Eagles, Riley Cooper agree to deal

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ADAM SCHEFTER AND ADAM CAPLAN via <a href="http://espn.go.com/" title="ESPN" class="espn_sc_byline">ESPN </a>
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February 27, 2014, 10:03 AM ET
3 min read

— -- The Philadelphia Eagles have agreed to new contracts with wide receiver Riley Cooper and starting center Jason Kelce, the team announced Thursday.

The deal for Cooper, a pending free agent, is for five years and $25 million, a league source said, and it caps quite a comeback for Cooper. After being caught on video last summer using a racial slur, Cooper played well in 2013 and parlayed it into a payday few would have expected last summer.  

Cooper was a special-teams player and spot starter in his first three seasons. He made the most of a chance to start after Jeremy Maclin tore an ACL in camp last summer, catching 47 passes for 835 yards and eight touchdowns.

He made headlines after a video of him using a racial epithet at a concert surfaced on the Internet. Cooper was fined and had to apologize to his teammates, many of whom said it was difficult to accept him back in the locker room at first. However, after a fight between Cooper and cornerback Cary Williams in training camp, tensions did not surface again, at least not publicly.

Kelce agreed to a six-year, $37.5 million contract extension, with $13 million guaranteed, according to agent Jason Bernstein of XAM Sports. The deal runs through 2020, carries a max value of $40.1 million and puts him among the NFL's top five centers in average salary.  

Bernstein said it is the first extension completed for a player from the 2011 draft class, the first class under a collective bargaining agreement that doesn't allow extensions before the completion of a player's third season.

Kelce, a sixth-round pick, has started every game for which he has been available. Despite suffering a torn ACL during the second game of the 2012 season, he quickly has become one of the top young centers in the league. By 2013, with new coach Chip Kelly in charge, Kelce was back as the anchor and signal-caller for the offensive line. He also won the team's Ed Block Courage Award.

The Eagles are still hoping to re-sign Maclin before free agency opens on March 11. Both sides are talking, but a deal is not close to being completed, according to two sources.

Philadelphia signed starting left tackle Jason Peters to a five-year extension Wednesday.

ESPN.com's Phil Sheridan contributed to this report.