Eagles Continue to Play a Dangerous Game in War Against the Salary Cap

[Road to Victory]

https://phillysportsnetwork.com/2021/03/05/eagles-salary-danger/

 

Eagles Continue to Play a Dangerous Game in War Against the Salary Cap

Posted on March 5, 2021 by Liam Jenkins

It’s been a busy few days for the Philadelphia Eagles. Some big contract restructures have been negotiated in what appeared to be a bid to reduce the $40M debt they have to pay off just to break even this offseason. However, a recent Jason Kelce contract extension highlights the flaw in Howie Roseman’s methods. 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with giving Jason Kelce the payday he deserves, especially when it’s one he’s surrendered to benefit the team on numerous occasions. This isn’t a slight at the value Kelce will bring to the Eagles in 2021 or the incredible player/person he is. However, when it comes to Howie Roseman, the concerns are mounting quickly.

For those who pay close attention to the Eagles during the offseason, this move would have come as a surprise. Jason Kelce was already on the books for 2021. He didn’t need a contract restructure based on face value. He would’ve only cost the Eagles $4M in cap space and barring a surprise retirement, it looked like a near certainty that he would play under that price. Upon closer inspection though, it’s easy to see why Roseman scrambled to a new deal. 

Howie Roseman’s method to beat the salary cap restraints has long-resembled a credit card. Roseman would ‘borrow’ money by using loopholes to push the big bucks into ‘dummy years’. When the time came to pay that player, he’d ask others to do the same, essentially paying a credit card off by using another credit card. Over time, all of this begins to add up.

Even with Carson Wentz off the books (and prior to this weeks’ moves), the Eagles rank dead last in projected 2022 cap space. They rank 30th in 2023 and it’s not like the situation gets any less worrying as time goes on.

When he restructured his deal in 2019, Kelce was sneakily given voidable years in his contract. These all culminate in one extra voidable year that would still carry $15M in dead cap. The new contract given to Kelce today has assumedly taken around $12M of that hit and brought it forward to this season. This sounds smart…until you look at the repurcussions. 

Before today’s restructuring, Lane Johnson’s deal was already littered with dummy years and prorated bonuses. He is technically on the books for a $21M cap hit in 2028. He would be 38-years-old. We can assume that the scary total is only going to rise after today.

It obviously won’t ever get to the point where the Eagles are paying him that much, but eventually, Johnson is going to want the money he continues to put off earning in order to help the team…and that’s the problem. At some point, Lane Johnson is going to have one very cheap year that suddenly becomes incredibly expensive if the deck falls a certain way, as are several other players on the roster.

The Eagles are in a ‘re-tooling’ stage where going into this week, they were $40M over the cap. They could very easily get under the total by making some more aggressive moves. Parting ways with Derek Barnett, for instance, would free up $10M. Marquise Goodwin‘s cutting would net them another $4M. Zach Ertz and Malik Jackson are also obvious candidates for an early exit. While these may still happen, Roseman is currently using the same methods to buy the Eagles short-term flexibility, but as we’ve already seen, it can’t work forever.

What landed the Eagles here in the first place was a concerted effort to beat the cap with leverage. In a year where they need as much capital as possible just to break even, passing off even more money into 2022 makes little sense.

Dallas Goedert, Jordan Mailata, and Alex Singleton are all currently going to be free agents going into the next offseason who could all command a significant payday should their development continue. 

It’s great that the Eagles are finding immediate cap relief, but the rebuild could be expedited that much more if they just take the big savings by cutting ties with players who carry huge hits without intrinsic value. If they really are only a few pieces away from contending in the NFC East (lol), pushing even more money into the pot from deals that had already been restructured is only going to limit what the Eagles can do in the next 2-3 seasons.

Establishing a firm base to build from is incredibly important, but so is securing its future. This worked in 2016, but since then, every ‘cornerstone’ contract has either been exiled or restructured and extended to a point of colossal impending cap hits that continue to be re-shuffled. 
 

What Roseman persists in doing is putting the long-term future of the franchise at risk by borrowing more and more leverage, hoping that the coin-flips of back-loaded deals land in his favor. With each one that needs adjusting comes another knock-on effect that demands similar action to another contract. 

