Philadelphia Eagles: How can the team slash the cap?

The Philadelphia Eagles and Howie Roseman need to address their salary cap situation with the incoming draft class coming.

$167 million dollars is an absolute king’s ransom for some, but in the NFL, the yearly struggle to get under the annual NFL salary cap has become a nightmare. Give Howie Roseman credit, as he has transformed a once old, veteran roster to a young, athletic team with a franchise quarterback. For all of the upside, this transition comes with its challenges and Howie Roseman and the Philadelphia Eagles are dead last in one major category. They are last in salary cap space. Per Overthecap.com, at the present moment, the Eagles have less than $2 million dollars available to spend.

The Eagles just signed almost there entire 2017 draft class except for first round pick Derrick Barnett. One would hope they would have some cap space to sign some remaining free agents or players cut after the June 1 deadline. There are three contracts that the Philadelphia Eagles need to do something with in order to succeed in the off-season. These three veterans, each have a large cap number and are often injured; starting left tackle Jason Peters along with running backs Ryan Matthews and Darren Sproles.

Jason Peters signed a four-year, $38.3 million contract extension with the Philadelphia Eagles in February 2014 and as of now, his 2017 salary cap hit will be $11,700,000, per Overthecap.com. There are two options for 35-year-old Jason Peters, either cut him post June 1 or restructure his contract bringing down his almost $12 million dollar cap hit. If Peters is cut after June 1, the team will be saving $10,700,000 off the salary cap this season. But if Peters is cut, he will also need to be replaced.

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An option is four-time all-pro, Ryan Clady, a perfect stop gap veteran that may sign for less than $10 million and is a plug and play guy. Another option would be to start Halapoulivaati Vaitai, the big man from TCU. Vaitai is a young developmental tackle that has played sparingly, but if the offensive line coach has liked what he has seen starting him could be the answer. Does having the best possible offensive line available for Carson Wentz this year give him the best chance to win? If Howie Roseman and co. think that keeping Peters is a must, then they need to negotiate a contract restructuring because the Eagles don’t have many options at left tackle without him.

Cutting Mathews and or Sproles would save the Eagles $4 million dollars apiece. If the last couple of years are an indication, a team can have a primary back for less than a $1 million dollars; Jordan Howard – 602k, Devonta Freeman – 675k, David Johnson – 750k, Wendell Smallwood – 650k. Does holding on to two veteran backs hinder the Philadelphia Eagles from finding one of these young, inexpensive game breakers?

The Eagles drafted Smallwood last year out of West Virginia and Donnel Pumphrey this year. To save a quick four million dollars the Eagles should either decide to run with Sproles, Pumphrey, and Smallwood or Mathews, Pumphrey, and Smallwood. To me, Pumphrey looks to be the replacement for Sproles, as they are both smaller running backs with big play making ability.

The Eagles are in an interesting salary cap situation, Carson Wentz is still on his rookie deal and there has been a lot of money invested in the offense. Mathews, Sproles, and Peters are fan favorites, but it may be time to make some aggressive roster decisions and move on from veteran players with a high cap hit. By restructuring Jason Peters contract and releasing Darren Sproles the Eagles can open up at least $10 million dollars in cap space.

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Alternatively, a few players that could be on the way out before the start of the season are; Nigel Bradham, saving $3 million, Mychal Kendricks saving $5 million, and/or Jason Kelce, saving $5 million dollars. Howie Roseman has a couple of difficult decisions ahead of him as the 2017 NFL season inches closer.

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