Philadelphia Eagles

Details of Jason Peters Contract with Eagles

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

[adsenseyu1]

Via a league source we now have the information on Jason Peters new contract with the Eagles. The contract is a 4 year extension worth a base value of $38.3 million. The contract contains a total guarantee, as reported, of $19.55 million, however just $15.75 million is fully guaranteed upon signing.

Peters received a $5 signing bonus, a $5 million roster bonus, and a fully guaranteed base salary of $1.75 million in 2014.  $4 million of Peters’ 2015 $6.8 million base salary is fully guaranteed. If Peters is on the roster the 5th day of the 2015 League Year the balance of his 2015 salary will become fully guaranteed. $1 million of his 2016 base salary is also guaranteed for injury only and will become fully guaranteed if on the roster in 2016.

Peters can earn $250,000 in workout bonuses each year and has $500,000 roster bonuses in 2015 and 2016 that are earned for each game active. He can earn an additional $3 million in escalators based on Pro Bowl and All Pro selections.

Peters cap charge in 2014 dropped by $2 million to $8,292,000.

Click here for the full salary cap breakdown of Peters contract. 

[adsenseyu2]

[adsenseyu4]

[subscribe2]

State of Rebuild – Philadelphia Eagles

Posted on by Ryan Feder

[adsenseyu1]

How do you build a winning football team?  Over the next few weeks I am going to look at a handful of teams that are either relatively early in their rebuilding process or on the verge of a possible rebuild.  The purpose of this is not to reflect on past regime decisions compared to the current decisions but rather to start the analysis from day one and evaluate personnel decisions along with contract structures and styles to see if certain trends help produce a winning franchise.

State of the Franchise and Front Office

There might not be a team in the NFL with more question marks heading into the 2013 season than the Philadelphia Eagles.  Like most of the teams featured in this series, the Eagles have greatly underachieved and fallen far short of expectations in recent years.  After the “Dream Team” stumbled to a disappointing 8-8 record in 2011, the wheels really fell off the wagon in 2012.  A 4-12 season was bound to come with serious consequences, and none was greater than the departure of longtime Head Coach Andy Reid.  The awful 2012 season was the final straw that ended a 14-year tenure that included 9 playoff appearances, 6 NFC East Division Titles, 5 NFC Championship Game Appearances, 1 Super Bowl Appearance, but no Lombardi Trophies.  Reid wasn’t on the market for long, as he quickly agreed to become the Head Coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.

kelly and roseman

HC Chip Kelly and GM Howie Roseman

One man who survived was General Manager Howie Roseman.  Entering his fourth season as GM, Roseman is going to be the longest tenured General Manager in our case study.  The University of Florida and Fordham Law School graduate now faces at least a partial rebuild after two incredibly disappointing seasons following an NFC East Division title in his first year as GM in 2010.  Roseman grabbed one of the biggest headlines of the offseason when he successfully lured offensive-guru Chip Kelly from Oregon to become the 21st Head Coach of the Eagles even after Kelly announced he was going to remain at Oregon.

While the Eagles may not be a contender right now, the team still a ton of cap room and serious talent across its roster.  The Eagles currently have just under $21 million in cap room despite eating some dead money costs after moving on from 2011 1st round pick Danny Watkins and 2011 free agent prizes Nnamdi Asomugha and Jason Babin. In the NFC East, a division with no clear-cut favorites yet again, the Eagles might be able to make some noise while also transitioning their roster.

 

Contract Strategies and Trends

Although we have a lot more data available due to Roseman’s longer tenure, I’m still going to keep the analysis consistent with the theme of State of Rebuild and try to only look at the more recent moves.  The Eagles seemingly use most of the contractual tools we have been going over including the standard roster bonuses, per-game roster bonuses, workout bonuses, and the Minimum Salary Benefit (Felix Jones).  What is more interesting is the amount of money the contracts are actually worth relevant to the rest of the league. Players such as Lesean McCoy (3rd), Jason Peters (1st), Trent Cole (5th), DeSean Jackson (8th), Connor Barwin (10th) and Todd Herremans (10th after switch to Guard) are all being paid near the top of their positions on an Average Per Year basis.  While the Average Per Year amount of a contract isn’t by any means a full-proof barometer, the Eagles have an exorbitant amount of players being paid near the top of their respective positions for a team that has struggled so mightily.  This isn’t to say that they aren’t very good players, but it is interesting to me that a team with so many highly paid talented players is now trying to find a way to re-do their roster.