The Eagles had a real opportunity to stop the wheels from turning this offseason, hit reset, and build from the ground up. By continuing to use the same methods of keeping the salary cap liquid, all Roseman is really doing is prolonging the inevitable. He’s increasing the size of the task that will need to be undertaken to do exactly the same next year.

 

 

[weko]

We're looking at 2-14, 3-13 if we rip off the band aid and dump everyone over 30 for picks.  Lurie should understand it's time to do that.  Very interesting that he won't submit to a rebuild.  Looks like he's unwilling to grasp reality.  Maybe Howie isn't as secure as everyone thinks he is.  Him scrambling to keep all decent aging players on the roster is a panic attempt to go 7-9.  It's obvious we have to rebuild here but Lurie obviously doesn't share that sentiment.  He's going to be really pissed when we stink next season.  One more lousy draft and it may be Howie's last one.  This is going to get really interesting from here, especially if Howie, as expected, craps out again in April.

[UK_EaglesFan89]

Here's the thing... Remember how we all thought Howie was a cap wizard? Well he's not. He manipulates the cap but he does so at a future cost and eventually that's going to bite us hard. Giving players extra years when they are towards the end of their careers is just dumb. Eventually you are going to be taking a cap hit on a guy who's retired. Howie thinks he's smart, he thinks he's great with the cap but the last year or so have started to show that really he isn't. 

[time2rock]

He has made such a mess out of the cap that he is now in desperation mode to try to dig his way out of the huge hole he dug for this team while trying to remain competetive.  I've said all along his primary focus needs to get the cap in the best situation possible this year at the expense of trying to be competitive in 2021 ...  take the bigger hits THIS YEAR knowing it was going to be a down year to better position ourselves for 2022 and beyond.  You can't do both (i.e. try to be minimally cap compliant this year at the expense of future years and rise to the level of the elite teams) with his strategy, especially since he can't draft to save his life.  But my concerns are matched by my hope that should the team continue to struggle as a result of the mess he is making (as seems likely) that he gets the boot.  

HOWIE MUST GO!!

[weko]

1 hour ago, time2rock said:

He has made such a mess out of the cap that he is now in desperation mode to try to dig his way out of the huge hole he dug for this team while trying to remain competetive.  I've said all along his primary focus needs to get the cap in the best situation possible this year at the expense of trying to be competitive in 2021 ...  take the bigger hits THIS YEAR knowing it was going to be a down year to better position ourselves for 2022 and beyond.  You can't do both (i.e. try to be minimally cap compliant this year at the expense of future years and rise to the level of the elite teams) with his strategy, especially since he can't draft to save his life.  But my concerns are matched by my hope that should the team continue to struggle as a result of the mess he is making (as seems likely) that he gets the boot.  

HOWIE MUST GO!!

Howie would have to get permission from daddy to tear it down for picks and re build.  Lurie obviously hasn't approved that plan.  He must have convinced himself or Howie did that we can contend next year for the division.  Winning it is like these guys reaching for a life perserver as the boat sinks.  Something they can grasp onto and tell the world they're good at what they do cause they won another division going 8-8.  One more lousy draft and it really starts falling apart with our best players another year older.  If we draft Mac Jones or some other QB in the 1st, I may wet my pants from laughing.  It's soon to be a grab the popcorn situation.  

[time2rock]

32 minutes ago, weko said:

Howie would have to get permission from daddy to tear it down for picks and re build.  Lurie obviously hasn't approved that plan.  He must have convinced himself or Howie did that we can contend next year for the division.  Winning it is like these guys reaching for a life perserver as the boat sinks.  Something they can grasp onto and tell the world they're good at what they do cause they won another division going 8-8.  One more lousy draft and it really starts falling apart with our best players another year older.  If we draft Mac Jones or some other QB in the 1st, I may wet my pants from laughing.  It's soon to be a grab the popcorn situation.  

I swear I am so tired of hearing "we can win the division" ... who f***** cares?!?!  Winning a weak division does nothing other than give bragging rights over our NFCE rivals but puts us in a much worse draft position.  The focus needs to be on winning it all and doing what we need to do to put us in the best position to do that.  We are no where close to contending with teams like GB, TB, NO, Seattle, etc.  

