Jaelan Phillips got huge money from Panthers. He plans to make one change to earn it
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Panthers have signed free agent edge rusher Jaelan Phillips to massive $120M contract
- Phillips has never had more than 8.5 sacks in a season but wants more in 2026
- Phillips is the centerpiece of impressive free agent class including Lloyd, Walker
Jaelan Phillips, the Carolina Panthers’ very new and very expensive edge rusher, has one major individual goal for this season. As Phillips put it Monday in his first press conference as a Panther:
“Turning all that disruption into production.”
In Miami and then in Philadelphia for the first five years of his NFL career, Phillips has often been an expert at pressuring the quarterback. In 2025, he was among the league leaders in pressure rate.
What that hasn’t translated to, though, is actual QB sacks. Phillips has never had a double-digit sack season, although he believes he is more than capable of one in 2026.
“I do want to get those sack numbers up,” Phillips said Monday. “I’ve always known that I can be a 10-plus, 13-plus sack guy.”
The Panthers have given Phillips a whopping $120-million contract over four years, with $80 million of it guaranteed, because they believe he can do that, too. Phillips said that while Philadelphia wanted to keep him, the Carolina offer was so good it was “kind of a no-brainer” for him to take it.
Now Phillips is going to be in search of more sacks. His career high is 8.5, set as a rookie with Miami in 2021. In 2025, he had a modest five (17 NFL players had at least 10; Myles Garrett led the NFL with a record 23).
In Phillips’ five NFL seasons — two of which were short-circuited by injury — he has averaged 5.6 sacks a year.
“I guess, really, the only knock you can say about me is that I don’t have a bunch of sacks,” Phillips said. “.... Obviously, production matters, but at the end of the day, as long as you’re being disruptive, as long as you’re making an impact and making plays — this game is about a lot more than sacks.”
But even on a non-sack Sunday, as Phillips put it: “At the bare minimum, I’m a disruptive force.”
Phillips is a centerpiece of what has been an extremely strong March for the Panthers in free agency. Was he overpaid? By today’s standards, sure.
But it was a worthy gamble — 26-year-old pass rushers who have already had some success in the NFL will always be overpaid when they first hit free agency, because their skill set is so highly valued. I liked his signing, as well as those of inside linebacker Devin Lloyd and offensive tackle Rasheed Walker in particular. Now, though, all those men have to stay healthy and prove themselves.
Phillips’ massive contract will provide plenty of money for splurge purchases — he said he wants to buy a house in Charlotte with a pool, a classic Porsche and an expensive watch. It also will provide generational wealth for his growing family. His fiance is due with their first child, a baby boy, at the end of this month. March Madness has a whole different meaning in the Phillips’ family.
Listening to him, it’s hard to imagine this is the same guy who medically retired from football at UCLA in 2018 after a concussion and a series of other injuries. His father talked him into giving football one more shot. Phillips transferred to Miami, where he played a year, got drafted by the Dolphins, got traded in midseason in 2025 to Philadelphia and now has obtained a nine-figure NFL contract.
“If you had told me that this was going to happen a handful of years ago, I might have told you, ‘You’re crazy,’” Phillips said.
On Monday, Phillips gave one of the most impressive initial press conferences I’ve ever seen from an NFL veteran joining the team for the first time (Greg Olsen, Rob Hunt and Wesley Walls would all make that list, too). That doesn’t mean he’s going to be a Pro Bowler, as all of those players ultimately were. But it does mean Phillips is probably going to fit in well with the locker room and not act like he’s doing the Panthers a favor by gracing them with his presence.
Phillips took solace in music in his brief retirement in 2018, he said.
“My grandfather was a symphony conductor,” he said. “Both my parents were instrumentalists. I grew up playing the piano some. But when I retired from UCLA, that’s when I really poured myself into music. It was there for me at a time when I needed it the most. It was very cathartic for me and allowed me to start to establish an identity outside of the sport.”
Even now, Phillips’ charitable foundation has a large musical component.
The Panthers, incidentally, have a surprisingly good history with piano-playing stars: Jonathan Stewart and Christian McCaffrey are the two most notable.
Phillips has also sung in choirs and played handbells. He seems to innately understand that football — much like bands or symphony orchestras — are team sports.
Said Phillips: “I don’t come in with any sort of arrogance… For me, it’s not about trying to come in and step on any toes or assert dominance or anything like that. It’s just coming in as a humble worker, learning the system, learning the guys and putting my best foot forward.”
As for joining the Panthers, who won the NFC South last season and have now added several more intriguing pieces, Phillips said that you can’t say: “Oh yeah, we have all this talent. We’re automatically going to be incredible. It takes hard work.”
Is Phillips ready for that? He said he is.
“When I get on that field, man, it’s instinctive,” he said. “It’s fast. And like I said, it’s balls to the wall, 100%, every time.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2026 at 12:14 PM with the headline "Jaelan Phillips got huge money from Panthers. He plans to make one change to earn it."
