Fletcher Cox Restructures Deal

By Paul Bowman, Eagledelphia Managing Editor

On Friday, the Eagles restructured the contract of Fletcher Cox, per Adam Schefter of ESPN.

Eagles restructured contract of Pro-Bowl DT Fletcher Cox on Friday, creating $6.5 million more of cap space this season and $11.7 million more next season, sources tell @mortreport and me. But Eagles have not pursued a trade for Le’Veon Bell and have no plans to, per sources.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 8, 2018

The move creates cap room that can be used to add a safety or running back following the injuries to Rodney McLeod and Jay Ajayi. The Eagles have roughly $10.5 million in cap space available this season.

The major implication of this deal is the cap space next season, however. Per Over The Cap, the Eagles are expected to be almost $20 million over the cap next season. The Eagles are also expected to have more draft picks than any other team with 11 (their own seven plus a second rounder from the Ravens, a fourth round compensatory pick for Trey Burton and two sixth round compensatory picks from losing Beau Allen and Patrick Robinson), although the compensatory picks will not be announced officially until later.

That means that in addition to being $20 million over the cap for next year, the Eagles will need to have more room available to sign their draftees than any other team. For comparison, the Eagles cap hit for the five players they drafted this year is around $3.3 million without a first round pick. The Eagles will likely need to create near $10 million to sign their draft picks and their undrafted free-agents. This move will leave Philadelphia just $8 million over the cap next season.

The Eagles will still need to make moves like declining the option on the contract of Nick Foles to save $19, declining the option on the contract of Jason Peters to save $8 million or restructure the deals of players with large cap hits (Ertz, Jeffery, Jernigan, Brooks, Johnson) in order to create the room they need to sign free agents and draft picks, but this is a good start.

The move may also be a sign that Howie Roseman is planning another extension. Carson Wentz will likely be receiving a huge extension and Nelson Agholor is another recent draft pick that has a rising cap hit with only a few years remaining. Then there are the pending free agents. Jay Ajayi, Brandon Graham, Ronald Darby and Jordan Hicks are a few of the key players set to be free agents. The Eagles will most likely not re-sign them all, but Roseman may look to keep a few of them around. While it is overall a stroke of bad luck, Jay Ajayi tearing his ACL may actually play into the Eagles favor in that sense as it will likely reduce the price of a deal he could get as a free agent and increase the chances that the Eagles are able to re-sign him should they want to.