Now that tackle Kelvin Beachum has signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars, details of the contract are beginning to emerge.
According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, Beachum signed a one-year, $4.5 million contract with the Jaguars that includes a four-year option worth $40 million. In other words, Beachum will have to prove he’s worth having his option picked up in 2016 and will have to do so after fully recovering from a left knee injury that he suffered with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2015 that resulted in him missing most of the season.
It will now be interesting to see if Beachum will be given the starting left tackle job in Jacksonville this year as that spot was manned by former first-round draft pick Luke Joeckel last season. Joeckel, however, has yet to live up to his first-round selection so the Jaguars might decide to move him over to the right side in 2016 and let Beachum start on the left.
Should the Jaguars ultimately decide not to pick up Beachum’s long option next offseason, he would likely become an unrestricted free agent once again.
While the Steelers probably would have liked to keep Beachum this offseason, they probably weren’t willing to offer him a deal similar to the one he received from the Jaguars. Instead, they chose to sign veteran unrestricted free agent tackle Ryan Harris to a two-year, $3.9 million contract.
Beachum, who had been the Steelers starting left tackle since the fifth game of the 2013 season, was originally drafted by Pittsburgh in the seventh round of the 2012 NFL Draft out of SMU. In total, Beachum started 39 regular-season games for the Steelers during his career in Pittsburgh.
