Earlier this week, the Carolina Panthers made one of the biggest splashes of this year's free agency “legal tampering” period by signing linebacker Jaelan Phillips to a massive four-year, $120 million contract, per Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network. The move ends Phillips' tenure with the Philadelphia Eagles after he was traded their last November, and gives the Panthers a major building block for their defense moving forward.
Let's take a look at how each side fared in the deal.
Panthers get a key building block
The Carolina Panthers blew away expectations this past season by winning the NFC South and making the playoffs, and giving the Los Angeles Rams all that they could handle in the Wild Card round. Still, the Panthers finished the 2025 campaign with a losing record and have plenty of questions to answer on both sides of the ball.
One of those is at the linebacker position, where Carolina didn't exactly have a great deal of pass rushers this past season.
While Phillips' sack numbers are relatively low, recording just five in the entirety of the 2025 season between the Eagles and Miami Dolphins, the team that drafted him in the first round back in 2021, he is still an elite athlete who can get after the passer and constantly draws double teams.
For a Panthers team that is looking to prove that their playoff run last year was no joke, the Phillips signing gives them a streak of legitimacy, even if it was at a hefty price point, and for a player who has suffered two devastating leg injuries so far in his career.
Grade: B
Jaelan Phillips gets paid
Perhaps the best evidence that this deal was a home run for Jaelan Phillips and his agent was the sheer surprise that many across the NFL landscape displayed once the signing with the Panthers was announced.
Phillips was long considered to be one of the top defensive players on the market in this year's free agency class, but few could have seen a price point of up to $30 million coming for a player who has suffered multiple tough injuries, including a torn Achilles.
While he likely won't be in contention for a Super Bowl in Carolina the same way he would have been in Philadelphia, Phillips still gets to join an intriguing young Panthers team that has the benefit of playing in the awful NFC South.
Overall, it's hard to imagine how things could have gone better for the 26-year-old this offseason.