[Road to Victory]

1 hour ago, time2rock said:

I swear I am so tired of hearing "we can win the division" ... who f***** cares?!?!  Winning a weak division does nothing other than give bragging rights over our NFCE rivals but puts us in a much worse draft position.  The focus needs to be on winning it all and doing what we need to do to put us in the best position to do that.  We are no where close to contending with teams like GB, TB, NO, Seattle, etc.  

We’re not winning the division next year. Not a chance. Howie & Lurie must come back to reality. Dallas and the Giants will be much better and if Washington finds a QB they will be too. 

[Road to Victory]

8 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

Here's the thing... Remember how we all thought Howie was a cap wizard? Well he's not. He manipulates the cap but he does so at a future cost and eventually that's going to bite us hard. Giving players extra years when they are towards the end of their careers is just dumb. Eventually you are going to be taking a cap hit on a guy who's retired. Howie thinks he's smart, he thinks he's great with the cap but the last year or so have started to show that really he isn't. 

So true, Howie was never good with the cap. The advantage he had was having a cheap QB. Once he had to pay his QB $30m a year, he couldn’t build through free agency and his inability to draft became amplified. 

[time2rock]

53 minutes ago, Road to Victory said:

We’re not winning the division next year. Not a chance. Howie & Lurie must come back to reality. Dallas and the Giants will be much better and if Washington finds a QB they will be too. 

Even if we were to compete in a weak division, what's the point?  Isn't the goal to win a championship?  That needs to be the focus, and the moves we make now should be with doing whatever needs to be done to put us in the best position to compete with the elite teams.  They try to play both sides which is going to lead to us being an average at best team for the foreseeable future.  

[UK_EaglesFan89]

2 hours ago, Road to Victory said:

So true, Howie was never good with the cap. The advantage he had was having a cheap QB. Once he had to pay his QB $30m a year, he couldn’t build through free agency and his inability to draft became amplified. 

Yeah I'm not sure why people can't grasp that to be honest. Look I thought he was good with the cap but I've come to realise that he really isn't. He kicks the can down the road with such regularity, that's not good management of the cap. 

[Guest]

@austinfan here is a great article showing the flawed methodology your idol is using.

[UK_EaglesFan89]

49 minutes ago, downundermike said:

@austinfan here is a great article showing the flawed methodology your idol is using.

Are there really Eagles fans out there that still believe in Howie? I thought everyone was dead against him or at the very least the jury was very much out on him with some fans. 

[time2rock]

16 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

Are there really Eagles fans out there that still believe in Howie?  

::crickets::

[EagleJoe8]

20 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

Are there really Eagles fans out there that still believe in Howie? I thought everyone was dead against him or at the very least the jury was very much out on him with some fans. 

 

3 hours ago, time2rock said:

::crickets::

Yes, the guy @downundermike tagged. Austinfan defends Howie at every turn possible. Restructuring Alston was his only bad move. Everything else was part of his plan to push for another title that just didn’t work out. This mess we’re headed for was all planned and expected. 
 

He believes that crap. 

[Rob331]

The cap is going to SOAR in 2022  and Howie knows it

[UK_EaglesFan89]

3 hours ago, EagleJoe8 said:

Austinfan defends Howie at every turn possible.

I mean how can it even be argued? This cap mess is largely his doing. And he's still doing the same ish.

[EagleJoe8]

4 minutes ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

I mean how can it even be argued? This cap mess is largely his doing. And he's still doing the same ish.

Because he has allowed himself to believe that this is how it was planned all along. To keep kicking money into seasons where we won't be competitive anyway.

[UK_EaglesFan89]

Just now, EagleJoe8 said:

Because he has allowed himself to believe that this is how it was planned all along. To keep kicking money into seasons where we won't be competitive anyway.

I just don't know how anyone can defend Howie at this point. He's a bad GM flat out. 

[Procus]

On 3/5/2021 at 11:34 PM, Road to Victory said:

https://phillysportsnetwork.com/2021/03/05/eagles-salary-danger/

 

Eagles Continue to Play a Dangerous Game in War Against the Salary Cap

Posted on March 5, 2021 by Liam Jenkins

It’s been a busy few days for the Philadelphia Eagles. Some big contract restructures have been negotiated in what appeared to be a bid to reduce the $40M debt they have to pay off just to break even this offseason. However, a recent Jason Kelce contract extension highlights the flaw in Howie Roseman’s methods. 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with giving Jason Kelce the payday he deserves, especially when it’s one he’s surrendered to benefit the team on numerous occasions. This isn’t a slight at the value Kelce will bring to the Eagles in 2021 or the incredible player/person he is. However, when it comes to Howie Roseman, the concerns are mounting quickly.

