Philadelphia Eagles

Salary cap expert: Eagles have two of NFL's 10 worst contracts

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The Eagles' 2020 went from promising to disastrous in two months, and now in early December we're turning the page to the offseason with four games to go. How quickly can the front office fix the Birds' current situation?

If a quick glance at their priciest contracts is any indication, it could be a little tricky.

Salary cap expert Jason Fitzgerald took a look at the 25 worst contracts in the NFL over the weekend at Over The Cap, a valuable website for any football fan interested in understanding the money side of the sport. 

The Eagles appear twice on the list, not exactly a good ratio considering there are 32 teams in the league - and both are among the absolute worst.

Carson Wentz's four-year, $128 million extension (which hasn't even kicked in yet) ranks No. 9 on the list, while Alshon Jeffery, who is still somehow under contract in 2021, took the dang top spot across the entire league.

Not a great look for Howie Roseman, who has completely mismanaged the roster since the Super Bowl.

Here's a portion of what Fitzgerald had to say about the Wentz contract:

"Our valuation metric puts Wentz at $23 million which for a healthy NFL QB is about as low as it gets. Wentz is one of those players where the contract was fine in relation to the market but now just looks like a catastrophe, similar to a situation that unfolded years ago with Matt Schaub and the Houston Texans. Wentz technically is only at the end of his rookie contract which ran through 2020 and there is no way to cut Wentz in 2021 without cutting him a massive check and carrying huge sums of dead money on the salary cap. If the team fails to cut Wentz this offseason then he will also have his 2022 salary guaranteed. Wentz’ cap hit is the 5th largest in the NFL next year to boot. Basically this is the Todd Gurley contract on steroids."

Being compared to Matt Schaub and Todd Gurley? Not ideal.

And here's a portion of what Fitzgerald had to sa about the Jeffery contract:

"While you can give the Eagles some credit for getting ahead of the curve I am sure they expected more from this one. Jeffery signed this contract toward the end of the 2017 season and since then has produced, 843 yards, 490 yards, and 15 yards. [...] This contract would have wound up bad but ended up even worse because of a cap relief restructure in 2019 that saw the Eagles convert $10.82M of salary to a bonus. During this restructure they wound up agreeing to guarantee his 2020 salary. It was an epic failure leaving Philly with a cap charge of $15.4m this year and absolutely no production. Even next year when they walk away from him he will leave them with a $10.5M parting gift."

Jeffery was instrumental in the Eagles winning their first Super Bowl. It stinks that his lasting legacy will likely end up being the brutal, pricey years since.

To recap, the Eagles are currently 3-8-1, don't have a clear picture for the future at the quarterback position, and have two of the worst contracts in the entire NFL on the books for next year.

Cool.

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