How the Eagles have such a stacked roster

[Soonerpeace]

(02-13-2025, 12:53 PM)ochocincos Wrote: We've heard many people recently talking about how Eagles have such a stacked roster and are paying premium for Hurts, AJ brown, DeVonta Smith, Goedert, Slay, Sweat, Mailata, and Lane Johnson.

Some people are wondering how they are able to?

If looking at Spotrac, one can see they have no player with a cap hit higher than $22 mill (Jalen Hurts) for 2025, no player was even $16 mill cap hit for 2024.

The key thing the Eagles did for their big contracts was multiple void years to spread the cap across more years.
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/cap/_/year/2025/sort/cap_total_top51

Compare that to the Bengals, who have 4 dudes with $15+ mill cap hits for 2025, including $46.25 mill for Burrow alone.

If the Bengals hope to stack their roster like the Eagles have, it would probably be in their best interest to restructure some of their key guys to add void years and/or add bigger cap hits in 3+ years from now so they can free up some cap for 2025-2026 and really try to make a push.

The spreading out definitely

(02-13-2025, 01:23 PM)ochocincos Wrote: I think (most) fans are willing to accept some down years down the road if it would mean getting a Super Bowl win or two in the near term.

Imagine if the Bengals had gone more all-in these past couple years. Maybe they would have ended up better than 9 wins each season.
But maybe Mike Brown only cares about having a continuous good-not-great team rather than an elite team with some down years in between.

We are too afraid to take chances

(02-13-2025, 01:34 PM)shanebo Wrote: But cap management is just a part of their success. They've also drafted extremely well, getting excellent production out of players who are still on rookie deals:
- Jalen Carter (All Pro)
- Cam Jurgens (Pro Bowl)
- Quinyon Mitchell (rookie, Pro Bowl alternate)
- Cooper DeJean (rookie, Pro Bowl alternate)
- Jordan Davis
- Nolan Smith
- Nakobe Dean
- Jalyx Hunt (rookie)
- Kelee Ringo (Pro Bowl alternate)
- Milton Williams

And they've bought low on a number of free agents who have performed well:
- Zack Baun (All Pro)
- Mekhi Becton
- CJGJ
- Avonte Maddox

But to OP's point, I'm fairly certain that this year they'll be able to re-sign their own FAs (Jurgens, maybe Davis/Dean/Williams or Sweat) and release a few guys (Slay? Bradberry? Huff?) so that they'll somehow have as much or more cap space as us ... Just a very well-run team.

Contrast … we’ve drafted 12 players (1-3 picks) the last 4 years. Only Chase, Mims, and CTB are starters. CTB not great just serviceable. Recently free agency has been hit or miss.

You nailed it though Shanebo on the real crux behind their success. They had some luck but they’ve drafted well and their trade with the Titans was very good for A J Brown.