For those who pay close attention to the Eagles during the offseason, this move would have come as a surprise. Jason Kelce was already on the books for 2021. He didn’t need a contract restructure based on face value. He would’ve only cost the Eagles $4M in cap space and barring a surprise retirement, it looked like a near certainty that he would play under that price. Upon closer inspection though, it’s easy to see why Roseman scrambled to a new deal. 

Howie Roseman’s method to beat the salary cap restraints has long-resembled a credit card. Roseman would ‘borrow’ money by using loopholes to push the big bucks into ‘dummy years’. When the time came to pay that player, he’d ask others to do the same, essentially paying a credit card off by using another credit card. Over time, all of this begins to add up.

Even with Carson Wentz off the books (and prior to this weeks’ moves), the Eagles rank dead last in projected 2022 cap space. They rank 30th in 2023 and it’s not like the situation gets any less worrying as time goes on.

When he restructured his deal in 2019, Kelce was sneakily given voidable years in his contract. These all culminate in one extra voidable year that would still carry $15M in dead cap. The new contract given to Kelce today has assumedly taken around $12M of that hit and brought it forward to this season. This sounds smart…until you look at the repurcussions. 

Before today’s restructuring, Lane Johnson’s deal was already littered with dummy years and prorated bonuses. He is technically on the books for a $21M cap hit in 2028. He would be 38-years-old. We can assume that the scary total is only going to rise after today.

It obviously won’t ever get to the point where the Eagles are paying him that much, but eventually, Johnson is going to want the money he continues to put off earning in order to help the team…and that’s the problem. At some point, Lane Johnson is going to have one very cheap year that suddenly becomes incredibly expensive if the deck falls a certain way, as are several other players on the roster.

The Eagles are in a ‘re-tooling’ stage where going into this week, they were $40M over the cap. They could very easily get under the total by making some more aggressive moves. Parting ways with Derek Barnett, for instance, would free up $10M. Marquise Goodwin‘s cutting would net them another $4M. Zach Ertz and Malik Jackson are also obvious candidates for an early exit. While these may still happen, Roseman is currently using the same methods to buy the Eagles short-term flexibility, but as we’ve already seen, it can’t work forever.

What landed the Eagles here in the first place was a concerted effort to beat the cap with leverage. In a year where they need as much capital as possible just to break even, passing off even more money into 2022 makes little sense.

Dallas Goedert, Jordan Mailata, and Alex Singleton are all currently going to be free agents going into the next offseason who could all command a significant payday should their development continue. 

It’s great that the Eagles are finding immediate cap relief, but the rebuild could be expedited that much more if they just take the big savings by cutting ties with players who carry huge hits without intrinsic value. If they really are only a few pieces away from contending in the NFC East (lol), pushing even more money into the pot from deals that had already been restructured is only going to limit what the Eagles can do in the next 2-3 seasons.

Establishing a firm base to build from is incredibly important, but so is securing its future. This worked in 2016, but since then, every ‘cornerstone’ contract has either been exiled or restructured and extended to a point of colossal impending cap hits that continue to be re-shuffled. 
 

What Roseman persists in doing is putting the long-term future of the franchise at risk by borrowing more and more leverage, hoping that the coin-flips of back-loaded deals land in his favor. With each one that needs adjusting comes another knock-on effect that demands similar action to another contract. 

The Eagles had a real opportunity to stop the wheels from turning this offseason, hit reset, and build from the ground up. By continuing to use the same methods of keeping the salary cap liquid, all Roseman is really doing is prolonging the inevitable. He’s increasing the size of the task that will need to be undertaken to do exactly the same next year.

 

What the kid who wrote this article doesn't understand is that once you tank out and take on a losing persona, it can be very difficult to start winning again.  There are plenty of teams with lousy records who pick in the top 10 year after year, and where does it get them?

