12:49pm: Kerrigan’s deal is worth $57.5MM in total and goes through 2020, Albert Breer of NFL.com tweets. The linebacker will earn $32.78MM over the first three years of the deal.
12:41pm: Washington announced that outside linebacker Ryan Kerrigan has agreed to a multi-year extension. It’ll be a five-year deal worth $11.5MM per season, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter).
“To get to a moment like this where you get a chance to play out the rest of your NFL career with the team that drafted you, the team that you love, the city that you love, it hasn’t really hit me yet, but it’s an awesome feeling,” Kerrigan said. “Now it’s my job to go reward the Redskins for the faith they put in me by playing well this year, and for the rest of my career.”
In 2014, Kerrigan turned in one of the best performances by a pass rusher in team history, posting a career-best 13.5 sacks. Kerrigan also had five forced fumbles in 2014, tying for the league lead and becoming the first Washington player to finish atop league rankings in that category since LaVar Arrington’s NFL-best six forced fumbles in 2003.
Kerrigan finished as PFF’s fifth-best 3-4 OLB and he also showed that he has a penchant for the big play, with two interceptions, two touchdowns, 16 passes defensed, and a whopping 15 forced fumbles to his credit. He has never been particularly strong against the run, earning negative grades in that area in all four seasons of his professional career, but his pass-rushing abilities make him an integral part of Washington’s front seven.