AUGUST 29: Hamilton’s fully guaranteed money includes a signing bonus, his 2025 and ’26 base salaries, and a 2026 option bonus, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio notes. More significantly in the long term, Hamilton secured a rolling guarantee structure. His $17MM 2027 base salary shifts from an injury guarantee to a full guarantee in 2026. His $17MM 2028 base salary makes that shift in 2027, providing advanced security for the young standout.
While Hamilton’s 2029 base salary ($17.9MM) is nonguaranteed, he will collect a $1MM roster bonus on Day 5 of the ’29 league year, Florio adds. Since the deal tacks four years onto his through-2026 rookie contract, Hamilton is signed through 2030. There is also a $1MM roster bonus on Day 5 of the 2030 league year. This marks the second time (in the fifth-year option era) the Ravens have paid a first-rounder with two years left on a rookie contract; they did the same with Marlon Humphrey in 2020.
AUGUST 27: The Ravens have eyed a Kyle Hamilton extension for a lengthy stretch. As the season nears, Baltimore has one of its 2022 standout first-rounders locked in long term.
Hamilton has agreed to a deal that makes him the NFL’s highest-paid safety, the team announced (via The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec). While fellow 2022 first-rounder Tyler Linderbaum remains on his rookie deal, Hamilton has reset the safety market.
This extension will move the bar far north at safety, with ESPN’s Adam Schefter reporting the Ravens are giving Hamilton a four-year, $100.4MM deal. Of that amount, $82MM is guaranteed, including $48MM in fully guaranteed money, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. While this is a significant increase over the top of the safety market – set earlier this year by Kerby Joseph just over $21MM – it’s also somewhat reflective of increase in cornerback pay this offseason.
More than anything, of course, Hamilton’s contract is a reflection of his status as one of the best – if not the best – safeties in the NFL. He’s coming off back-to-back Pro Bowls and a ninth-place finish in Defensive Player of the Year voting after turning around Baltimore’s pass defense with his move to a more traditional safety role in 2024. His versatility and impact can be felt at all three levels of the field, similar to the Chargers’ Derwin James.
Appropriately, Hamilton’s deal is essentially James’ 2022 extension adjusted for cap inflation. James received $19MM per year, which accounted for 9.1% of the salary cap at the time, per OverTheCap. Hamilton’s $25MM APY represents just under 9.0% of the 2025 cap. Though it’s an expensive deal, the 24-year-old has two years remaining on his rookie contract. Adding four years and $100.4MM to that deal will keep Hamilton in Baltimore through the 2030 season for $20.3MM per year, which could become a steal as the cap continues to rise in the coming years.
The Ravens drafted Hamilton 14th overall in 2022 and have seen him soar to the All-Pro tier. With two original-ballot Pro Bowls on his resume, Hamilton secured the top fifth-year option price at safety ($18.6MM). His new deal checks in well north of that in terms of per-year average, and it will give future impact safeties a price to target.
The recent CB boom — which Patrick Surtain reset last year only to see the deal topped a few times over since — illustrates how quickly a market-setting contract can be eclipsed by others using it as a benchmark. After all, Antoine Winfield Jr. became the NFL’s first $20MM-per-year safety barely a year ago. That said, safety value has fluctuated over the years. As a result, Hamilton’s AAV may top the market for a while — particularly given the Notre Dame alum’s versatile skillset that is so pivotal to Baltimore’s defensive blueprint.
Hamilton is now the second-highest-paid Raven — behind only Lamar Jackson — representing rare status for a safety. The Ravens will now turn their attention to Linderbaum, who did not see his fifth-year option exercised due to the option formula grouping all O-linemen together. The Ravens want to pay their All-Pro center before season’s end.
Nikhil Mehta contributed to this post.
“This is a major reset of the safety market.” Sure, but not only is Hamilton the best safety in football and a player who’s shown he can be a difference maker in a number of different roles, but getting the same contract as Jaycee Horn plus a bump in guarantees isn’t bad for one of the elite defensive chess pieces in football.
For as great as Howie Roseman has been for the Eagles, passing up on Kyle Hamilton for Jordan Davis was a huge miss on his part. One pick after he drafted Davis, Hamilton was selected. Imagine that defense with 14 in the back end. Good god…
Deserved
I don’t know if any person who plays a sport “deserves” that kind of money, but there’s no doubt he is one of the best in the game of football right now.
Deserves
Nope. You’ll never convince me that somebody that does something as unimportant as play a game for a living deserves that insane amount of money. Does he run the country? Does he save lives as a doctor? No. He gets paid to assault people on a field for about an hour a week.
“Nope. You’ll never convince me that somebody that does something as unimportant as play a game for a living deserves that insane amount of money.”
He deserves it. People pay to big money to see these players and the revenue generated from football is astronomical. If he doesn’t deserve a fair piece of that pie, then who does? Should the owners keep it? Should it be redistributed back out to the poorest in our society or something?
He’s also laying his body out on the line and (statistically speaking) sacrificing years off of his life for our entertainment. He deserves every penny any team is willing to pay him.
You can try to justify it all you want to, there is no reason in the world why these people should be paid so much. What they do is not important.
He chose to do this, so if he’s taking years off of his life in doing so, that’s on him. He doesn’t have to play this sport. Nobody is forcing him to do so. I don’t watch him, so he’s not entertaining me at all. And no, he doesn’t deserve that money.
How important is hurling your body as hard as you can into another person? Really, I want you to explain how important this skill set is in life. Is it more important than a neural surgeon, a heart surgeon, or the leader of the free world?
I have to agree, but I do see how, in purely an NFL context, we would use the word “deserve” here. In an absolute sense, no, what these guys do isn’t necessary for society. I understand that point entirely. In the context of what Hamilton deserves relative to his peers, it makes sense.
It has nothing to do with deserving or not deserving. It has to do with revenue. As long as the person writing the checks is making that money back. It’s not a issue.
If your local mailman can start convincing people to wear his uniform with his name on it. Maybe he can get a raise.
And? They don’t deserve that much money. You failed to convince me, as I already stated you would. Keep trying to justify it any way you like, these people make way too much money for what they do.
I don’t count other people’s money.
They could make a dollar or a 100 billion and it wouldn’t change my life but it seems it has impacted yours quite a bit.
I don’t count it either, but it is made public information. That kind of money does impact your life, you just don’t realize it. It just happens to show priorities and values.
Take note, Jerry-No carry
$82 million is guaranteed but $48 million is fully guaranteed? Huh? Is it guaranteed or not?
This is the high quality articles you pay for.