PHILADELPHIA – June 1 is a significant demarcation line on the NFL calendar.
Some organizations are on the brink of obtaining immediate salary-cap relief from post-June 1 cut designations by spreading the cap charges over the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
The Eagles opted not to use any post-June 1 designations early, but they do have the impending retirements of two franchise legends: Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox, which will be officially announced very soon. In essence, Philadelphia has kept the contracts of Kelce and Cox until now to take advantage of the June 1 accounting maneuver.
Retirements function similarly to releases, and if the Eagles had not extended Kelce’s contract past June 1 this offseason, they would have incurred a $25.116 million dead money hit and lost $14.398 million of cap space, according to OvertheCap.com. By extending Kelce’s contract past June 1, those figures are reduced to $8.678 million in dead money and a $1.5 million gain in 2024 cap space.
Regarding Cox, the pre-June 1 numbers would have resulted in $14.3 million in dead money and an $8.890 million loss on the cap. Extending it past June 1 reduces those numbers to $4.2 million in dead money and a $1.2 million gain in the current cap year.
The Eagles will face the consequences of Howie Roseman’s voidable years trick in 2025, which will result in $16.438 million in dead money for Kelce and $10.1 million for Cox.
While organizations have tried to recover bonus money following unexpected retirements in the past, that is not the case here. The Eagles were aware that this situation would arise at some point with both Kelce and Cox and structured the contracts to help the team in the present, knowing there would be a financial penalty down the road.
The most significant impact of June 1 on the Eagles’ current 90-man roster is the future of veteran cornerback James Bradberry with the first mandatory minicamp of the Nick Sirianni era set for June 4-6.
The chances of Bradberry still being with the Eagles on September 6 in Sao Paulo, Brazil against Green Bay were always slim, and Isaiah Rodgers’ early performances have been so promising that slim chances may have dwindled to none.
However, the 30-year-old Bradberry still holds value in a cornerback-deficient league despite his underwhelming 2023 season, and the Eagles would like something in return for parting ways with the former All-Pro.
Philadelphia also seeks additional reps for the team’s top two draft picks, Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, as well as emerging second-year coverage options Kelee Ringo and Eli Ricks.
The dilemma lies in the fact that Bradberry, who has skipped voluntary work thus far, must show up to avoid fines of nearly $100,000. Furthermore, if Bradberry does appear, he either takes away reps from the young players or becomes a bystander watching practice, not an ideal situation for an organization that has deemed this an “mentality offseason.”
The Eagles can no longer waive the fines and ask Bradberry to stay in Alabama, so there may be a sense of urgency to resolve this situation this week.
In the event that the Eagles release Bradberry, they will not lose any cap space for the current year, down from a $10.46 million cap hit from an outright release before June 1. A trade would result in the Eagles gaining a nominal $1.2 million in cap space, along with the likely Day 3 conditional pick Bradberry could potentially earn.
As of now, Kelce, Cox, and Bradberry all remain part of the top-51 rule on the Eagles’ offseason roster, with the next three players in line being rookie third-round pick Jalyx Hunt ($1.024 million cap hit), receiver Jacob Harris ($997,500), and third-year cornerback Josh Jobe ($988,334).
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