The first day of the free agency frenzy is well underway, and we have already seen a ton of massive deals go down. It's important to note, though, that no deal can become official until Wednesday, March 11th. This is not true for teams that just re-signed with their own teams, though.
The free agents who hit the open market are not able to 'officially' sign with their new team until later in the week. Anyway, the legal tampering period began on March 9th at 12pm Eastern time, and at that point, we have begun to see deals everywhere.
One of the notable deals that went down is a flat-out behemoth of a contract that the Carolina Panthers agreed to with free agent pass-rusher, Jaelan Phillips. When you see these contract terms, it'll make a ton of sense that Philadelphia Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman did not want to pay this type of money.
The Philadelphia Eagles said 'no thank you' to a massive Jaelan Phillips overpay
It's rare to see a free agency contract that ends up being worth the max value for the player, but Phillips and the Panthers will soon agree to a three-year deal worth an average of $30 million per year, which is simply an insane amount of money.
The #Panthers are signing #Eagles edge Jaelan Phillips, who gets a 4-year, $120M deal. Big time edge help. pic.twitter.com/F7mkimIEJH
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 9, 2026
Phillips played in 17 games this year, having stops with the Miami Dolphins and Eagles. He finished with five sacks, seven tackles for loss, and 14 quarterback hits. After missing the better part of two seasons with injuries, Phillips managed to get on the field quite a bit in 2025.
The Eagles actually traded for Phillips during the season, as the Vic Fangio connection made Philly a logical destination, and it really is a bit rare for a team to at least not aggressively try to re-sign someone they snagged at the deadline.
Well, Roseman definitely didn't want to pay this price, as the Eagles do now have a bit of a vacancy on the defensive line, and after extending Jordan Davis, the Eagles might not be able to pour a ton of money into the defense given that Davis got a massive deal.
All in all, it's both a good thing that Roseman didn't want to pay this steep price, but it does also force the Eagles front office to go hunting to fill that void, as Phillips is a good player. All of a sudden, he'll soon become one of the highest-paid pass-rushers in the NFL. In 63 career games, Phillips has 28 sacks, 32 tackles for loss, and 68 quarterback hits.