Philadelphia Eagles salary cap watch: 3 Reasons panicking is unnecessary

If the Philadelphia Eagles moved some money around, we’d see some sunshine.

Guys like Brandon Graham don’t grow on trees. Though he turns 33 years old on April 3rd, which is almost ancient for an NFL star, he’s still clearly one of the Eagles’ best players, one who’s coming off of a Pro Bowl season. Now, if the only real reason we can drum up for releasing 55 is he’s one of the older guys on the roster, shouldn’t we at least consider keeping him in the midnight green?

That will be a question that the Birds have to ask themselves this offseason. With a few of the other vets, the decision isn’t as difficult to make. The Birds have already said goodbye to franchise legend DeSean Jackson and are expected to do the same with Alshon Jeffery when the new league year begins.

According to Over The Cap, the Eagles are a smidge over $43 million after releasing D-Jax. Earlier in 2021, sometime around January, Philly’s vice president/ general manager Howie Roseman restructured both Malik Jackson and Alshon Jeffery, but it appears that he’ll also release them.

Now, if he could restructure Carson Wentz’s deal some before letting him go, that would be wonderful, but don’t bank on that (pun intended). Moving on from both Jeffery and Jackson prior to March 17th also means the Birds wouldn’t carry $21 million of the $31-million dead-money cap hit that they both represent collectively until 2022.

To make long stories short, though Howie shouldn’t get any credit for cleaning up messes he made, he has been a bit of a wiz when it comes to restructuring deals. Might Fletcher Cox‘s contract be one he could manipulate slightly? It’s a thought.

Getting out of contractual messes has, at times, been one of Howie’s gifts. His problem has been the fact that he never takes care of the guys that have helped him once they get to the end of those restructured deals and begin looking for their own extensions.

Think Malcolm Jenkins and Zach Ertz if you need a concrete example of that one. That’s another story for another day though.