Eagles
Updated Eagles Salary Cap Situation Heading Into Free Agency
Penn State Great Valley MBA, Penn State Berks Undergrad, Eagle Scout and Vigil Honor, IT Service Manager. I joined Sports Talk Philly in 2017 and root for all the Philly teams (as well as their minor league counter parts).
All posts by Paul BowmanPublished12 Mar 2019
By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor 
The Eagles made quite a few moves to develop their roster and create cap space just over a week ago, but that was nothing compared to Howie Roseman’s day on Monday.
The Eagles made no less than six moves that will shape their roster to start the work week. They pre-emptively addressed situations on both lines while adding a deep threat receiver to keep defenses honest. A deep threat and defensive tackle that were missing the entirety of the 2018 campaign.
Free agency doesn’t start until Wednesday at 4 p.m. No move has adversely impacted the team’s chances at being awarded four compensatory picks in the 2020 NFL draft. In fact, you could argue that they’ve improved their chances by adding two big-ticket players in a way that won’t factor into the formula while also taking one of the top receivers available off the market and possibly increasing the value of Golden Tate.
How have all these moves affected the cap?
Peters’ new contract carries an $8.66 million cap hit as opposed to his original $10.66 million deal.
The numbers that aren’t known by the public just yet are the cap hit on DeSean Jackson’s new deal and the cap hit of Malik Jackson’s deal.
A three-year, $27 million deal with $13 million guaranteed are the overall terms of DeSean’s new deal. A 7-9-11 split is probably a reasonable deal that carries a high 2019 cap hit (likely higher than Jackson’s deal carries), so figure that $7 million is taken there.
Malik Jackson’s deal is three-years, $30 million. The Eagles likely took the saving from trading Bennett ($7.2) and devoted it to solving the second defensive tackle position rather than paying a rotational defensive end big bucks. I’ll use that $7.2 as the estimate there.
Eagles Salary Cap Transaction Table
| Transaction | Salary Change | New Cap Space |
|---|---|---|
| Cap Space as of February 25, 2019 | – | $3,613,815 |
| Eagles Extend Brandon Graham | +$3,500,000 | $113,815 |
| Eagles Decline Tim Jernigan’s Option | -$7,000,000 | $7,113,815 |
| Eagles Extend Jason Kelce | -$4,000,000 | $11,113,815 |
| Eagles Extend Isaac Seumalo | +$800,000 | $10,313,815 |
| Lane Johnson Restructures Deal | -$8,200,000 | $18,513,815 |
| Eagles Trade Michael Bennett | -$7,200,000 | $25,713,815 |
| Eagles Sign Jason Peters to One-Year Deal | -$2,000,000 | $27,713,815 |
| Eagles Decline Wisniewski’s 2019 Option | -$3,000,000 | $30,713,815 |
| Eagles Tender Nate Sudfeld | +$3,095,000 | $27,618,815 |
| Eagles Sign Malik Jackson | +$7,200,000* | $20,418,815 |
| Eagles Acquire/Extend DeSean Jackson | +$7,000,000* | $13,418,815 |
* – Indicates number is a projection and not yet official
In the deal for DeSean Jackson, the Eagles also traded away a 2019 sixth-round pick, so the cap space they’ll need to sign their picks falls to $6.5 million.
After that space is devoted, the Eagles have $7 million to use in free agency without any other moves to create space (which are sure to happen). My estimations err on the side of having less cap space, so the more likely scenario is that the team has closer to $10 million to use.
