Jacksonville’s secondary has seen several departures recently, but a depth contributor will remain in the fold.
Safety Daniel Thomas has agreed to a new deal, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports.
The pact is two years in length and has a base value of $4M, Bleacher Report’s Jordan Schultz adds.
Thomas could earn up to $6M, though, making this agreement a much more lucrative one than his rookie contract. The former fifth-rounder has spent the past four seasons in Jacksonville, primarily serving on special teams.
Thomas has played 56 games with the Jags, logging a pair of starts in each of his first two years. He logged defensive snap shares of 23 percent and 20 percent during that time, but since then, he has been used all but exclusively in the third phase.
The 25-year-old has played 902 special teams snaps in his career, and that figure will continue to grow with this new deal in place.
The Jaguars released veteran safety Rayshawn Jenkins earlier this week as part of their cap purge on defense. That cost-cutting move left the team without a starter and it could open the door to more defensive playing time for Thomas.
The latter would still have several other in-house options to compete with, however, and the team could elect to add during free agency in particular (given the long list of available safeties).
Jacksonville had roughly $24.5M in cap space entering Thursday, a figure that does not take into account the Ezra Cleveland or Thomas deals.
While the Jags’ spending power will be lowered by those pacts, both players are now in line for newfound compensation on their second contracts.
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