The Philadelphia Eagles will almost certainly exercise their fifth-year option on wide receiver DeVonta Smith by the May 2 deadline to do so, if Smith and the Eagles don’t first work out a long-term contract extension. This is a no-brainer decision for the Eagles, but let’s go ahead and give an explainer on how fifth-year options work, as it’s been a few years since they’ve triggered one.
To begin, what is the fifth-year option?
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 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:
75% or greater in two of their first three seasons.
An average of 75% or greater over all three seasons.
50% or greater over all three seasons.
• 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 Smith are as follows:
Fifth-year option Tier 1 (Basic) Tier 2 (Playtime) Tier 3 (1 Pro Bowl) Tier 4 (2+ Pro Bowl)
DeVonta Smith $14,345,000 $15,591,000 $19,766,000 $21,816,000
Smith hasn’t made the Pro Bowl yet, so you can eliminate Tiers 3 and 4, however, he does qualify for Tier 2 status since he hit playing time benchmarks. His projected 2025 salary would thus be $15,591,000, based on 2025 salary cap projections.
The last time the Eagles utilized a player’s fifth-year option was in 2020, when they exercised Derek Barnett’s. At the time, the fifth-year salary did not become fully guaranteed until the first day of the new league year in the player’s fifth year. It was only fully guaranteed for injury, as in, if say a player tore his ACL late in his fourth season, that fifth-year option would become fully guaranteed.
After changes made in the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement, fifth-year options became fully guaranteed as soon as the team exercised it. It’s worth quickly noting that all non-guaranteed salary in the player’s fourth season also becomes fully guaranteed. Since that change, the utilization of fifth-year options around the league has decreased.
The Eagles chose not to exercise Andre Dillard’s fifth-year option in 2022, and they had already traded Jalen Reagor before needing to make the obvious decision not to exercise his in 2023.
Should the Eagles exercise DeVonta Smith’s fifth-year option?
The choice to exercise Smith’s fifth-year option is obvious, as he is a very good homegrown receiver who is already a core player in the Eagles’ offense. His pay would increase substantially from roughly $5 million per season under his initial rookie contract to about $16 million, however, his pay would still be relatively low, at least compared with other similar receivers around the NFL. Calvin Ridley, for example, just signed a four-year deal worth $92 million ($23 million per season) in Tennessee after a season in which he caught 76 passes for 1,016 yards and 8 TDs. Ridley will turn 30 during the 2024 season. In 2023, Smith had 81 catches for 1,066 yards and 7 TDs. He’ll turn 26 during the 2024 season.Should Smith play out the final year of his rookie contract in 2024 and his theoretical fifth-year option in 2025, the Eagles would also have the option of franchise tagging Smith for the 2026 season, though that would very likely cost north of $25 million.
Still, the Eagles aren’t under the gun to negotiate a contract extension for Smith. They can be patient and find a deal that works for both sides.
In the case of Landon Dickerson, who signed a lucrative contract extension earlier this offseason, the Eagles had more urgency to get a deal done. Dickerson was not a first-round pick, and therefore the Eagles did not have a fifth-year option at their disposal. Dickerson also would not be a good candidate for the franchise tag next offseason, if the Eagles had needed it, since franchise tags do not differentiate between guards and tackles. A franchise tag would have been elite offensive tackle money, which the Eagles would not want to pay to any guard. As such, it made sense that Dickerson’s deal got done before Smith’s.
The Eagles don’t like talking about player contracts publicly, but Roseman made it clear that he wants Smith to be an Eagle for the long haul.
“DeVonta is an incredible person, incredible player; obviously homegrown, young guy,” Roseman said at the NFL Combine in February. “Without getting into specifics, those are guys you don’t really want to leave.”
The Eagles likely wait until just after the draft to officially exercise Smith’s fifth-year option, again, if they don’t work out a contract extension before then.
