Breaking down Cox’s 1-year deal with the Eagles

 

The Eagles last month were forced to release Fletcher Cox briefly to avoid a deadline while they worked to re-sign him. They brought him back after a couple days and Cox’s free agency stint was short-lived.

Ultimately, the Eagles and Cox agreed to a one-year deal worth $14 million for the 2022 season. While Cox had a down year in 2021, the Eagles are still better with him and they prioritized bringing him back even at that relatively high salary.

Now we have the full details of that new contract for 2022:

Base salary: $1.5 million

Salary advance: $12.5 million

Cap hit in 2022: $4 million

Pro Bowl incentive: $1 million

Cox, 32, got a one-year deal with $14 million of real base salary. The Eagles paid out $12.5 million of his $14 million with a salary advance, which counts like a signing bonus against the cap. Basically, the Eagles get to spread out the prorated amounts over future years. That’s what keeps Cox’s cap hit on this contract so low in 2022.

Technically, this is a five-year contract but it has voidable years for cap purposes and is structured in a way to ensure that Cox is released in March next year. His base salary of $1.5 million in 2023 and his base salary of $50 million (they just picked a crazy number) in 2024 will become guaranteed if Cox is on the roster on the second day of the 2023 league year. That is obviously not going to happen. It’s a lot like that poison pill mechanism the Eagles used in Jason Kelce’s previous contract.

The way the Eagles structured this deal appears to be set up for a post-June 1 cut designation in 2023. That would allow the Eagles to spread out the remaining prorated bonus money over the 2023 and 2024 seasons for cap purposes. If the Eagles use a post-June 1 designation on Cox, they’d have to carry his full $4 million cap hit through June 1 next year but would then get $1.5 million in relief from his base salary after that date.

Ultimately, this would leave $2.5 million in dead money for the 2023 season and $7.5 million in dead money for the 2024 season.

(Of course, the Eagles are still eating dead money from Cox’s previous contract, which was terminated with a post-June 1 designation this year. They have to carry that nearly $15 million cap figure through this June 1 before getting some relief.)

This new contract really is a one-year deal for Cox and the Eagles will be forced to cut him next year. So he’ll either become a free agent after 2022 and move on from Philly or Howie Roseman will sit down with his agent and figure out a new contract for the following season.

If Cox plays well in 2022, he can earn some extra money too. He will hit a $1 million incentive if he gets back to the Pro Bowl. Cox missed the Pro Bowl last year after making it six consecutive times.

With the Eagles’ moves this offseason, they have just over $15 million in cap room, according to the latest NFLPA figures. They will need some of that for their 2022 rookie pool, roughly $6.5 million in cap space, according to OverTheCap.

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/details-fletcher-coxs-1-year-deal-eagles

A one year deal with plenty of dummy years. So Cox goes next year and we will still be paying for him for years after. 

Look I get the idea of the cap rising and so as a % the hit is less each year. I get that it is a trick that works for Howie and the organisation. But he uses it on every deal. With some deals that's fine but ones like these make no sense. The answer with Cox was to cut him and not bring him back.