DeMeco Ryans' extension preserves roster spot

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The Eagles clearly believe DeMeco Ryans will make a successful return from his second Achilles rupture and be able to start this season.

On Monday, the team announced an extension through 2016 for the veteran inside linebacker who probably won’t be medically cleared for practice until training camp starts in late July. Ryans' deal is worth up to $10.5 million with $6.25 million guaranteed, according to a league source. Ryans will make $2 million in guaranteed 2015 base salary and he received a $2 million signing bonus, spread over each of the next two seasons, so his 2015 cap figure lowers from $6.9 million to $3 million.

 The Eagles will save close to $4 million in 2015 thanks to the extension. The source also said Ryans can make another $1 million in playing time incentives and has $2.25 million of his 2016 base salary guaranteed for injury, which becomes fully guaranteed on the third day of the new league year next March.

The new deal essentially preserves Ryans' roster spot in 2015 and creates a logjam at starter with incumbent Mychal Kendricks and newcomer Kiko Alonso also vying for one of the two inside linebacker spots.

Ryans, who made two Pro Bowls earlier in his career with the Texans, will turn 31 on July 28, right around the start of training camp.

The Eagles traded for Ryans going into the 2012 season. The former Alabama star started 40 of a possible 40 games with the Eagles until suffering the second Achilles tear of his career on Nov. 2 against the Texans in Houston in the eighth game of the year.

After the season, Eagles coach Chip Kelly said the team needed Ryans to come back. Ryans, a former second-round pick of the Texans, enters his 10th season. He isn’t expected to participate in the spring camps.

Earlier this month, Kelly dealt All Pro halfback LeSean McCoy to Buffalo for Alonso, a former Oregon standout who shined as a rookie but missed all of last season with a torn knee ligament.

Kelly now has Ryans, Alonso and Kendricks competing for the two spots and it seems more likely now that Kendricks will be the odd man out. Kendricks enters the last year of his rookie deal and there haven’t been any rumblings of an extension.

Since joining the Eagles via trade, Ryans has led the team in tackles (390) and emerged as the heartbeat and leader of the defense. Kelly once called him the “Mufasa” of the defense.

Ryans has recorded 390 tackles, five sacks, four interceptions, six passes defensed and one fumble recovery in his Eagles career. Last year, Ryans didn’t have a sack in his eight games but picked off one pass and charted a fumble recovery.

He registered career highs in tackles (177), sacks (four) and interceptions (two) in 2013, while helping the Eagles hold their opponents to 21 points or less in nine consecutive games during the middle of the season.

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