Random Eagles Information Still Not Worthy of a New Thread

[Diomedes]

I think I've read you guys saying the author of this piece is a hack, so maybe this breakdown is completely wrong, but all the same I read it and I want to know what some of you more knowledgeable salary cap heads think of it.

http://www.nj.com/eagles/index.ssf/2017/12/eagles_2018_cap_space_who_will_get_cut_to_make_roo.html

Obviously, Smith will be gone after this year.  So will Celek, or at least re-structred to a very friendly, twilight-of-career deal.  I'm guessing Peters is a good chance to just retire, and wonder what that would mean for the cap situation also?

[SD]

ESP's a hack when it comes to insider knowledge. He leaks stuff for the Eagles whether it's true or not. I miss the days of Eckel and his Kevin Johnson trade rumors.

That wasn't a bad breakdown though. I figured they had little cap space. Curry's had a nice season, would love to keep him, but he's probably expendable with Barnett in the picture. If they can save $6 million and eat $5 million of his deal it would probably be worth it. I'd definitely bring Chris Long back. He's embraced the city and just wants to play football. He's great in a rotation. They can probably get him back on a fair deal. Really I'm done questioning Howie and his cap decisions. Guy obviously knows what he's doing.

[Sgt PSN]

If the Eagles win a chip this year I give 0 fargs about the 2018 cap. 

[Rome]

Sassy with the GOAT POST. 

[Eagles_Legendz]

Curry has been good this year but shouldn't be back next season at that $$ and with their dline depth.

[Eagaholic]

Dio,
From what I've read of ESP, yeah he's a turd of a writer but I think this article was pretty much on point and accurate. Where he's off is more by omission. Off the top of my head here's a couple of points:

- GMs I hear talk about the cap look at it in terms of a rolling 3 or 4 year average. The Eagles aren't just near the bottom of the pile now and in '18 but are at or near the bottom for the next few years. They need to account for paying Wentz $25 million plus/yr in a couple of years.

- There is a salary floor as well as ceiling that goes over 4 year periods, and '17 is the first year of the cycle. This means that even if the Eagles can manage to free up $12-15 million in cap space, they will be competing for free agents with many teams with $40 or 50 million plus, including teams like NE, JAX, MIN, LAR and other contenders. Some teams may have well over $80M to spend (though in truth there aren't a lot of teeth to the penalty for coming in under, it's just unwise).

- He does well to state the cap hit for the different cap casualties but doesn't address how crippling a lot of dead money can be with a tight cap. Cutting a player to free up cap space isn't the simple solution writers often imply. If you take a $10 million cap hit to cut a player making $15M it's basically lowering your cap by $10M. It isn't always a bad thing - I'm getting few sleepless nights because of the few million in dead money they incurred in trading Kiko and Byron Maxwell to MIA in order to go up and get Wentz. In fact Howie has done a great job in purging Chip's roster even if Chip is half the reason for the current cap state.

- Howie is like the Anti-Banner in most ways and has been overpaying most players. But like Banner they are heavily betting on their evaluations to pan out well. With Banner it was a mixed bag in the end, probably no better than a traditional approach rather than locking up emerging players way early for what they expect to become under market prices. The FO now on the other hand is betting heavily on overpaying to hedge against future demands. If there's more than a couple bad injuries, busts, Riley Cooopers getting $23 million handouts etc they can be in cap trouble. Even so, cap trouble doesn't necessarily mean team failure if you can keep doing things like getting guys like UDFAs with the upside of a Clement or Mack Hollins, or acquiring problem children like Ajayi who can come and fit in well with the team culture.

- I agree if they win a SB this year I really won't care about next year's cap. But this of course is a fan's perspective. From an FO perspective, they have a business model predicated on what if they don't win the SB this year, which us usually the overwhelming probability.

[smeags]

playoff invoices are in bitches !!! 

[Diomedes]

[QB Eagles]

It's crazy how good the Titans resume looks on paper. Whenever you actually watch them, they look horrible.

[SD]

It's crazy how good the Titans resume looks on paper. Whenever you actually watch them, they look horrible.

Ha...truth

[ice grillin you]

It's crazy how good the Titans resume looks on paper. Whenever you actually watch them, they look horrible.

you watch the titans?

Its possible the last time I watched them play a non eagle game was in the Super Bowl against the rams

[QB Eagles]

You're not missing much.

Mularkey must be a good coach in some sense, because he's somehow getting a second straight winning year out of this awful boring team. It seems impossible, even in that division. Dennis Kelly is still getting snaps in a lot of these games.

Pencil them in for the Saturday night wildcard game.

[MDS]

nah thats the jags spot

the titans caught the seahawks at a great time much like the patriots caught the saints at a great time. they are a garbage team that would lose to the eagles with nick foles at qb.

the 3rd best afc team isnt better than the 10th best nfc team.

[ice grillin you]

You're not missing much.

Mularkey must be a good coach in some sense, because he's somehow getting a second straight winning year out of this awful boring team. It seems impossible, even in that division. Dennis Kelly is still getting snaps in a lot of these games.

Pencil them in for the Saturday night wildcard game.

no im being serious do you really watch the titans and when?....i guess you have the sunday ticket but even then why would you ever watch them enough to know about them

[PhillyPhreak54]

I watch them