time2rock Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 Fletcher Cox trade rumors: Teams showing interest in acquiring longtime Eagles DT, per report Cox was nearly dealt at last year's trade deadline By Bryan DeArdo Jason Kelce is coming back, but there is some uncertainty as it relates to another longtime Eagles star. The Eagles continue to receive interest from other teams regarding six-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. Cox, who was nearly traded before last year's draft deadline, is entering the final year of his current contract. It would likely take a significant offer for a team to acquire Cox, who at age 31 is showing no signs of slowing down. Last season, Cox recorded 3.5 sacks, 25 tackles (seven for loss), two forced fumbles and a touchdown off of a fumble recovery. A former first-round pick, Cox has recorded 58 career sacks, 78 tackles for loss, 14 forced fumbles, 10 fumble recoveries and three defensive touchdowns. The Eagles posses one of the NFL's most productive defensive fronts. Former Steeler Javon Hargrave and Josh Sweat earned Pro Bowls last year after each player tallied 7.5 sacks. Defensive end Brandon Graham, a key member of the defense for over a decade, is looking to bounce back in 2022 after missing 15 games last year after tearing his Achilles. On defense, Philadelphia has seven players and four starters who are slated to hit free agency. Specifically, three of the Eagles' four starting defensive backs are expected to test the market when the new league year begins on March 16. There are several talented defensive tackles who are expected to hit free agency. Those players include Brandon Williams, Ndamukong Suh, Linval Joseph, Vernon Butler, and Larry Ogunjobi, among others. But it appears that more than one team is interested in pursuing Cox, who would bring both talent and experience to a defensive unit. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/fletcher-cox-trade-rumors-teams-showing-interest-in-acquiring-longtime-eagles-dt-per-report/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
time2rock Posted March 12, 2022 Author Share Posted March 12, 2022 Trading him (absent a restructure) would involve a $41M dead money hit to the cap (using a pre June 1 designation). That falls to $13M if they use a post June 1 designation but then also pushes a significant dead money hit to the 2023 cap. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheesteakitis Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 depends on what’s being offered… think cox still holds good value! is he worth close to what was just traded for mack? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
time2rock Posted March 12, 2022 Author Share Posted March 12, 2022 36 minutes ago, Cheesteakitis said: depends on what’s being offered… think cox still holds good value! is he worth close to what was just traded for mack? IMO any team wanting to swing a deal for him would have to sweeten the return due to the dead money hit we'd be taking in the process (even if it is spread over 2 years ... it would still be significant in total). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UK_EaglesFan89 Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 18 hours ago, time2rock said: Trading him (absent a restructure) would involve a $41M dead money hit to the cap (using a pre June 1 designation). That falls to $13M if they use a post June 1 designation but then also pushes a significant dead money hit to the 2023 cap. And for this reason it probably isn't worth it. I mean I'd be OK with them trading Cox if they got decent trade value but the cap hit wasn't so high. But that's just too big a hit to take either way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheesteakitis Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 i’ve heard little about it but thought i’ve heard of it in trades before that the buying team can pay part of the cap hit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EaglesAddict Posted March 14, 2022 Share Posted March 14, 2022 Cap hit or not, the only way this report gets out is if someone from the Eagles intentionally leaked it. And why would they do that? To drum-up interest, of course. So, my guess is the Eagles don't care about the cap hit, they just want a good return on the trade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
time2rock Posted March 14, 2022 Author Share Posted March 14, 2022 8 minutes ago, EaglesAddict said: Cap hit or not, the only way this report gets out is if someone from the Eagles intentionally leaked it. And why would they do that? To drum-up interest, of course. So, my guess is the Eagles don't care about the cap hit, they just want a good return on the trade. Yep, so basically using cap $$ to buy a draft pick. They had better either get a pretty high pick to make it worth absorbing such a high dead money hit (his prorated bonus spread through the remainder of his contract ... that runs through 2023 ... and 3 "dummy" years ... totals a shade under $41M) or have the team acquiring him take on some of that (if that is even possible). