Starting on March 16th, Howie Roseman and the Eagles front office will be able to contact the agents of all soon-to-be free agents. They will be doing so with more money than they have had to spend in years, which is good news, because they have plenty of holes to fill.
Here is everything you need to know as free agency inches closer:
Eagles Projected Salary Cap Space: $41.8 million (per Over the Cap)
NFL Rank: 18th
NFC Rank: 7th
NFC East Rank: 4th
March 12th: Teams have until 4:00 p.m. to use either the franchise or transition tag on a player. This will obviously impact the players available in free agency for the Eagles to target. That list starts with defensive end Yannick Ngakoue, a player the team would likely have a ton of interest in, but is reportedly going to be tagged by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
March 16th: March 16th is the start of the unofficial tampering, meaning Roseman and the Eagles can contact agents of impending free agents, but no contracts can be officially agreed upon until March 18th. Of course, these conversations have been going on for weeks and deals will be agreed to during these two days, but they can't be announced during the two-day tampering period.
March 18th: Free agency begins at 4 p.m. EST, which is when the Eagles can officially agree to deals with free agents and announce those deals.
Key Eagles Free Agents:
Jason Peters
Nelson Agholor
Jalen Mills
Ronald Darby
Nigel Bradham
Rodney McLeod
Vinny Curry
Timmy Jernigan
Josh McCown
Jordan Howard
Halapoulivaati Vaitai
Kamu Grugier-Hill
Nate Sudfeld
Vinny Curry
Corey Clement (restricted free agents)
Potential Cap-Saving Moves:
Most years, Roseman has the ability to add a ton of space if needed. This year, he is starting with a large amount of cap space, so he doesn't need the flexibility. That is good news, since he really doesn't have much wiggle room left in terms of creating cap space.
The most realistic options are:
Cut/Trade Malcolm Jenkins: What the team does with safety Malcolm Jenkins will be one of the biggest of the offseason. The team would gain $5 million in cap space if they either traded or released Jenkins, which is possible if they don't come to an agreement on a new deal with the starting safety. Another way the Eagles could create space with Jenkins is to sign him to an extension, which could potentially lower his cap hit for the 2020 season, which is currently set to be $10.8 million.
Trade Sidney Jones: It is hard to say what kind of market would be out there for Jones, and it is possible that if they don't get much in return, they will decide to bring Jones back and give him another chance at carving out a role on the team. Cutting or trading Jones would give the team around $1 million in extra salary cap space.
Trade Rasul Douglas: There will likely be more teams interested in Douglas than Jones, who has played more and has shown he can be a quality starting cornerback when he is given the chance. Douglas might return more in a trade, but he is also a more valuable part of the roster, as he has been the team's go-to starter on the outside when they have had injuries at cornerback. Trading Douglas would save the team around $2 million.
The Alshon Jeffery Question: In terms of salary cap space, the biggest decision the Eagles will have to make this offseason is what to do with with receiver Alshon Jeffery. Coming off of a serious foot injury, and already appearing to be on the decline, there are obvious reasons to move on from Jeffery. Roseman has said he wants to get younger and faster, and moving on from Jeffery would help make both of those things happen. If the Eagles decide to outright cut Jeffery they would lose around $10.5 million in salary cap space, a pretty big blow to their available space, but one they could absorb and still make plenty of moves.
Ideally the Eagles would able to trade him. If they can find a taker for Jeffery the Eagles would only lose around $1 million in salary cap space. It wouldn't be surprising to see the Eagles package a pick with Jeffery to convince another team to take on his contract.
The lack of a CBA beyond 2020 is also playing a factor in what they do with Jeffery, as once there is a new CBA, they could release Jeffery with a post-June 1st designation. That would allow the Eagles to spread out his dead money over two seasons instead of one.
You can reach Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!
