Julius Thomas signed a five-year, $46 million contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)
The Jacksonville Jaguars made Julius Thomas the NFL’s highest-paid tight end.
Thomas received a contract that averages out to $9.2 million a year. The deal includes a whopping $15.1 million in 2015 alone — $9 million in base salary, a $6 million signing bonus and a $100,000 offseason workout bonus, according to an NFL source.
Thomas’ $9.2 million-per-year average now catapults him past Seattle’s Jimmy Graham and New England’s Rob Gronkowski, both at $9 million a year. Graham had been making $10 million per year with New Orleans, but he agreed to a restructured three-year, $27 million contract upon his trade Tuesday to Seattle.
Thomas made $645,000 last year, in his fourth and final year with the Broncos. The Broncos did try to extend him prior to the 2014 season, with a five-year, $40 million deal ($8 million per year) that included a $8.5 million signing bonus. But Thomas’s agent, Frank Bauer, said he could get a better deal in the open market, and he did.
Thomas’ contract with Jacksonville, includes $24 million in full guarantees. The Broncos’ contract included $9.145 million in full guarantees, although the team did offer millions more in conditional guarantees.
