5 hours ago, 20dawk4life said:

I’m calling it now.

 

We cut Cox to lower his cap hit so we can trade for Deshaun Watson!!!!

Exactly what I’m thinking.

I have to think that after he was complaining about the way he was used by Gannon last year he may not want to come back.  

 

 

I get Howie cutting him to save money. But why would Fletcher agree to a 1 year deal after that? Unless, somehow he gets the same money but some cap wizardry like a signing bonus or something. Why wouldn't a restructure handle this rather than a release?

12 minutes ago, NOTW said:

I get Howie cutting him to save money. But why would Fletcher agree to a 1 year deal after that? Unless, somehow he gets the same money but some cap wizardry like a signing bonus or something. Why wouldn't a restructure handle this rather than a release?

Now that all the smoke and dust has settled, what the Eagles did with Cox was tantamount to a restructure - just one with more risk, a risk that didn't pan out.

1 year/$15 mil?

Anyone think Cox could find a better offer? 

23 minutes ago, Procus said:

Now that all the smoke and dust has settled, what the Eagles did with Cox was tantamount to a restructure - just one with more risk, a risk that didn't pan out.

Right, so why not just restructure? I'm guessing it was the terms of the previous contract, that it had to be a release?

6 hours ago, Cochis_Calhoun said:

Bit of a dick move for the paltry cap money saved, If I was Fletch I'd sign for pretty much any other team at this point.

Also means we have no more June 1st designations (Brooks is designated for the other one I believe), which means Graham is pretty much nailed on to return

Yeah, I’d rather designate Howie as an April 1st cut and get a GM who can draft better. We aren’t going to find a better DT for 2M per year than even a declining Fletcher Cox… I don’t get it.

57 minutes ago, NOTW said:

Right, so why not just restructure? I'm guessing it was the terms of the previous contract, that it had to be a release?

It would seem like the contract was such an albatross that the Eagles just had to bite the bullet and take the huge cap hit.  Not sure about cap ramifications after 2022.

2 hours ago, leftcoastnest said:

Exactly what I’m thinking.

Watson put up some great numbers that last year he played when the Texans went 4-12.  

Tyrod Taylor had a better winning percentage this year for the Texans, 2-4  the Texans went 4-13, and Davis Mills went 2-9.

I'd rather spend 1.5 Million a year for a QB who takes the team to 9-8 than a 40 Million a year QB with more passing yards who takes the team to 4-12.   If Hurts went 4-12,  everyone here would want him no longer starting, if not gone.   And Eagles fans want a 4-12 QB,  who did well at passing.  

If the QB does very well at passing, and still goes 4-12,  why do you expect better results?   Does very well = 4-12.  Does adequate - less than 4-12.

1 hour ago, MidMoFo said:

Yeah, I’d rather designate Howie as an April 1st cut and get a GM who can draft better. We aren’t going to find a better DT for 2M per year than even a declining Fletcher Cox… I don’t get it.

I'm guessing you have no idea what's going on and you have the numbers way wrong.

If the Eagles didn't cut Fletcher by 4 pm yesterday,  the Eagles had to pay Fletcher something like 16-18 Million a year.   Spotrac doesn't show that,  because they made the changes very quickly.    He was guaranteed $18 Million this year.  The Total Fletcher Cox cap was going to increase by 16-18 Million something like that.   And 18 Million of NEW money was going to go to Fletcher Cox at 4 pm yesterday. 

Howie probably thought "I can get a better DT than Fletcher Cox for 18 Million or I can get a DT equal to Fletcher Cox for a lot less than 18 Million."

I'm guessing that Howie doesn't worry too much about cap.  Maybe he tries to prevent the overall cap conditions from being untenable,  but on a case by case basis,  he doesn't worry about cap that much.  He's very comfortable in moving money around from year to year.  Every big or even middle sized base salary is easily converted into bonus, and the player likes it because they get all the money right then, instead of in weekly checks. 

Getting rid of Wentz was such a good move.   It subtracted yearly payments of $25 Million for something like 4 years.   The Eagles put themselves in a much more difficult position if they're going to spend anything on a QB.

4 hours ago, eaglesfan0075 said:

Good thought. I wonder if we could snag him in the 2nd round and address other positions in the 1st round.

Jordan Davis would definitely require us using one of our firsts, assuming he is still on the board.

I think Wyatt is definitely Rd 1, and controversial opinion 50:50 to go higher than Davis. Has more of the skill set more teams in NFL look for these days. Reminds me a little bit of the Wilkins / Lawrence dynamic.

Darius Slay has a base salary of 16 Million.  Expect a restructure of base salary into bonus. 
There are already 2 dummy years,  assuming they use the dummy years and not add any,   16 to 1.  That's 3.75 Million of bonus in each of 4 years.  Adds 11 Million of cap room.   Hargrave 12,  Lane 7,  cut those numbers into 4 or 5 pieces.  Save maybe 15 million between those 2.

Looking at the Spotrac.    Mailatas contract is interesting.  base salary is 1 M in 2022, 1 M in 2023, then 15 M in 2024 and 15 M in 2025.  Bonuses that are spread out through 2027, 2 dummy years. 

1 hour ago, Procus said:

It would seem like the contract was such an albatross that the Eagles just had to bite the bullet and take the huge cap hit.  Not sure about cap ramifications after 2022.

they didn't want to pay Fletcher Cox $18 Million this year.

2 hours ago, NOTW said:

Right, so why not just restructure? I'm guessing it was the terms of the previous contract, that it had to be a release?

Cox you think was going to say "I'm supposed to get 18 fresh millions to play this year, but, really you guys can pay me whatever you want"?