The Eagles do have a few interesting contracts on the books that I felt would be worth taking a look at.  The Eagles are another one of the teams we have looked at recently that have used a very low P5 (base) salary and a high roster bonus in the first year of a new deal.  Some of the Eagles players with this setup include DT Isaako Sopoaga, S Patrick Chung, FB James Casey, and CB Bradley Fletcher.  Just as a brief refresher, this type of deal gives the team some cap flexibility by limiting 3rd year guarantees and prorated bonuses while it gives the player the money up front and protects against potential forfeitures.

There is one more little nuance to these four deals that I found particularly interesting.  There are no official Team or Player option contracts in the NFL like you see in some of the other major sports, but the way the Eagles structured these contracts essentially turn them into 1 year deals with 1 or 2 yearly team options.  As an example we’ll look at James Casey’s new deal.

As you can see, if you click here to view James Casey’s salary cap page, in year 1 of his new deal Casey has a low $715,000 in P5 (base) salary and the large $3,300,000 Roster Bonus.  The remaining two years of his deal only contain unguaranteed P5 (base) salaries of $3,985,000 in 2014 and $4,000,000 in 2015.  What does this mean?  For one thing, it fully illustrates the benefits to both the team and the player we noted above.  Casey gets a substantial amount of cash right up front with more protection than a signing bonus and the Eagles now have an extremely cap friendly deal as long as they can eat the higher cap number in the first year of the deal.  They could have turned that same $3.3 million roster bonus into a signing bonus but that would have meant prorating it over 3 years.  With this setup, after 2013 the Eagles have a clear and easy decision to make – Is James Casey worth $3,985,000 to us this year?  If that answer is yes, they will basically be exercising a team option to keep him under contract.  If the answer is no, the Eagles can release him with no cap penalties in 2014 or 2015.  The deals for Sopoaga, Chung, and Fletcher are all setup the same way and as you can see, for a team looking to have a quick turnaround, the idea of keeping a good player or releasing an unwanted player at no cost is extremely beneficial.

The really interesting scenario I wanted to take a look at is the one that got the most attention during the offseason for the Eagles, Michael Vick’s paycut.  I’m almost reluctant to use the term paycut, because to me they basically just tore up the old deal and created a truncated 1-year deal.  There are a lot of moving parts to this whole scenario and because of that, this explanation might get a little confusing but I am going to do my best to get the big picture across.

Before even looking at the new deal, it’s important to look at a few of the factors leading up it.  One of which is before the paycut, the Eagles were prepared to move on from Vick.  Vick was set to count $16,900,000 on the cap this year and the Eagles weren’t going to have him on the roster at that figure.  At first Vick said he wasn’t going to redo his deal, which led most to believe he would simply be released.  Next, Vick was guaranteed $3,000,000 of his P5 (base) salary in 2013 and if the Eagles decided to release him, he would have cost them $7.2 million in dead money over the next three years ($3 million + $4.2 million of remaining prorated signing bonus).  Finally, Vick reportedly had suitors in the event he was released.  It was reported that the Browns, Cardinals, and Bills were among the teams that were interested in Vick in the event he became available.

vickWhether it was Chip Kelly convincing Vick to stay, or Vick realizing on his own that this offense might be the lynchpin to an Arizona Cardinals Kurt Warner-like resurrection, the two sides agreed to a new deal that would keep Vick an Eagle for one year.  This is where some things might get a little confusing.  Prior to the paycut, Vick still was under contract through the 2016 season, had $3 million of his 2013 P5 (base) salary guaranteed, and $4.2 million of prorated bonus money still to be accounted for on the cap.  After the paycut, the 2014, 2015, and 2016 years of the contract were voided, none of his P5 (base) salary was guaranteed, and all $4.2 million of prorated bonus money accelerated into the 2013 season as one hit.  I know it’s messy, but before showing the revised deal I wanted to at least attempt to show where some of the core parts of the new deal came from.  Vick’s new deal is a 1-year deal with an unguaranteed P5 (base) salary of $3.5 million and a signing bonus of $3.5 million.  In addition, Vick has a per-game roster bonus of $31,250 and a playtime incentive bonus of $500,000, both of which are not guaranteed.

