Say goodbye to these 10 Eagles
The Eagles’ season ends Sunday and so will the Eagles careers of at least 20 members of the 2020 team, if history is any indication. Who will be playing their final game in an Eagles uniform? Who should Eagles fans be saying goodbye to this weekend? Here are 10 guys who likely won’t be back in 2021 for various reasons. Although some of these moves aren’t cap related, moving on from the ones who are under contract for 2021 would provide the Eagles more than $20 million in cap relief.
The Eagles aren’t even pretending anymore that last year’s second-round pick is a part of their future. J.J. Arcega-Whiteside played 72 snaps the first three games but only 38 the last 12 games, and he hasn’t even gotten on the field since Week 8.
The 57th pick in last year’s draft has just 12 catches in two seasons, just two this year. On track to become the Eagles’ worst second-round pick since Bruce Walker in 1994.
JJAW is two years into a rookie deal, and cutting him would clear a small amount of cap space — about $540,000.
Last year’s trade deadline move cost the Eagles a valuable fourth-round pick and generated very little in terms of production. Genard Avery has played just 137 defensive snaps in a year and a half, picking up 1½ sacks and making six tackles. He’s played defense in only two of the last nine games and then only because the Eagles were desperate as a result of injuries.
Avery has a $920,000 cap figure next year but no dead money if he’s released because he was acquired in a trade and the Eagles never gave him a bonus.
Corey Clement will be an unrestricted free agent, and the 2017 Super Bowl hero has been reduced to almost exclusively a special teamer lately. The Eagles kept Jason Huntley on the roster all year, and they’ve kept Adrian Killins and Elijah Holyfield around as well.
I don’t think it’s a lock that he’s not back, but I think Clement would prefer finding a home where he can have at least some role in offense. No dead money because he’s a free agent.
Vinny Curry has been a loyal Eagle over the years, an important member of the 2017 Super Bowl team and is still a decent rotational pass rusher in his ninth season (and eighth with the Eagles), but he’ll be 33 this summer and at some point the Eagles have to move on and get younger. Curry is an unrestricted free agent so no dead money.
It’s been a bizarre season for Zach Ertz, starting with him going public with his contract frustration, then struggling to catch passes early, then missing five games with an injury. He’s got only 33 catches for 319 yards and one TD going into the season finale and saw his Pro Bowl streak end at three straight.
He’s a Super Bowl hero, a future Eagles Hall of Famer and only 31 catches shy of Harold Carmichael’s franchise record. But with Dallas Goedert’s emergence and Ertz’s contract situation, a trade wouldn’t surprise anybody.
If the Eagles ship Ertz, it would clear nearly $5 million in cap space, the difference between his $12.48 cap figure and the $7.77 in dead money the Eagles would take on.
We haven’t seen Nate Gerry since he went on IR with an injured back in October, and we likely won’t ever see him again. Gerry is an unrestricted free agent, and it’s hard to imagine any way he fits into the Eagles’ future, especially considering the way Alex Singleton has played. UFA so zero cap hit.
Alshon Jeffery’s contract finally arrives at a spot where the dead money is less than the cap hit. In fact, cutting Jeffery would clear out nearly $8 million in cap space, the difference between his whopping $18.49 million 2021 cap figure and the $10.51 in dead money he would count.
The Eagles have a stable of young, cap-friendly WRs and it’s clearly time to move on.
Everything we just said about Alshon Jeffery applies to DeSean Jackson. He’s had a fantastic Eagles career and is still a home run threat, as we saw Sunday. But age, the constant injuries and the contract make it impossible to bring him back.
D-Jack has a $10.93 cap figure in 2021 and would count $5.8 million in dead money, so that’s a $5.1 million cap savings. The only way he’s back is if he agrees to a massive pay cut.
Malik Jackson arrived as a big-time free agent signing but it never really worked out. He missed nearly all of last year with an injury and although he showed some flashes the first half of this year, it hasn’t been nearly enough to warrant the money he’s due next year. He had 1½ sacks and 11 QB hits the first six games of the year but no sacks and just one QB hit the last eight.
Jackson is scheduled to earn $9 million next year plus a $1 million roster bonus and carries a $13.61 million cap hit or $12.6 million in dead money. A million bucks isn’t huge savings, but it’s something, and with Fletcher Cox and Javon Hargrave both back, it would make sense to move on from Jackson.
The Eagles hoped Matt Pryor would become another Big V, capable of filling in at either guard or tackle spot, but it hasn’t worked out that way. Pryor has been a liability wherever he’s played and with Lane Johnson, Jack Driscoll, Andre Dillard and Jordan Mailata all due back next year and some young depth inside as well, there's no reason to bring Pryor back. Plus, cutting him provides a small amount of cap relief — about $920,000.
