise their fifth-year options.
• 2022: Andre Dillard ❌
• 2023: Jalen Reagor ❌ (traded)
• 2024: DeVonta Smith ✅ (extension)
• 2025: Jordan Davis ✅
• 2025: Jahan Dotson ❌
• 2025: Kenny Pickett ❌ (traded)
Carter is arguably the Eagles' most talented player. Opposing offenses must game plan for him first and foremost when facing the Eagles' defense. He is a candidate to get a massive contract extension this offseason, and if so, the Eagles could try to build his fifth-year option into a new deal, like they did with DeVonta Smith a couple years ago. But exercising his fifth-year option was always a no-brainer.
Smith had a quiet rookie season in 2023 and his second season in 2024 got off to a slow start. However, the light seemed to come on for him after the Week 5 bye in 2024. In the 15 games he played from October on, Smith had 10.5 sacks, a pair of forced fumbles, and he did a lot of the dirty work in the defense like taking on pulling guards and burying them. He also led the NFL with four postseason sacks.
Smith entered 2025 as a budding star, and the Eagles' top edge defender. However, he did not have the season that he or the Eagles were hoping for, as he missed five games after aggravating a triceps injury that he suffered in the previous year's Super Bowl. He was also on a pitch count upon his return.
Smith will presumably be healthy to begin the 2026 season, and the Eagles will hope he picks up where he left off in 2024. The promise he showed in 2024 was enough for the Eagles to exercise his fifth-year option, especially at a reasonably cost of just under $14 million.
The Eagles have two other starting-caliber edge defenders on the roster in Jonathan Greenard and Jalyx Hunt. Hunt is two years into his four-year rookie contract, and will be eligible for a contract extension after next season.
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