The Philadelphia Eagles didn’t sign quarterback Jalen Hurts to a five-year, $255 million contract extension to encase the former Alabama standout in bubble wrap and display him under glass.

In his second full season as the Philadelphia QB, Hurts led the Eagles to the NFC championship and a spot in Super Bowl LVII as he finished second in the voting for the AP NFL Most Valuable Player Award.

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While Hurts completed 306-of-460 passes for 3,701 yards with 22 touchdowns and six interceptions in 15 regular-season games, he also ran for 760 yards and 13 touchdowns on 165 carries.

Hurts had a season left on the rookie contract that he signed after joining the Eagles in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft and Philadelphia could have used the franchise tag to keep him past the end of that deal. But the team moved to lock up Hurts as soon as he became eligible for a new contract after his third season.

“Here’s what I definitely wasn’t doing: Jalen’s on a rookie contract, I’m just going to be reckless! Do whatever we want with him!” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said during a Thursday press conference. “And so we were very careful, and I know he got injured. He’s gotten injured. But we didn’t pay him more to do less. I’ll say that.

“Will we still think about how to protect him? Yeah, because that’s our job to protect our quarterback. But Jalen does a lot of things really well, and we want to utilize the skills that he has so he can continue to play at a high level. And so, to me, we’ll continue to go about our business the same way we went about our business. We’ll always think about protecting him first, but we didn’t pay him more to do less.”

The Eagles also don’t expect the big payday to affect Hurts’ willingness to carry the load, or as Philadelphia general manager Howie Roseman said: “The one thing you know about Jalen is the money’s not going to change him.”

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“The reason Jalen’s in this position where he’s signed this big contract,” Sirianni said, “is the fact that — I’ve said this a million times – nobody knows what Jalen Hurts’ ceiling is. Why? Because he loves football, he’s tough, he has high football IQ and he’s competitive. The guys that have those things tend to reach their ceiling, so he’s just going to continue to rise. And so he’s a big part of this, too. No man suddenly becomes different than his cherished thoughts and habits. He’s going to continue to do the things he’s done to this date because that’s who he is.”

The total value of Hurts’ four-year rookie contract was $6.025 million. Roseman said the quarterback’s jump in pay would not handicap the team via the salary cap as he called the new deal a “win-win.”

“I think it’s a heck of a deal for Jalen,” Roseman said. “I think it’s a heck of a deal for Eagles. I think those are really the best kind of deals. …

“By doing it at the time we did and by being able to work together to do things that were important to them and important to us — and for us it’s about flexibility around him. This is the ultimate team game, and he needs to have talented people around him. Jalen recognized that. (Agent) Nicole (Lynn) recognized that. And so to be able to do this in a way that also gives us an opportunity to get good players.”

The Eagles will continue the process of getting good players in next week’s NFL Draft. Philadelphia has six selections, including No. 10 and No. 30 in the first round and four choices in the first 100 picks. Roseman expects to have 12 selections in the 2024 NFL Draft because of compensatory picks awarded for lost free agents.

“For us, obviously, we get a chance to plan and we get a chance to build around him and some of the guys that we have on long-term contracts,” Roseman said. “And that’s exciting. But we got to continue to do the right thing. I think we’ve had tremendous meetings leading up to this draft. I think we’ve got a really good process in place. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be perfect, but I’m excited about the possibilities of a week from today and certainly beyond.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.