Philadelphia Eagles and Zach Ertz agree to restructure: 3 Things to know

Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz has gotten a taste of NFL success, and he’s doing all he can to make sure his team continues their winning ways.

Shortly after the confetti was done falling in U.S. Bank Stadium and the Philadelphia Eagles were done celebrating with their fans during the first Super Bowl parade in the history of ‘The City of Brotherly Love’, It was time to go back to work. The focus shifted from celebration to winning another one, and the first order of business was taking a look at several salaries. We weren’t even talking about tight end Zach Ertz at the time.

Once the NFL set the salary cap number, we knew two things. Said number was $177.2 million, and the Eagles needed to shave about $12 million or so just to get under the cap. The next thing you know, someone stepped up.

Lane Johnson helps save the day.

After his much publicized suspension, Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson was called ‘selfish’ by several people. One of which was Fox Sports radio and television host Colin Cowherd, but he’s probably eating those words now.

On March 13th, Johnson agreed to restructure his deal. In doing so, he saved the team $7.5 million in cap space. That helped, but we knew the job wasn’t done. More cap space needs to be cleared, and now, Ertz, like Johnson has ‘taken one for the team’.

Here are three things to know about the recent Zach Ertz restructured deal.

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1. Ertz is still signed through the 2021 season.

Ertz signed a five-year deal prior to the 2016 season. With the restructure, Ertz’s $8 million base salary for the 2018 season will see $7.21 million converted into a fully guaranteed signing bonus, and the remaining $790,000 is transformed into his fifth-year, league-minimum, base salary.

2. This hasn’t fixed everything, and Howie Roseman STILL has some work to do.

Ertz’s restructure, placed the Eagles cap number at $170 million, roughly $7 million under the cap. On the surface, this all sounds exciting, and it is. There’s just one thing, and this is it. That number doesn’t include the recent signings of Corey Nelson, Haloti Ngata and Nigel Bradham, so the executive vice president of football operations still has some work to do.

Next: Philly makes it official with Haloti Ngata

3. This may cause a slight issue going forward.

Both restructures, Johnson’s and Ertz’s help the team now, but they’ll hurt the team down the road. The Eagles will see increased cap numbers for both in 2019 and beyond, but there’s no need to worry though. At least, we can say that for now. Roseman clearly knows what he’s doing, and he’s earned the trust of Eagles chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie, the front office and the Eagles fan base.

They’ll figure all of this out.

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