Roseman has his faults.  Manipulating the cap is not one of them.

[Road to Victory]

8 hours ago, Procus said:

 

What the kid who wrote this article doesn't understand is that once you tank out and take on a losing persona, it can be very difficult to start winning again.  There are plenty of teams with lousy records who pick in the top 10 year after year, and where does it get them?

Roseman has his faults.  Manipulating the cap is not one of them.

I disagree. I think his cap management is terrible. He should’ve just bitten the bullet on guys like Jeffery but instead he renegotiates his deal which keeps him and his cap hit here even longer. Then he signs an aging, oft injured DJax and gives himself no way out of the contract. Now, he’s doing the same thing with Lane and Slay, two guys on the decline with huge contracts who are going to be on the books forever. 

[Procus]

15 hours ago, Road to Victory said:

I disagree. I think his cap management is terrible. He should’ve just bitten the bullet on guys like Jeffery but instead he renegotiates his deal which keeps him and his cap hit here even longer. Then he signs an aging, oft injured DJax and gives himself no way out of the contract. Now, he’s doing the same thing with Lane and Slay, two guys on the decline with huge contracts who are going to be on the books forever. 

However, do not discount all those years when fans complained how cheap the Eagles were with the team cap management.  Over the past few years, Howie's biggest fault was not understanding how to manage a post-Championship roster.  The team made similar mistakes to those made by the 2008 Phillies - both teams rewarded success after the fact.  It guaranteed years of losing for the Phils.  With the hard cap, I think the Eagles will bite the bullet somewhat over the next 2-3 years and emerge with a very clean cap.  Let's hope there's a roster left when that happens.

[Road to Victory]

On 3/9/2021 at 12:26 AM, Procus said:

However, do not discount all those years when fans complained how cheap the Eagles were with the team cap management.  Over the past few years, Howie's biggest fault was not understanding how to manage a post-Championship roster.  The team made similar mistakes to those made by the 2008 Phillies - both teams rewarded success after the fact.  It guaranteed years of losing for the Phils.  With the hard cap, I think the Eagles will bite the bullet somewhat over the next 2-3 years and emerge with a very clean cap.  Let's hope there's a roster left when that happens.

I like your Phillies comparison but that’s where Howie really screwed up. He thought he was going to build a dynasty and win every year. You have to take a business approach to building a team like the Patriots do. Don’t fall in love with your players. So what if they won you a championship in the past. Can they win in the future?

[PoconoDon]

[eggs]

On 3/6/2021 at 7:46 AM, time2rock said:

He has made such a mess out of the cap that he is now in desperation mode to try to dig his way out of the huge hole he dug for this team while trying to remain competetive.  I've said all along his primary focus needs to get the cap in the best situation possible this year at the expense of trying to be competitive in 2021 ...  take the bigger hits THIS YEAR knowing it was going to be a down year to better position ourselves for 2022 and beyond.  You can't do both (i.e. try to be minimally cap compliant this year at the expense of future years and rise to the level of the elite teams) with his strategy, especially since he can't draft to save his life.  But my concerns are matched by my hope that should the team continue to struggle as a result of the mess he is making (as seems likely) that he gets the boot.  

HOWIE MUST GO!!

Yes - he’s been kicking the can down the road for too long and notmbuilding with cheaper youg players through the draft. 

[Procus]

On 3/6/2021 at 1:16 AM, weko said:

We're looking at 2-14, 3-13 if we rip off the band aid and dump everyone over 30 for picks.  Lurie should understand it's time to do that.  Very interesting that he won't submit to a rebuild.  Looks like he's unwilling to grasp reality.  Maybe Howie isn't as secure as everyone thinks he is.  Him scrambling to keep all decent aging players on the roster is a panic attempt to go 7-9.  It's obvious we have to rebuild here but Lurie obviously doesn't share that sentiment.  He's going to be really pissed when we stink next season.  One more lousy draft and it may be Howie's last one.  This is going to get really interesting from here, especially if Howie, as expected, craps out again in April.

"Rebuilds" in the NFL are fraught with danger.  There are teams that get caught in the rebuilding process and become perpetually bad, unable to emerge despite having top ten draft picks year after year.  I really don't want the Eagles to become another Detroit, or NY Jets