These past restructures are all or almost all paying the player the same amount of money per year,  but changing base salary to bonus, and sticking the bonuses as far into the future as possible.

Mailata gets 64 Mil over 4 years.  5 big money years.  Signing bonus and low base salary last year.  A big option bonus this year,  a big option bonus next year, and a big base salary with a cap hit over 20 M in 2024 and 2025.

Just now, Random Reglar said:

Cox you think was going to say "I'm supposed to get 18 fresh millions to play this year, but, really you guys can pay me whatever you want"?

These past restructures are all or almost all paying the player the same amount of money per year,  but changing base salary to bonus, and sticking the bonuses as far into the future as possible.
 

Your 2nd paragraph...yeah that was my point. 

4 minutes ago, NOTW said:

Your 2nd paragraph...yeah that was my point. 

yeah,  that seems to be the Eagles way,  get the player you want pay him a lot and have the smallest possible cap hits early on, and then big cap hits later.   Cross that bridge when you come to it.

The issue this year was different,  they didn't want to pay Fletcher Cox 18 Million fresh dollars.  The way they do these contracts,  they really can't save money in the last year of a big contract by cutting a player because there will be a lot of old bonuses that need to hit the cap at some point and they have at max 2 years to spread them over. 

24 minutes ago, kiwieagle said:

I think Wyatt is definitely Rd 1, and controversial opinion 50:50 to go higher than Davis. Has more of the skill set more teams in NFL look for these days. Reminds me a little bit of the Wilkins / Lawrence dynamic.

All plausible.   I'd prefer Davis because he's more rare in the size department.  Huge plus freakbeast 10 RAS.   A lot of the Georgia players seem to be freakbeasts with RAS at or close to 10,  but Davis's numbers and overall size are both more freakish.

The Ravens at 14 just signed their ex massive DT/NT, Pierce today, which seems to lessen the chances that they take Davis.

3 hours ago, Procus said:

It would seem like the contract was such an albatross that the Eagles just had to bite the bullet and take the huge cap hit.  Not sure about cap ramifications after 2022.

Likely a fairly large dead cap hit in 2023 and then nothing after that (assuming any new deal doesn’t add those dummy years on the backend which to me would defeat the purpose of all this).

36 minutes ago, time2rock said:

Likely a fairly large dead cap hit in 2023 and then nothing after that (assuming any new deal doesn’t add those dummy years on the backend which to me would defeat the purpose of all this).

you can always move money around between years. yeah 2023 is an albatross dead cap hit but they freed up a lot in 2024/2025 with this move (as did Brooks retirement). They will borrow from those years in 2023 to lets say for sake of simplicity effectively spread the dead cap hit over multiple years. For example structuring some contracts with very low 2023 cap hits which rise in 2024/2025

So all these tweets saying we didn't save $2million we saved $16million, if we immediately bring him back on a one year $15million deal we only saved $1million surely?

I just don't understand why Cox would come back, he's accommodated Howie every time he's asked him to restructure and then Howie cuts him to avoid paying a roster bonus, I'd be telling Howie to stick his new contract up his ass and telling my agent to see if the Rams, Bills, Chiefs,  Chargers or Buccs had any interest.

 

15 minutes ago, Cochis_Calhoun said:

So all these tweets saying we didn't save $2million we saved $16million, if we immediately bring him back on a one year $15million deal we only saved $1million surely?

Well, one year plus two years that void? I would think if they can't at least keep part of it they wouldn`t pull a stunt like that.

15 minutes ago, Cochis_Calhoun said:

I just don't understand why Cox would come back, he's accommodated Howie every time he's asked him to restructure and then Howie cuts him to avoid paying a roster bonus, I'd be telling Howie to stick his new contract up his ass and telling my agent to see if the Rams, Bills, Chiefs,  Chargers or Buccs had any interest.

Maybe this was all communicated well. Sounds like it or he'd just give us the finger.

31 minutes ago, Cochis_Calhoun said:

So all these tweets saying we didn't save $2million we saved $16million, if we immediately bring him back on a one year $15million deal we only saved $1million surely?

I just don't understand why Cox would come back, he's accommodated Howie every time he's asked him to restructure and then Howie cuts him to avoid paying a roster bonus, I'd be telling Howie to stick his new contract up his ass and telling my agent to see if the Rams, Bills, Chiefs,  Chargers or Buccs had any interest.

 

maybe these tweets, which are limited in the number of characters that can be used, do not have the level of specificity that the actual contract has. 

It appears that the Eagles saved a small amount of money.   Perhaps by doing what they did, the bonus money went onto the years the Eagles wanted it to go. 

Fletcher seems to have a 28 Million dollar cap hit in 2023 at this point.

44 minutes ago, kiwieagle said:

you can always move money around between years. yeah 2023 is an albatross dead cap hit but they freed up a lot in 2024/2025 with this move (as did Brooks retirement). They will borrow from those years in 2023 to lets say for sake of simplicity effectively spread the dead cap hit over multiple years. For example structuring some contracts with very low 2023 cap hits which rise in 2024/2025

2023 would be a bonus year with a very low base salary.    The Eagles seem to just want to push as much into the future as possible.   Maybe there won't be a cap in the future? 1% possible?

1 hour ago, Random Reglar said:

2023 would be a bonus year with a very low base salary.    The Eagles seem to just want to push as much into the future as possible.   Maybe there won't be a cap in the future? 1% possible?

The gambling money will mean massive rises in cap on upcoming years. Salaries will take a little bit to catch-up and that’s what eagles are banking on.

Still, Im not the biggest fan of perpetually borrowing from later years particularly during times when the team is in a rebuild / retool mode but Howie sees things differently.