So what does all this actually mean?  When the deal was redone, Vick wasn’t named the starter, as that was a recent development.  But at the time, it gave Vick a chance to compete for the starting job in a system he might be able to flourish in and it gave the Eagles an opportunity to see if he was worth keeping for the year with limited added risk.  If the Eagles had cut Vick in March, they would have had to sign a replacement level backup quarterback and gone with Nick Foles as their starter.  Suffice it to say; I don’t think Chip Kelly ever wanted that option.  By keeping Vick, even if he lost the competition and the Eagles decided to cut him, it would have cost them $7.7 million, only $500,000 more than if they had cut him originally in March, which is basically the cost of signing the replacement level backup quarterback.  The Eagles essentially got a starting quarterback tryout for the cost of a replacement level player.  In the end, they didn’t just get a tryout of Vick; they got their starting quarterback for the year.  What happens after this year is totally up in the air.  My guess is the Eagles decide to move on from Vick (again), but who’s to say what happens if the Eagles offense clicks on all cylinders with Vick at the helm.

Biggest Upcoming Roster Decision

Aside from the obvious question of what the team is going to do at quarterback after this season, there are a few roster question marks that will need to be addressed.  When the Eagles traded a 4th round pick and swapped 3rd round picks to the Houston Texans for Demeco Ryans last year, it was proclaimed as an absolute steal for the Eagles.  One year later, it seems more likely that Ryans will never revert back to his pre-achilles injury days.  Unless Ryans’ play this season improves, the Eagles will most likely move on and create quite a bit of cap relief.  Because he was acquired in a trade, all of his prorated signing bonus money was accelerated into the Texans’ cap in 2012, leaving the rest of his contract free of guarantees for the Eagles.  If the Eagles decide to move on from Ryans after the 2013 season, they would save the entirety of his $6.9 million figure in 2014 as well as an additional $6.9 million in 2015.

deseanOne more position to look at for the Eagles is at Wide Receiver.  With former 1st-round pick Jeremy Maclin sidelined with a torn ACL and set to be a free agent after this year, the situation was already one that needed to be addressed.  To further stress the issues with the position, the Eagles decided to keep Riley Cooper after his racist outburst.  The Eagles decided it was more worthwhile to deal with the distraction of keeping Cooper around than release him and incur $42,871 in dead money this year, the final year of his contract.  What complicates things further is DeSean Jackson’s contract.  With Jackson set to count $12.5 million on the cap in 2014, $12 million in 2015, and $12 million in 2016, something is probably going to happen next offseason to adjust those figures.  Jackson would still have $6 million of his $10 million dollar signing bonus to be prorated over the remaining years at $2 million per year, making cutting him relatively inexpensive.  If Jackson chooses not to renegotiate his deal, the Eagles could save around $30 million of cap over three years by releasing him.  The fact of the matter is that barring an explosive year under Chip Kelly, Jackson just is nowhere near a $12 million dollar a year receiver in this league.

In the next few days we’ll be wrapping up the first stage of State of Rebuild with a look at the Oakland Raiders.

Past ‘State of Rebuild’ Articles

Chicago Bears

Buffalo Bills

San Diego Chargers

Ryan Feder
Tulane University Law School
J.D. Candidate 2015
@RyanFeder
rfeder1@tulane.edu

Eagles Release S Kenny Phillips

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

[adsenseyu1]

Normally the first round of cuts does not contain main “name” players, but the Eagles released S Kenny Phillips, a former 1st round draft pick of the Giants. Phillips has always been a talented player but his career has been marred by injuries which probably contributed to his release.

