Philadelphia Eagles: Will Vinny Curry Earn His Paycheck in 2017?

Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Vinny Curry hasn't played up to his 5-year, $47.25 million contract, but will he earn that paycheck in 2017?

After the 2015 season, Howie Roseman and the Philadelphia Eagles decided that defense end Vinny Curry deserved a contract extension. Curry, who up to that point had never started a game in his career, signed a five-year deal worth $47.25 million with $23 million guaranteed.

The thought behind the deal was that Curry would start at defensive end. He would be opposite of Brandon Graham and terrorize opposing quarterbacks. It may not have made sense to some people, but when you dissected Curry's game, you could understand the contract.

In 2014 and 2015, Curry did not start a game, but he did play 799 combined snaps. With those 799 combined snaps over that two year period, Curry had 12.5 sacks and 20 hurries (according to SportingCharts.com). That breaks down to one sack every 60 plays and one hurry every 40 plays. These numbers were so underrated that many, including myself, predicted that Curry would have a huge year in 2016. I even went as far to say that he would have more sacks than New York Giants defensive end Olivier Vernon last season.

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I was wrong. Everyone else that predicted a big year from Curry was wrong. But were the Eagles wrong to give him the contract they did? In my opinion, that is still to be determined.

Curry did not start a single game in 2016, sitting behind defensive end Connor Barwin. However, Barwin was released by the Eagles this offseason. That means the starting spot is Curry's—as it should be for a guy that currently has the seventh highest base salary ($7 million according to spotrac.com) in 2017 for defensive ends.

In 2016, Curry had 2.5 sacks, his lowest total since he had zero in his rookie season. Although, in those 16 games, Curry had a career high 19 hurries (SportingCharts). That was good enough for 36th best in the NFL. Hurries are my least favorite stat in the NFL, mainly because the result of the play should factor into it. However, it at least proves that Curry was getting to the passer.

Those 19 hurries came on only 436 snaps, or 42.79 percent (according to Pro Football Reference) of the total snaps in 2016. If you would double this number (which would still only give you around 86 percent of the total snaps) Curry would have ended the year with 38 hurries. That would have put him second-best in the NFL behind his teammate Graham (40).

These numbers tell us that Curry can be disruptive in the backfield; however, the Eagles need him to do that from a starting role in 2017. He averaged one hurry every 23 snaps in 2016. He needs to keep a pace like that this season if he is going to be on the team in 2018. The Eagles could trade or release Curry before the 2018 season and save $5 million on their cap (Spotrac). This move will be a no-brainer if he doesn't produce in the second year of his big contract.

Some feel that defensive end is a huge need for the Eagles, but if Curry can produce up to the potential that made the Eagles pay him $47.25 million, they can address other positions. Philadelphia may still add depth to their defensive end position because you can never have too many pass rushers, but I believe that Curry will get his chance to prove his worth in 2017.

If Curry can become a pass-rushing threat, he can help the Eagles in more ways than one. Not only will get after the passer and be disruptive to help the defense, but he will also help the entire Eagles roster as a whole. Then the Eagles won't need to address the defensive end position as extensively as they would if he flops, again.

With all that in mind, I believe that if Curry can start all 16 games this season, he will earn his paycheck. And he will also help build the Eagles roster that has been improving this offseason.