Salary Cap Exercise: 2021 Philadelphia Eagles

[WNCRavensFan]

I'm curious to see if anyone can accomplish this:

https://overthecap.com/calculator/philadelphia-eagles/

GOAL: Get the Eagles under the cap for the 2021 season, assuming the league adopts a flat cap of 198.2 mil due to the COVID pandemic.

This means you need to get to 16.8 mil in cap space on the site since the projection is $215 mil. Which means you'll need to save $78.203 mil against the cap.

If you do, please post a line item list of the transactions you make to get there.

Remember you do NOT have cap room this season to absorb dead money. Well, less than $400,000 of cap room.

Optional - it would be fun to see the train wreck of a roster you leave in place.

[organizedchaos21]

I'm curious to see if anyone can accomplish this:

https://overthecap.com/calculator/philadelphia-eagles/

GOAL: Get the Eagles under the cap for the 2021 season, assuming the league adopts a flat cap of 198.2 mil due to the COVID pandemic.

This means you need to get to 16.8 mil in cap space on the site since the projection is $215 mil. Which means you'll need to save $68.203 mil against the cap.

If you do, please post a line item list of the transactions you make to get there.

Remember you do NOT have cap room this season to absorb dead money. Well, less than $400,000 of cap room.

Optional - it would be fun to see the train wreck of a roster you leave in place.

After the 2020 season, cut the following players:

Player	Gain
Jeffery	$7,977,000
Ertz	$4,702,000
D. Jackson	$5,132,000
Barnett	$10,051,000
Goodwin	$4,281,250
Total	$32,143,250

Restructure (salary to vet min in 2021, spread rest into bonus over remainder of contract) the following players:

Player	Gain	New Cap	Old Cap
Cox	$9,966,667	$12,480,333	$22,447,000
Graham	$8,962,500	$8,965,500	$17,928,000
Johnson	$6,812,000	$9,689,500	$16,501,500
Slay	$7,300,000	$8,450,000	$15,750,000
Hargrave	$14,568,000	$632,000	$15,200,000
Total	$47,609,167	$40,217,333	$87,826,500

These moves save $79,752,417 and get the roster ~$196,250,000, just under the flat cap for 2021 (exact number is $18,754,379 under the $215m cap). 52 players are under contract, so they would need to make a few more moves to fill out the full roster.

The 2022 cap isn't great: $194,403,975 spent with only 40 players under contract, but they can just keep kicking the can down the road until they can escape from Wentz (maybe 2023, but definitely 2024).

Other options exist too. Rather than restructure, they could extend a number of players. I'm not going to play around with that right now though.

edit: these numbers don't seem to work, but the moves work on OTC's page. Note: I initially forgot to include Goodwin in the cuts. The total money saved was inaccurate (since corrected), but the final cap number was correct.

[WNCRavensFan]

I didn't think you could do it and keep Cox. Well done OC

[organizedchaos21]

The numbers don't work because OTC has an internal inconsistency. The change in cap space in the table at the top is different from the change in cap hit in the detail table. This appears to only be true for cuts. Based on the top table, cutting Jeffery saves $7.1945m ("Saved"), but based on his cap number, that cut would save $7.977m ("Gain"). I don't know which is correct, but since I used the smaller change to get under the 2021 cap, these moves should work (and they may even be able to keep one player whose cap hit is less than the ~$9.5m difference).

Player	Move	Cap Before	Cap After	Saved	Gain	New Cap	Old Cap
Jeffery	Cut	$266,402,705	$259,208,205	$7,194,500	$7,977,000	$10,509,500	$18,486,500
Ertz	Cut	$259,208,205	$255,288,705	$3,919,500	$4,702,000	$7,769,500	$12,471,500
D.Jackson	Cut	$255,288,705	$250,939,038	$4,349,667	$5,132,000	$5,802,000	$10,934,000
Barnett	Cut	$250,939,038	$241,668,038	$9,271,000	$10,051,000	$0	$10,051,000
Goodwin	Cut	$241,668,038	$238,166,788	$3,501,250	$4,281,250	$0	$4,281,250
Cox	Restructure	$238,166,788	$228,200,121	$9,966,667	$9,966,667	$12,480,333	$22,447,000
Graham	Restructure	$228,200,121	$219,237,621	$8,962,500	$8,962,500	$8,965,500	$17,928,000
Johnson	Restructure	$219,237,621	$212,425,621	$6,812,000	$6,812,000	$9,689,500	$16,501,500
Slay	Restructure	$212,425,621	$205,125,621	$7,300,000	$7,300,000	$8,450,000	$15,750,000
Hargrave	Restructure	$205,125,621	$196,245,621	$8,880,000	$14,568,000	$632,000	$15,200,000
Total				$70,157,084	$79,752,417	$64,298,333	$144,050,750

"Cap Before" and "Cap After" come from the Total Liabilities in summary table at the top. "Saved" is the difference between these two numbers.
"New Cap" and "Old Cap" are the player's Cap Number from the detail table below. "Gain" is the difference between these numbers.

[organizedchaos21]

I didn't think you could do it and keep Cox. Well done OC

Thanks! They're really not in that bad of a position. They can cut a couple of players for nothing, and they can push a good amount of money into 2022 and beyond (at which point they have to hope the cap goes up again). I suspect they'll extend a few of these players rather than cut or restructure.

Regarding Cox, they get a little more short-term juice out of a restructure ($9.967m) rather than straight up cutting him ($7.144m). They'd have to pay for that down the road, but I expect 2021 to be the season with the most cap pressure. Plus, if they get to 2022, removing Wentz from the team no longer costs more than keeping him.

[stevez51]

How in the hell do you cut Ertz their best receiver. The rest I can see.

[ursula]

It is also quite optimistic to project the cap to be $198M next year.

[L. G. Dupre]

How in the hell do you cut Ertz their best receiver. The rest I can see.

You hope that Dallas Goedert lives up to his draft position.


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[WNCRavensFan]

Okay so organizedchaos proved it can be done at 198. Can it be done at 175 mil? That's $103.4 mil to shed.

[organizedchaos21]

Okay so organizedchaos proved it can be done at 198. Can it be done at 175 mil? That's $103.4 mil to shed.

In addition to the moves above, restructure Brooks, M.Jackson, Kelce, Seumalo, and McLeod. 2021 cap: $174.3m (still 52 players). They'd be pretty well screwed in 2022 though ($200.5m, only 40 under contract).

[organizedchaos21]

I'm going to jump back in here for a second. Over the offseason, I discovered an amateur Eagles analyst who does work with snap participation similar to mine. His name is Deniz Selman, and he's active on Twitter (link). I'm not sure of his cap skills/knowledge, but I expect him to have a more knowledgeable answer to this question than mine. I just cut/restructured high money players. Since he's intimately familiar with the Eagles entire roster, he's likely more in tune with which players will stay, and if those players will get an extension vs. restructure.