The Eagles had taken a flier on Phillips, signing him to a $2 million dollar contract that contained no guaranteed money. The contract called for a base salary of $850,000, a $150,000 workout bonus, and a total of $1 million dollars in possible roster bonuses. The roster bonuses would be earned in installments for every game in which Phillips was active.

Due to the salary cap treatment of the roster bonuses Phillips’ cap charge was only $1,437,500. His cap charge will now reduce to just $150,000, the amount of the workout bonus that I assume he earned this offseason. The release will add about $1 million in net cap space to the Eagles.

Because Phillips earned the $150,000 workout bonus he will be ineligible to sign a qualifying contract with a team that would allow him to qualify for the minimum salary benefit.

[subscribe2]

Best & Worst Contracts: The Philadelphia Eagles

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

[adsenseyu1]

A few weeks ago Jason LaCanfora published a list of best and worst contracts in the NFL so I thought it might make a good idea for us to do the same here at OTC, with a team by team approach. I’ll try to be a bit more analytical in terms of why money was paid and how it fits in the market, but the general premise is the same. The one key difference is outside of restructured rookie contracts under the old CBA we will only use veteran contracts as there is a big difference between best draft picks and best contracts.  Please note that there is a difference between a bad player and a bad contract when discussing some of the selections. Clicking on a players name will take you to his salary cap page.

Brent CelekBest Contract: Brent Celek

Celek has been one of the better Tight Ends in the NFL for the last four years, ranking in the top 10 in receiving yards in three of those seasons. Those are the type of statistics that should propel a player into the $6 to $7 million per year range at the position, but Philadelphia pounced on the opportunity to sign Celek early and get him under contract at under $5 million a season, significantly less than players such as Greg Olsen, Zach Miller, and Marcedes Lewis.

By signing Celek early the Eagles were able to use some extra cap space in 2009 that was just going to go to waste and place some money into the uncapped 2010 season. All told the Eagles were able to get away “cap free” with $5.1 million of new money in Celek’s contract. The extension years of Celeks contract max out at $5 million in cap charges, which is due in 2016. The prorated money and dead money in the contract end in 2013, just three years into the extension. That allows the Eagles to fetch a good price with no worries about cap concerns if they were to trade the talented player in 2014.

The contract was designed to protect Philadelphia in the event Celek did not develop into what they expected of him, something not present in most of the other contracts mentioned above. Had the Eagles released or traded him this year the total cost would have been $12 million for two seasons with only $1.2 million of it being considered “dead money”.  Factor in the amount of money pushed into the uncapped season and the Eagles were only going to invest about $3.4 million per year in cap dollars before they pressed the escape button and moved on. It was tremendous planning that resulted in a bargain contract allowing the team to spend elsewhere to, in theory, improve the roster.

LeSean McCoyWorst Contract: LeSean McCoy

Just a few years ago this would have been a difficult team to find a true “worst” on but in the last few years things have changed in Philadelphia. While the Eagles are still somewhat cautious with certain extensions and signings, they have grown starry eyed in recent years with the headline grabbing signings. Michael Vick and Nnamdi Asomugha were two of the worst signings in the NFL, their contracts containing high guarantees for minimal performance. Those contracts are long gone now, but they never would have existed under the way the Eagles used to conduct business.  There are other ones to consider as well such as the decision to extend a 30 year old Trent Cole when he had two years remaining on his contract, which now looks to have the potential to be a 1 year $13.5 million dollar extension based on Cole’s play last season.

All things considered, though, nothing surprised me more than the Eagles decision to pay RB LeSean McCoy $9 million dollars a year, with nearly $21 million firmly guaranteed, the highest firm guarantee among Running Backs in the NFL. I would have thought that after the Brian Westbrook mess on his 2008 extension that the Eagles would have avoided getting in deeply on the position again. In a league where teams do not rely on one back the Eagles took a gamble and it blew up on them last season.  McCoy was wasted money in 2012 and will likely be wasted money over the next few seasons. McCoy may play well, but last year showed the Eagles what many teams already know— you can throw many talented players in a similar situation and get quality results which the Eagles received from Bryce Brown while McCoy struggled with injuries. While Brown may not be as good as McCoy the dollar discrepancy is gigantic.

