The retirements of career-long Eagles players Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox have been news for some time now.
With Kelce exploring media opportunities and Cox seeing a decreased workload in 2023, both players confirmed that they would be hanging up their cleats after spending the entirety of their careers in Philadelphia.
Despite the news being well-known, the Eagles waited until Monday to process the veterans’ retirement transactions.
Because of the contracts that each player was on at the time of their decisions, the Eagles would’ve been on the hook for heavy cap numbers in the next couple of years. By waiting until after June 1 to post the transactions, the team is able to spread out the cap hit of contracts over a wider period.
Kelce, for example, was still on the books for $26.62M per his 2023 contract. If the team had processed the retirement when it occurred, they would be on the hook for that amount in 2024. Because the made in a post-June 1 transaction, Kelce will now represent cap hits of $10.18M in 2024 and $16.44M in 2025.
Processing it before June 1 would’ve resulted in $25.12M of dead money in 2024 and $16.44M in 2025. Philadelphia has effectively reduced the dead money tied to Kelce’s contract to $8.68M in 2024 and $7.28M in 2025.
Similarly, Fletcher was on the books for a remaining $15.51M over the next two years that Philadelphia would’ve been responsible for all in the 2024 if they processed his retirement when it was announced. With the post-June 1 designation of the transaction, Fletcher will hold cap hits of $5.41M in 2024 and $10.1M in 2025.
The team reduced the dead money on Flectcher’s contract from $14.3M in 2024 and $10.1M in 2025 to $4.2M in each of the next two years.
In unrelated news, the Eagles will be filling one of the two newly vacated roster spots to sign Griffin Hebert. Originally an undrafted tight end out of Louisiana Tech, Hebert has since transitioned to wide receiver at the NFL level after joining the Eagles’ practice squad late into his rookie season last year.
He signed a reserve/futures deal with the team but was waived in shortly after the draft. He participated in the team’s rookie minicamp on a tryout basis and has officially been brought back on a tryout basis for mandatory minicamp, per Andrew DiCecco of InsideTheBirds.com.
Leave a Reply