Did the Carolina Panthers get a steal with Jaelan Phillips? Or did they overpay? You can find answers of yes to both questions. But Phillips’ contract is the biggest mistake the Panthers made in Week 1 of 2026 NFL free agency.
Ok, let’s see why at least one person thinks Phillips could be a bargain, according to a post on X by Panthers reporter Mike Kaye.
“If he plays well next year, they will almost certainly restructure to open up cap and push down the cap number. His contract becomes guaranteed for Year 3 early in Year 2 unless he essentially bombs.”
OK. But let’s get to the meat of the issue.
Panthers overpaid for EDGE Jaelan Phillips
It still adds up to big dollars, even if the Panthers can cut bait after two years. What so many NFL teams seem to ignore is that they eventually have to pay the piper.
Sure, you can kick the can down the road. But it still has a wad of cash in it. You might strike gold and have everything fall into place with these oversized contracts one season. But it would be more like lightning in a bottle than a so-called “super solid deal,” according to Dylan Jackson of SportCLT.
So what’s the issue? NFL teams do it over and over and over. They pay for potential instead of results.
And in so doing, they ignore the obvious: The team that had the free agent, saw him day and day out in practice, decided he wasn’t worth the money he wanted.
Phillips spent his first 4 1/2 years with the Dolphins. Then half a season with the Eagles. And the truth about what he has accomplished is this: He just hasn’t done it.
In five NFL seasons, he has zero Pro Bowl honors. We’re not talking about a proven elite player.
And his sack totals go like this: 8.5, 7, 6.5, 1.0, and 5.0. That’s not exactly Brian Burns or Nik Bonitto-type numbers. And those dudes put up serious sack numbers. Plus, they both make less per year than Phillips. There’s no way the Panthers can justify $120 million to Phillips based on what he has shown on the field in terms of hard numbers.
Let’s look at tackles for loss: 9, 8, 7, 1, 7. Not a lot to get excited about.
Ok, he played only 12 games total in 2023 and 2024. That explains some of those numbers, right? Maybe. But it also says he’s injury prone. That’s a red flag for a huge contract.
And it wasn’t just an average injury. It was two of the worst. He tore his Achilles tendon in 2023 and his ACL in 2024. The second one hit hard mentally, according to panthers.com.
“That was really tough,” he admitted, head shaking as he remembered it again. “It was just hard to cope with the fact that it happened back-to-back, and my motivation, the mental aspect of it, is really tough. I didn't really know what was to come.
“(But) I knew I'd keep playing. I wasn't worried about my career or anything like that, but in terms of how successful I was going to be and would I ever be able to accomplish what I know I can accomplish, my potential?”
It’s not that Phillips can’t get it done. And there are no attitude issues.
“I'm just super grateful to be here,” expressed Phillips. “And I just feel like this is going to be the start of something really special.”
But the Panthers need elite numbers from Phillips to make the contract make sense.
What are the positives about Jaelan Phillips?
Phillips is a former first-round pick at No. 18 overall in 2021. He has the pedigree. But being selected in the first round means very little after five years of unconvincing production. The list of NFL players who got drafted in the first round and never matched that draft status with elite production is long. Right now, Phillips is on that list.
Again, it’s not that he can’t. It’s that he hasn’t. The Dolphins saw it for over four years. And they shipped him to the Eagles. They got a third-round pick for him. We will see if the Dolphins get any value from that pick. But that’s not a high price for a guy who just took home a big old bag of bills.
