Looking into Jacksonville Jaguars rookie extension candidates and what they might get

5. Safety Andre Cisco, 3rd-round pick, 65th overall

Safety Andre Cisco has been a pleasant surprise for the Jaguars. Although he entered the NFL with the dreaded "injury red flag" label, he's managed to stay healthy and become a mainstay of the Jacksonville secondary. Looking back, it's fair to wonder how much better he would've been if Urban Meyer had plugged him into the starting lineup as a rookie.

After all, Cisco showed, as soon as he was given a chance, that he was still the same playmaker he was in Syracuse, registering two forced fumbles and two passes defensed in three starts. Once he joined the starting lineup in 2022, he put on display his playmaking prowess, tallying three interceptions and 10 pass deflections. The NY, Queens native followed that up with four interceptions and five passes defensed last year.

Simply put, Cisco is a building block, one the Jaguars need to keep around long-term. The fact that he hasn't probably reached his ceiling yet should incentivize the team's brass to get a deal done soon. As it stands, the 14 highest-paid safeties in the league have an annual salary of at least $10 million, and two more — Micah Hyde and Tyrann Mathieu — make over $9 million a year. The starting point for any negotiations between Cisco and the front office will probably be around $10/11 million.

While it's hard to see Cisco topping the four-year deal worth $76 million fellow safety Darwin James got, it wouldn't be shocking to see him ask for an annual average of at least $14 million. After all, he's stayed relatively healthy and he's only 23, meaning he's yet to enter the prime years of his career.

Just last offseason, Buddah Baker signed a two-year, $28.2 million extension to remain with the Arizona Cardinals through 2024. Cisco could get a similar annual average with a couple more years added to the deal.

Projection: 4-years, $56.4 M (annual average of $14.1 M)