EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- The Vikings locked up a key member of their wide receiver group on Thursday, signing Jarius Wright to a four-year contract extension.
According to two NFL sources, the deal is worth $14.8 million, including $7 million guaranteed. The contract begins in 2016, after the end of Wright's rookie deal, and keeps the 25-year-old with the team through 2019.
"Being from small-town Arkansas, to come here and be in Minnesota and to get an extension, it shows me how they feel about me," Wright said. "It's just a great feeling to know a NFL team wants you to come back and play for them.
"It's definitely a dream come true -- not only a dream to play in the NFL but to get a second contract. Growing up, I was always told, 'You were too small.' Just for me to prove everybody wrong and have everybody on my side, it's great."
Wright, 25, set career bests in starts (7), receptions (42) and receiving yards (588) last season. He also had two touchdown receptions, including one on a screen pass from Teddy Bridgewater that he took 87 yards for a game-winning overtime touchdown on Dec. 7 against the Jets.
A fourth-round pick of the Vikings in 2012, Wright didn't play the first half of his rookie year, seeing the field only after Percy Harvin sprained his ankle in November. Now he's established himself as an important piece of the Vikings' offense.
"Until they come out and decide to give you a little bit of money, that's when it really hits you that you've done something good or done something right," he said.