Jacksonville Jaguars: Malik Jackson Will Be Overpaid

The Jacksonville Jaguars have come to terms with free agent defensive end Malik Jackson on a six-year, $90 million deal. While Jackson should improve the Jaguars’ defense, will this be a contract that the team will soon regret?

Denver Broncos defensive end Malik Jackson had a breakout year in 2015, finishing with 46 tackles, 5.5 sacks, and constantly collapsing the pocket. In a contract year, you knew that he was going to get paid, but the Jacksonville Jaguars are apparently throwing an insane amount of money at him.

Mike Klis of 9News/KUSA reports that the Jaguars have agreed to terms with the Super Bowl champion defender on a six-year, $90 million contract, with $42 million guaranteed. A total of $45 million will be paid-out over the first three years of the deal. Not only does this contract put him among the highest paid defensive ends in NFL history, but it also puts him among the highest paid defensive players in league history.

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Now, I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve to get paid, because he did make quite an impact on the Broncos’ championship run. Not only did he help collapse the pocket, but he also absorbed double-teams on many occasions that helped free fellow pass rushers Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware.

Jackson was a fifth-round pick back in 2012, and worked his way up the depth chart. He has proven to be durable (playing in all 16 regular season games over the past three seasons), and at just 26 years old, his future does appear bright.

With that being said though, Jackson did just have 1.5 sacks over the final 10 weeks of the regular season, and failed to get to the quarterback in the playoffs. He went on a seven-game stretch during the middle part of last season in which he totaled just 15 tackles and zero sacks, numbers that hardly scream “$90 million.” He has never eclipsed six sacks in a season, and there are some questions as to whether he was a byproduct of the Denver Broncos creative/dominant defensive schemes.

Via Spotrac, the Jacksonville Jaguars had money to spend this offseason (an estimated $77 million in cap space prior to this signing), so this move shouldn’t prevent them from adding more impact-talent as the offseason progresses, but $90 million? Wow, that’s a big number!

There are also some concerns with how Jackson will fit into the Jaguars’ scheme as well. First off, Jackson is going to have to transition from Denver’s 3-4 defense to Jacksonville’s 4-3. Jackson has the talent to be able to play both defensive end and defensive tackle in his new scheme, which can add some versatility to the line, but making the transition can be difficult. We’ve seen many talented defensive linemen (i.e. Mario Williams, Ndamukong Suh, etc.) switch teams (and schemes) to mixed results, and Jacksonville better hope that their big-ticket signing doesn’t join that list.

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Bottom line is this: Jacksonville was flushed with cash and needed a pass-rusher, so the signing of Malik Jackson makes sense. He was probably the best defensive lineman on the market, and everybody knows that in free agency, teams are going to overpay. There’s no doubt that Jackson makes the Jaguars’ defense better, and congratulations should be given to him for signing a life-changing deal.

For Jacksonville, this contract looks pretty bad right now. In a few years, it could look even worse.