Is Brent Celek as good as Jason Witten? The Eagles believe so. They signed the third-year tight end to a six-year contract extension yesterday worth a reported $33 million, about $4 million more than Witten makes.
Financial security is nice, but Celek has other goals.
“I didn’t think about anything but winning a Super Bowl,” Celek said. “In working towards that, this is just a by-product of that.”
By locking him up early, the Eagles have possibly exposed themselves to a holdout in the not-too-distant future. Yesterday, Celek said that won’t happen.
“I can promise you that I won’t be up here complaining about my deal because they put trust in me by signing me early and giving me financial security for the rest of my life, and I owe it to them to play out my deal,” Celek said.
Eagles GM Tom Heckert said the team has always viewed Celek as their tight end of the future, even though they drafted Cornelius Ingram last April.
“We drafted Ingram, but that was kind of mid-round,” Heckert said. “We felt comfortable with Brent being our guy.”
Celek leads the Eagles in receptions (54) and is second in touchdowns (5) and yards (604). His 10 catches in last year’s NFC championship is a playoff record.