Philadelphia left themselves no protection in this contract unless they were able to find a trade partner for him. The only injury protection is a series of small roster bonuses that are paid for games on the active 46 man roster. Those bonuses max out at just $250,000 so the protection is not significant by any means. In 2014 McCoy’s salary cap figure will rise to $9.7 million. His entire base salary that year, $7.65 million, is fully guaranteed, a figure too high for most teams to even consider picking up in a trade. In 2015 the Eagles would still owe him $1 million in cash if they cut him and the acceleration from his signing bonus would total $3.4 million, bringing the total dead money total to $4.4 million. The Eagles could also look to re-work his contract that year rather than paying a player to not be on the team, something they were stuck with on Asomugha this year.

Check out Our Other Best & Worst Contract Articles

AFC East: Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, New York Jets

AFC North: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers

AFC South: Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans

AFC West: Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers

NFC East: Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins (July 15)

[subscribe2]

[adsenseyu2]

Eagles Salary Cap Implications From the Releases of Cullen Jenkins and Mike Patterson

Posted on by Andrew

Earlier today, the Philadelphia Eagles released defensive tackles Cullen Jenkins and Mike Patterson. Below is a summary of the salary cap implications resulting from the moves.

Jenkins went undrafted in 2003 out of Central Michigan, After signing on with the Packers following the ’03 draft, he ended up playing the season in NFL Europe before making the Packers roster in 2004. After hitting unrestricted free agency in 2011, Jenkins was a surprise addition to the Eagles’ well-publicized 2011 free agent class. His original contract with Philadelphia was a five-year, $25 million pact with a roster bonus due each year. In February 2012 Jenkins and the Eagles restructured the contact where he received a $5 million roster bonus for the season but had his base salary lowered to the league minimum. The final year of the contract (2015) was removed. However, this restructure also guaranteed $1.5 million of Jenkins 2013 base salary ($4.5 million), and he was due to earn another $1 million roster bonus this coming March. The only dead money on the contract from this release is the $1.5 million the team guaranteed as part of the 2012 restructure. Regardless, because Jenkins’ 2013 cap hit was set to be $5.5 million ($4.5 million base salary + $1 million roster bonus), his release saves a net $4 million this season.

Mike Patterson was the Eagles’ first round pick in 2005, 31st overall.  He was the longest tenured player on the team until his release today. His rookie contract was for six years and $6.625 million. A rare instance happened with Patterson where the Eagles actually restructured his contract midway through his second season in the NFL, something that was almost unheard of (under the new CBA, it’s actually impossible to do as rookie contracts cannot be negotiated until after Year 3). The restructure added seven years for approximately $32 million, with a $4.5 million signing bonus. Patterson’s base salary in 2013 was set to be $2.9 million, with a $100k workout bonus bringing his cap total to $3 million. His cap totals over the final three years of the deal were $3.75 million, $5 million and $6.35 million in 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively. There is no dead money remaining on Patterson’s contract, so the team realizes an immediate cap savings of $3 million this year.

In summary, when the cap implications for today’s two releases are combined, the Eagles attain a net cap savings of $7 million. The team already has a large amount of 2013 cap space (an estimated $28,020,721) and so these moves will only help their cap flexibility going forward.

To check out the Philadelphia Eagles’ 2013 salary cap projections, click here.

@AndrewOTC

[adsenseyu1]

Eagles Attempt to Restructure Asomugha’s Contract

Posted on by Andrew

Today the Philadelphia Eagles are meeting with the agent for high-priced cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha to discuss restructuring his contract. After signing on with the Eagles for five years and $60 million dollars (with $25 million guaranteed) after the lockout in 2011, Asomugha was destined to be the crown jewel of the Eagles much-hyped free agent additions that year. However, that has not worked out as planned as Asomugha as struggled during his two years in Philadelphia.