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cochis_Calhoun Posted March 14, 2022 Share Posted March 14, 2022 5 minutes ago, time2rock said: Yep, so basically using cap $$ to buy a draft pick. They had better either get a pretty high pick to make it worth absorbing such a high dead money hit (his prorated bonus spread through the remainder of his contract ... that runs through 2023 ... and 3 "dummy" years ... totals a shade under $41M) or have the team acquiring him take on some of that (if that is even possible). I'm guessing the post June 1st drop (the dead cap due after June 1st doesn't add up to $40m across 2 years) is due to us paying some sort of roster bonus when the league year starts too so even a post June 1st trade is expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EaglesAddict Posted March 14, 2022 Share Posted March 14, 2022 13 minutes ago, time2rock said: Yep, so basically using cap $$ to buy a draft pick. They had better either get a pretty high pick to make it worth absorbing such a high dead money hit (his prorated bonus spread through the remainder of his contract ... that runs through 2023 ... and 3 "dummy" years ... totals a shade under $41M) or have the team acquiring him take on some of that (if that is even possible). Howie is always a year or 2 too late when it comes to trading aging/declining players. They should have traded Cox last offseason, just like they waited a year too long before trading Ertz. They would have gotten much better return for Ertz and wouldn't be dealing with the complications of Cox's contract/cap hit now (if they trade him) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
time2rock Posted March 14, 2022 Author Share Posted March 14, 2022 1 hour ago, EaglesAddict said: Howie is always a year or 2 too late when it comes to trading aging/declining players. They should have traded Cox last offseason, just like they waited a year too long before trading Ertz. They would have gotten much better return for Ertz and wouldn't be dealing with the complications of Cox's contract/cap hit now (if they trade him) Howie makes it difficult to deal some players (like Cox and Johnson) simply because earlier in their careers he restructures their deals multiple times converting base salary to bonus which then prorates over the life of the contract (and then some if dummy years are added on the back end). Gives us salary cap relief at the time but then makes it much harder to try to cut or trade later as the amount of dead money we would absorb is too high. He needs to spread that strategy out over more players that are younger and will be a part of the team for many years moving forward (rather than limiting to a select pool of only a few players and doing so multiple times for each). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EagleTen Posted March 14, 2022 Share Posted March 14, 2022 I simply don’t see any logic whatsoever in trading Cox this year…why on Earth would the Eagles want to "throw away” $25m of their cap and then have to pay another player (probably) $5m+ to replace him? Makes zero sense at all…OK, he is ageing a bit, but he’s not a liability or a cancer that you want off your team…he’s not said he wants to be traded or threatened to hold out…I just don’t see any upside in trading him pre June 1st… Post June 1st, then there’s a very minimal argument, and 2023, a stronger argument…but can’t see any benefit for him not being on the team in 2022… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cochis_Calhoun Posted March 14, 2022 Share Posted March 14, 2022 1 hour ago, EagleTen said: I simply don’t see any logic whatsoever in trading Cox this year…why on Earth would the Eagles want to "throw away” $25m of their cap and then have to pay another player (probably) $5m+ to replace him? Makes zero sense at all…OK, he is ageing a bit, but he’s not a liability or a cancer that you want off your team…he’s not said he wants to be traded or threatened to hold out…I just don’t see any upside in trading him pre June 1st… Post June 1st, then there’s a very minimal argument, and 2023, a stronger argument…but can’t see any benefit for him not being on the team in 2022… It's because he's clearly declining and eating dead money this year saves us 12 million in cap space next year (and a chunk of dead money when his void years accelerate into 2024, because we shouldn't be offering an extension), 2023 he costs us 28 million in dead money pre June 1st, his contract is so badly structured we can't salary dump trade him to the first team to pony up a third rounder so it would take the offer of a high pick to make the move worthwhile. If there is interest and you can get high picks for him now then you take it, because I think he's cut at the end of the season if he has another year like last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EagleTen Posted March 14, 2022 Share Posted March 14, 2022 Declining, yes...but still a usable asset that the eagles have effectively paid for in advance. Will bringing in another player be better? quite possibly...but at a cost of $30m+ this year? just to free up money for 2023? Trading Cox this year (pre June 1st) basically uses all of our cap space we have for 2022, and severely hampers our FA planning, I would imagine... Just seems a completely unnecessary thing to do, unless the plan is to basically do a Wentz and get him totally off the books in one fell swoop, and take the massive cap hit that comes with it...and the FA consequences too... Plus, it would also mean having to free up at least another $10m (or so) just to be able to sign any draft picks, so we'd probably end up restructuring another bunch of players anyway... I am not saying it was a bad contract restucture...it was, and tied the Eagles hands for a number of years, but it just seems so illogical, cap-wise... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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