reportedly<\/a> internally discussed using the franchise tag on Van Lanen before ultimately deciding against it, as the projected tag number would have landed around $27 million per year. Instead, Jacksonville chose to get a long-term deal done ahead of free agency. With extensions now finalized for two players with expiring contracts\u2014wide receiver Jakobi Meyers (three years, $60 million, $40 million guaranteed) and left tackle Cole Van Lanen\u2014the Jaguars have handled key business early. That leaves the franchise tag available for other potential candidates, possibly including running back Travis Etienne. The RB franchise tag is projected at roughly $13.6 million, and considering the team already handed Dyami Brown a one-year, $10 million free-agent deal this offseason, paying a few million more to retain Etienne feels like a relatively easy decision if a long-term agreement can\u2019t be reached.<\/p>\nWas the extension a risk?<\/p>\n
Many fans have, justifiably, questioned whether this extension carries some risk. And depending on your tolerance level, the answer is yes. Three starts in four seasons before 2025 and 12 career starts in five seasons might create some level of uncertainty. Even in 2025, Van Lanen has started just four games at left tackle under this regime before signing the extension, plus five additional starts at other offensive line positions. He\u2019s also faced a relatively limited slate of truly dominant edge rushers, with Denver\u2019s Nik Bonitto standing out as the most notable challenge. That context complicates the evaluation of his body of work. Is Van Lanen excelling because his strengths have matched up well against the opponents he\u2019s faced so far? Or is this performance sustainable against a broader range of elite power rushers? Has he simply not encountered the kind of player who could expose potential weaknesses in his game?<\/p>\n
That said, this coaching staff has worked with Van Lanen for an entire offseason and season and clearly believes in him enough to guarantee $32.5 million and keep him under contract through 2026. And while it\u2019s fair to acknowledge the small sample size, teams routinely hand out three and four-year contracts in free agency to players they\u2019ve never coached, practiced with, or evaluated within their own system on tape. Compared to that, this deal may actually be *less* risky than many outside free-agent additions (especially when you remember recent misses like the Dyami Brown signing).<\/p>\n
Average Left Tackle Money<\/p>\n
Financially, the known details of the deal align with the market. Van Lanen\u2019s contract sits at average left tackle money at the time of signing and will naturally slide down the positional rankings as the cap continues to rise. It\u2019s also only a modest increase over Walker Little\u2019s 2024 deal, once accounting for the roughly 8.5 percent salary cap jump in 2025. Put another way: if someone were signed today to Walker Little\u2019s exact 2024 contract, it would look closer to a three-year, $44 million extension with around $30 million guaranteed.<\/p>\n
While the verdict of this extension may sit in limbo for some time, let\u2019s remember, just because Van Lanen originally participated on a $3 million salary does not make him a $3 million player. We\u2019ve seen this before. Jordan Lewis outplayed his deal in Dallas and earned market value upon arriving in Jacksonville. Meanwhile, Cowboys fans often cry on social media about how much they should have paid him. Players outperform their contracts all the time, and when they do, teams have to pay up. If Van Lanen is truly the player this staff believes he is, then the risk here is far lower than the four-game audition narrative suggests.<\/p>\n
Jacksonville has a few remaining priority free agents, who may jump to the top of the list as the next extension candidates following Van-Lanen\u2019s deal:<\/p>\n
LB Devin LloydRB Travis EtienneLB Dennis GardeckCB Montaric Brown<\/p>\n
What are your thoughts on the reported extension, solidifying Lawrence\u2019s blindside, BigCatCountry? Too early or smart timing for a buy-low opportunity? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jacksonville Jaguars have reportedly fortified Trevor Lawrence\u2019s blindside for the next three seasons, according to NFL insider…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2060],"tags":[7,781,212,125,2406,2401,213,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-650144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville-jaguars","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-general","10":"tag-jacksonville","11":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","12":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars-news","13":"tag-jacksonvillejaguars","14":"tag-jaguars","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115830054173056380","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}