What Does Fletcher Cox's Contract Mean For The Eagles

Could Fletcher Cox’s new deal have a negative impact on the Philadelphia Eagles’ future?

The monkey is finally off the Philadelphia Eagles’ back.

The Eagles and Fletcher Cox have agreed to a six-year contract extension worth $103 million and $63 million guaranteed, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.

According to Pro Football Talk, $55.549 will be fully guaranteed by March of 2017. Another $36.999 million will be fully guaranteed at signing.

Cox’s contract is the highest guaranteed contract ever for a non-QB in NFL history. Eli Manning and Philip Rivers hold the highest guaranteed contracts for quarterbacks at $65 million, respectively.

After missing the Eagles’ voluntary part of the offseason, Cox returned to the Nova Care Complex for mandatory mini camp last week.

Cox said it was important for him to attend mandatory workouts but he decided not to comment on his contract status.

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Throughout the whole offseason, Vice President of Football Operations Howie Roseman and Head Coach Doug Pederson both said they were hoping to get a deal done as soon as possible.

Negotiations continued to linger, and with all the players Roseman began to lock up and acquire, some began to wonder if a deal would ever be made.

But $63 million later in guaranteed money, have the Eagles invested too much money into a defensive lineman?

Probably.

But, currently, nobody knows that answer for sure. Many can speculate, assume and criticize the deal, however, the Eagles had no choice but to meet Cox’s demands—they couldn’t let a player with his talent to gauge the market in free agency and walk to another team.

At 25-years-old, Cox is entering the prime of his career and coming off a Pro-Bowl season, where he put up career-high numbers in tackles, sacks and forced fumbles.

In 63 games with the Eagles, Cox has 22 sacks in his career. The late Jerome Brown, who died in a car accident in 1992, had 29.5 sacks in 76 games with the Eagles.

For the past three seasons, Cox was being used in a 3-4 scheme, a scheme he wasn’t drafted to play in. In Jim Schwartz’s 4-3 scheme, he can become one of those “fastballs” and get after the quarterback like his new defensive coordinator has been talking about.

"“That’s why the brought me here,” Cox told reporters. “That’s what I played in college, that’s what I played in my first year in the league. I’m really excited to really see what it brings to the table and what we can do as a team.”"

With Cox now locked up until the end of the 2022 season, he now ranks at the top of the highest paid defensive lineman in the NFL in guaranteed money.

Behind Cox, is Marcell Dareus of the Buffalo Bills with $60 million guaranteed, and Ndamukong Suh, of the Miami Dolphins with $59.9 million guaranteed.

Following Dareus and Suh, are Olivier Vernon of the New York Giants and J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans with $52.5 and $51.8 million guaranteed.

Did all of those massive contracts work out for those teams? Well, the Giants just acquired Vernon this offseason, so that’s yet to be seen.

But out of those three teams—the Bills, Dolphins and Texans—the Texans are the only team to make the playoffs within the past five years.

While the Eagles may face similar consequences to those teams in the future by being handicapped to a huge contracts, it’s also worth noting when Cox’s cap hit doubles, some of the Eagles’ biggest contracts will not be on the roster.

Sam Bradford—if he’s still on the team in two years—will become an unrestricted free agent in 2018, which would free the Eagles of his $35 million contract.

Jason Peters and Connor Barwin, who both have a cap hit of $10 million-plus will become unrestricted free agents in 2019. Chase Daniel and Brandon Graham, who currently have some of the biggest cap hits on the team will also be unrestricted free agents in 2019.

While I do applaud Roseman for his salary cap savviness this offseason, it will be interesting to see how Cox’s contract will impact the team’s ability to allocate money for necessary resources in the future.

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What does Fletcher Cox’s contract mean for the Philadelphia Eagles?

By Tom Ignudo | Jun 15, 2016

Could Fletcher Cox’s new deal have a negative impact on the Philadelphia Eagles’ future?

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