The Eagles on Wednesday exercised the fifth-year option for defensive tackle Jordan Davis, a league source confirmed to NBC Sports Philadelphia. FOX Sports’ Jordan Schultz first reported the news.
This will keep Davis under contract through the 2026 season. While Davis hasn’t turned into a star player, the Eagles are still bullish on the No. 13 pick from the 2022 draft who has started every game the last two years.
The fifth-year option for Davis in 2026 will be worth $12,938,000, according to OverTheCap. That amount is fully guaranteed.
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SIGN UP HERE As an important note: Davis will enter the final year of his four-year rookie contract in 2025. This option is for the 2026 season.
Those fifth-year option amounts vary based on playing time and levels of success. Davis’s option amount is the basic amount because he hasn’t reached the playtime threshold and has not become a Pro Bowler.
Davis, 25, has played in 47 games with 39 starts in his three-year NFL career. He has been a solid run-stuffing nose tackle but hasn’t had the production as a pass rusher some hoped he’d be able to create when the Eagles moved up in the 2022 draft to take him with the No. 13 overall pick out of Georgia.
But the Eagles are still bullish on Davis, who actually had 2 sacks in the 2024 playoffs — one in the NFC Championship game and one in Super Bowl LIX — after having just 1 in the entire regular season.
NFL
That was a big part of GM Howie Roseman’s point when asked about Davis last month at the NFL owners meetings in Palm Beach, Florida.
“When you watch these guys perform through the whole body of the season, because that's what you really got to do, and it's going watching the early part, watching the middle stages of the season and then going back and watching the end of the season,” Roseman said at the owners meetings. “And you just see a guy who elevated in the postseason and (we) really counted on him continuing to develop and that's what this is.
“All of us, in all of our professions, you continue to develop and you continue to get better and that's what I think we're seeing from Jordan.”
Sometimes it can take a while for defensive tackles to mature in the NFL and maybe that’s the case for Davis. There’s a chance his best football is ahead of him and it’s not like this fifth-year option is breaking the bank.
This offseason, the Eagles watched as Milton Williams left Philadelphia on a four-year, $104 million contract that pays him $26 million annually. There are 27 defensive tackles making $13+ million per season. So while it doesn’t seem like Davis is worth this much, the rising salaries of interior defensive linemen make it seem like a bit more of a bargain.
In 2024, Davis seemed to be in better shape but actually played fewer snaps than he did in 2023. Even though he’s the only player on the roster to start every game over the last two years, he’s still very much a part-time player. But it makes sense that the Eagles preferred to have Jalen Carter and Williams on the field for third downs in 2024.
Here’s a look at Davis’s usage in his three NFL seasons:
2022: 13 games, 5 starts, 224 snaps (26%)
2023: 17 games, 17 starts, 519 snaps (45%)
2024: 17 games, 17 starts, 388 snaps (37%)
After losing Williams in free agency this offseason, the Eagles will bring back Carter, Davis, Moro Ojomo and Thomas Booker IV for the 2025 season. And they drafted Ty Robinson in the fourth round out of Nebraska. Carter is already one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL and will be eligible for a contract extension after the completion of the 2025 season and figures to make major money.