As an initial note, let’s take a look at his contract as it stands. As referenced above, $25 million of the $60 million total is guaranteed. The guaranteed money on the contract is structured as follows:

2011: $1 million base salary + $9 million roster bonus

2012: $11 million base salary

2013: $4 million of Asomugha’s $15 million base salary

Asomugha is also set to receive a $12 million base salary in the final two seasons of his contract (2014 and 2015), not a dollar of which is guaranteed. Thus, as it stands now, after the 2013 season the Eagles could cut bait with Asomugha with no salary cap implications. If the team were to release Asomugha now, he would still cost $4 million against their 2013 salary cap due to the guaranteed money still remaining on his contract. However, his release would result in a net savings of $11 million on the team’s cap this year; if Asomugha were on the roster his cap charge would be the full $15 million. Because his cap savings, if released, would be so large in 2013, and also because Asomugha could be released without salary cap implications after the upcoming season, his agent (Ben Dogra of CAA) will likely be amenable to discussing a restructure.

The question at this point is, should Asomugha be released (or forced to restructure)? From a purely football standpoint, Asomugha has not lived up to his billing since joining Philadelphia. In the three seasons prior to joining the Eagles (while playing for the Raiders), Asomugha ranked 15th (2008), 16th (2009) and 28th (2010) among cornerbacks according to ProFootballFocus’ metrics. In stark contrast, in two seasons as an Eagle his ranking dropped to 88th (2011) and 101st (2012). Nowadays, many would argue that this decline isn’t surprising. As a Raider, Asomugha essentially played the right cornerback position exclusively, rarely moving to other parts of the field. As such, that made it easier for opposing quarterbacks to stay away from Asomugha completely and focus on attacking other areas of Oakland’s secondary. This shows in the amount of times quarterbacks targeted Asomugha during the three seasons mentioned above: 30 (2008), 28 (2009) and 29 (2010). (To show how extreme that is,  top cornerback Darrelle Revis of the New York Jets was targeted 84 times in 2008, 111 times in 2009 and 57 times in 2010 – in 13 games). As an Eagle, Asomugha has seen his targets increase to 47 in 2011 and 66 in 2012 (giving him more combined targets in the past two seasons than the three that preceded them). As you can see, the overexposure of Asomugha and different roles he has been asked to play in Philly have likely played a large role in his decline. Based on Asomugha’s play and financial implications since joining the Eagles, especially the limited salary cap consequences going forward, it makes plenty of sense for the Eagles to play hardball and force a restructure of his contract.

For those that want to take a closer look:

Asomugha’s contractual information can be found here:

http://www.overthecap.com/cap.php?Name=Nnamdi%20Asomugha&Position=CB&Team=Eagles

The Eagles’ 2013 salary cap page can be found here:

http://www.overthecap.com/teamcap.php?Team=Eagles&Year=2013

[adsenseyu1]

Pro Football Talk Sheds More Light on Vicks New Contract

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk breaks down the particulars of Mike Vick’s new contract in his latest posting over at PFT. According to Florio Vick will receive

$3.5 million in base salary, $3.5 million as a signing bonus and a slew of incentives to max the contract out at $10 million. The easiest to achieve is the $500,000 in gameday active roster bonuses and the most difficult a $1 million dollar bonus if the Eagles win the Super Bowl and Vick sees significant playing time. Since Vick was active for 10 games last season his 2013 cap will reflect a $312,500 roster bonus charge. The balance will be treated as a “not likely to be earned” incentive in 2013.

Most have reported that this will be a 3 year contract that voids after one season. This structure is done for prorating bonus money more effectively. Going with that premise I have the new numbers up for Vick on the site. The new deal saves the Eagles $10,020,834 in cap room to spend in free agency in 2013, reducing Vick’s cap charge from $16.9 million  to $6.879 million. His dead money charge in 2014 will rise from $2.8 million to $5.133 million making the renegotiation a net cap gain over two years of $7.6875 million for Philadelphia.

There is a possibility that the contract contains 3 dummy years rather than 2. If that is the case his cap number will fall to $6.0875 in 2013. As we find out more on the backend void structure we will update the cap figures, but for now this should paint a clearer picture of the Eagles cap situation.

[adsenseyu1]