The Philadelphia Eagles are currently $86 million over the cap for the 2021 season. Yikes.
The Eagles are in a terrible spot for the 2021 season in terms of their cap space. Now, Howie Roseman is tremendous at maneuvering around cap issues, but this situation, in particular, will be a tough one to manage. Luckily for the Eagles, they can rollover the $20 million from this year’s cap space into next year and slowly but surely get out of this financial nightmare.
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The possibility of a cap rollover is precisely some of the reason why the Eagles signed Curry. Jadeveon Clowney and Everson Griffen are more talented (though Clowney is more of a run stopper than a pass rusher), but their price tags were too high. If the Eagles had signed one of them for $10 million or more, half of the cap rollover money would have dissipated. Signing Curry for $2 million brings a veteran who knows the scheme of the defense without breaking the bank.
Howie Roseman has his work cut out for him this upcoming season. He’s already delivered a ton of talent on both sides of the ball and has this team trending upwards. The issue, however, is that this all comes with a price. Zach Ertz is looking to get paid soon and the poor management of the Alshon Jeffery contract situation has the Eagles stuck between a rock and a hard place with him this season.
Even still, signing Vinny Curry instead of an expensive pass rusher is the first step in getting the Eagles out of this nightmare. The Eagles could have simply chosen to not sign Vinny Curry and trust in their young guys, but clearly, they wanted another veteran in the mix. That brings us all to something else worth mentioning.
Josh Sweat and Shareef Miller both wait in the wings, so why would the Philadelphia Eagles re-sign Vinny Curry?
There’s a subtle, but underlying trend that has been going on in the Eagles’ offseason so far. The Eagles, like many other teams, have a ton of unproven young players.
The difference between Philly and some of these other NFL teams is that they don’t seem to trust their younger talent. Think about it. Matt Pryor performed extremely well towards the backend of last season and seemed to be the logical choice and ready to take over after Brandon Brooks’ injury, but the Eagles signed Jason Peters.
Jalen Mills performed well at the safety position in college, but the Eagles signed Will Parks and drafted K’Von Wallace to split time with Mills. There was also the addition of Corey Clement during the most recent offseason, despite the fact that he’s found his way onto the Eagles IR (injured reserve) in each of the past two seasons. It seems as though Mike Warren, Elijah Holyfield, and Adrian Killins have no shot at overtaking him on the Eagles depth chart.
The same thing might be happening here. Jim Schwartz loves having a rotation at defensive end that goes, at least, four men deep, and it looks like he doesn’t trust Sweat to be the third guy in 2020. Curry will, no doubt, get more work than Sweat again in 2020. Might Sweat then be allowed to take over as the third man in Philly’s defensive end rotation?
Overall, this signing comes with low risk, but Curry has the potential to outperform his contract. Given the cap situation and the unproven talent that the Eagles have at the defensive end position, this move should be looked at as a good one.