Big pay hike, more years: Panthers ready mega Edwards upgrade

The Penrith Panthers are preparing to offer Dylan Edwards a mega upgrade that includes three more years at the foot of the mountains and as much as $350,000 more a season, as well as a little top-up in his 2024 pay packet too.

The Sporting Base expects Edwards and his team to accept any big extension the Penrith powerbrokers put on the table.

There has been plenty of talk about which off-contract star the Panthers would prioritise ahead of the 2024 season between Jerome Luai and Dylan Edwards, and it seems the reigning premiers have made their decision—the package they’re preparing for the club’s 27-year-old fullback would hike his contract to $850,000 a season between 2025 and 2027.

It’s a sizeable bump from his $500,000-a-season take-home right now.

No one in rugby league would say the upgrade would be undeserved either. Edwards has quietly become a key cog in the Penrith Panthers war machine, building a solid platform from which Nathan Cleary can guide the team to victory.

Last season, amidst the club’s second straight premiership, Edwards was awarded the 2022 Clive Churchill Medal after being named man of the match in the grand final.

This year he’s already scored five tries and set up three more in eight games, recorded 56 tackle breaks and five line breaks, and is averaging 211 metres every game. And, all that’s on top of an 84.2 percent tackle efficiency at fullback.

Since debuting in 2016, the Bellingen junior has played 113 games and played three straight grand finals between 2020 and 2022.

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Elsewhere in the club, Luai’s situation—whether he extends or looks for other offers—isn’t expected to be too dampened by the Edwards extension, but it could shave down how much coin the Panthers can include in any offer for the five-eighth when they move into renegotiations.

In an ideal world for the Panthers, they keep Luai, Edwards, and Cleary.

Penrith are facing a busy period heading into the end of the year off the field. As well as Edwards, Luai, and Liam Martin, the club also has Lindsay Smith, Luke Garner, Matt Eisenhuth, Taylan May, and this year’s breakouts Sunia Turuva and Zac Zoskings all off-contract by the end of the 2024 NRL season.

While the club is resigned to losing some of their players, stars and young guns alike, they’ve already locked up Martin—as yet unannounced—until at least 2027. If they can score Edwards’ extension too they’ll set themselves up for the re-signing period well.

If everything goes wrong for Penrith and Edwards turns them down, he will be free to talk to other NRL clubs from November 1 this year. Download Our Free NRL App

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