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Jalen Hurts & Nicole Lynn... have a DAY 👏
Meet the highest paid player in NFL history and the woman that negotiated the deal.
Kate Magdziuk
April 17, 2023
Happy Monday, bestie! We started the week off with a BANGER… 🤯
Quarterback Jalen Hurts has officially secured a five-year, $255 million contract extension with the Philadelphia Eagles, just 64 days after making his first Super Bowl start at the age of 24. 👏 👏 👏
Breaking: The Eagles and Jalen Hurts reached an agreement on a five-year, $255M extension, including over $179M guaranteed and also featuring a no-trade clause, sources tell @AdamSchefter.
— ESPN (@espn)
3:08 PM • Apr 17, 2023
The contract officially makes Hurts the highest-paid NFL player in history, with an average salary of $51 million. QB Aaron Rodgers was previously the highest-paid player in history at $50.27 million — see ya, Aaron! How is he still a Green Bay Packer, btw? I digress.
Anyway. Before the Super Bowl, I spent some time writing about why Jalen Hurts is basically impossible to root against. He’s an underdog, after all. And if you know anything about Gaming Society, you’ll know we ❤️ a good underdog story.
Read more about his ascension to become the highest-paid player in NFL history.
Congrats aren’t just due to him, though…
Can we really celebrate Hurts’ historic deal without celebrating the WOMAN who negotiated on his behalf? Say hello (and congrats!) to his agent, Nicole Lynn, of Klutch Sports Group.
Jalen Hurts' agent @AgentNicoleLynn just made the @Eagles QB the highest-paid player in NFL history 👏 #BetOnWomen
— Gaming Society (@GamingSociety)
3:31 PM • Apr 17, 2023
Lynn’s broken all kinds of barriers in her career, as the first black woman to represent an NFL draft pick (Jets DT Quinnen Williams, drafted 3rd overall in 2019) and the first black woman to represent a quarterback in a Super Bowl (Jalen Hurts, 2022).
Now, she adds “negotiated the highest average annual salary in NFL history” to her resume. IT’S CASUAL. 👏 👏 👏
What’s even crazier: How Lynn became Hurts’ agent! It all started with an Instagram DM. 😲
After Jalen Hurts' final college game, Nicole Lynn says she reached out to him through an Instagram DM:
"Hey, have you picked an agent? If not, I’d love to link.”
Three years later, she's Klutch Sports' President of Football, and Hurts is the highest-paid player in NFL history.
— Front Office Sports (@FOS)
3:24 PM • Apr 17, 2023
The lesson: Shoot 👏 your 👏 shot!
Lynn isn’t the only woman that helped Hurts get to where he is, either. Kudos to the rest of his all-female management team (in no particular order):
Rachel Everett (Marketing)
Jenna Malphrus (Management)
Shakeemah Simmons-Winter (Communications)
Chantal Romain (Communications)
Say it one more time for the people in the back! #BetOnWomen and good things happen. 💪
So, how far can Hurts & Eagles go in 2023?
The sky is the limit, y’all. With Hurts at the helm, Philadelphia shocked the world (except for me, Kate Magdziuk. I have proof.), winning the surprisingly competitive NFC East to lead the NFL with a 14-3 record.
There were a lot of questions about whether that success could carry over in 2023, however, with so many of the cornerstones of that contending roster set to hit free agency. GM Howie Roseman isn’t one to just roll over, though.
The Eagles responded by bringing star CB James Bradberry back on a massive three-year, $38 million extension. Star center Jason Kelce opted to return to play in 2023, rather than retire. Fletcher Cox came back on a one-year deal. Things slowly started coming back together for this team that will undoubtedly look to “run it back” to the Super Bowl this year.
They also lost a few names, like S C.J. Gardner-Johnson, DT Javon Hargrave, and RB Miles Sanders. Still, it feels like the potentially disastrous fallout that could have happened never did.
Oh, and let’s not forget about the fact that they’re casually sitting with two first-round draft picks — one of them No. 10 overall thanks to the Saints. There’s still work left to be done, folks!
May the odds be ever in Hurts’ favor…
Ahead of the NFL Draft, the Eagles are tied for the fourth-best odds to win the 2024 Super Bowl at +900 (which means a $100 bet on the Eagles to win the Super Bowl would win you $900 in profit if they take home the Lombardi! YAY PROFITS).
Here’s a look ⬇️
Jalen Hurts’ odds to win NFL MVP next season aren’t too shabby, either.
He’s currently got the fifth-best odds to win the award at +1200, meaning a $100 bet on him to win MVP would win you $1200 in profit if he were to win!
I’d argue they feel like pretty fair odds, too, considering he likely would have won NFL MVP in 2022 if it weren’t for a shoulder injury to close out the regular season.
The real question — if you had $150 in bonus bets (which you could, thanks to our friends at FanDuel! 😘 ), which would you rather bet on — Hurts to win MVP or the Eagles to win the Super Bowl? 🤔 🤔
The Betting Academy’s lesson of the day 🎓️ Bets on which player will win MVP or which team will win the Super Bowl are examples of futures bets — AKA, a wager on an outcome that won’t be decided for some time.
Futures bets are always inherently risky, because anything (and I mean anything!) can happen that might shake up the chances of your bet cashing. That’s why the odds are often higher on these, meaning more profits to be made if the bets cash. More risk = more reward.
All of that is to say — congrats, Eagles. You found a gem. We can’t wait to see what’s next!