There are a lot of things to address this off-season with the Chicago Bears, but extending Eddie Jackson before he became a free agent after next season won’t be one to worry about. Per Ian Rapoport, Jackson gets a four- year extension with quite a bit of guaranteed money and a high yearly average…like highest in the NFL high.
A pretty awesome accomplishment for the former fourth round pick.
The #Bears and star S Eddie Jackson agree to terms on a 4-year extension worth $58.4M, per his agents @_SportsTrust. He gets $33M total guarantee, $22M fully guaranteed. $14.6M yearly average is the highest at the position. Big money.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 3, 2020
Jackson followed up his Pro Bowl and First-Team All-Pro 2018 season, with another Pro-Bowl selection in 2019. He didn’t duplicate his ridiculous 7 turnovers and 3 TDs from a season ago which are always the flashy stats, but he improved in terms of coverage and causing opposing QB to look the other way. His total targets, total completions, total yards allowed, yards per completion, and yards per target all improved after a First-Team All-Pro honor last year.
Locking in Jackson before testing the free-agent market was a must this off-season. It’s looking like there are going to be some big changes coming soon on that defense, so to have some consistency and playmakers to build around is key. The Bears are set to lose Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix, Prince Amukamara, Danny Trevathan, Nick Kwiatkoski, and Leonard Floyd this off-season or next off-season unless some extensions or new deals are agreed to.
The base for the next few years now however will be:
- Khalil Mack – 2025
- Eddie Jackson – 2025
- Eddie Goldman – 2023
- Roquan Smith – 2023 (who will more than likely get an extension in the next year or so)
- Kyle Fuller – 2022
- Akiem Hicks – 2022
- Buster Skrine – 2022
- Bilal Nichols – 2022
With the Bears already being somewhat limited by cap space, and a huge need at LB coming up, you have to think that the Bears are going to to make a move here this off-season to clear some cap. Ryan Pace has a lot of work to do after this mess of a season, but props to him for getting this first big player move (second if you count the Fuller restructure?) right. Bears fans needed some positive news, that’s for sure.
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