How the Eagles have such a stacked roster

[*ochocincos*]

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.

[WeezyBengal]

Right.

The Bengals will continue to be at a disadvantage until they join modern NFL contract/salary cap structure. It really is that simple.

[Bengalbug]

(02-13-2025, 12:55 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Right.

The Bengals will continue to be at a disadvantage until they join modern NFL contract/salary cap structure. It really is that simple.

The bill will eventually come due. Look at the saints. The rams rebounded incredibly from their all in approach.

I am fore pushing chips in, while burrow is in his prime. But there is a financial consequence.

[*ochocincos*]

(02-13-2025, 01:17 PM)Bengalbug Wrote: The bill will eventually come due.  Look at the saints.  The rams rebounded incredibly from their all in approach.  

I am fore pushing chips in, while burrow is in his prime.  But there is a financial consequence.

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.

[SunsetBengal]

(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.

Absolutely, I'm not getting any younger and I've already accepted the notion that the Bengals will never be one of those historic Dynasty type of franchises. I want a championship before I get entirely too old to come to Cincinnati and party down with Bengal Nation.

[George Cantstandya]

(02-13-2025, 01:31 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Absolutely, I'm not getting any younger and I've already accepted the notion that the Bengals will never be one of those historic Dynasty type of franchises. I want a championship before I get entirely too old to come to Cincinnati and party down with Bengal Nation.

So what you're saying is they have to win the Super Bowl next year.  

[shanebo]

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.

[SunsetBengal]

(02-13-2025, 01:34 PM)George Cantstandya Wrote: So what you're saying is they have to win the Super Bowl next year.  

I mean, Burrow and Chase are still one of, if not the best combos in the league. Might as well strike while the iron is hot. 

[Millhouse]

(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.

Good post. Here's a tweet from a former Eagle exec  This goes to support what you are saying.

If a club won't spend cash over cap-

And it isn't proactive to sign good players earlier than later-

And it isn't willing to be creative in structure to create cap space-

And its draft results aren't freakishly good-

The odds of competing for championships is very limited.

— Jake Rosenberg (@jakerosenberg33) February 13, 2025

<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[*jason*]

(02-13-2025, 01:31 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Absolutely, I'm not getting any younger and I've already accepted the notion that the Bengals will never be one of those historic Dynasty type of franchises. I want a championship before I get entirely too old to come to Cincinnati and party down with Bengal Nation.

I don't care if they're awful for a few years if they win a Super Bowl soon. If they win two or three, I'd be ok with them never winning a game again. That's only a lil hyperbolic.

[GodFather]

(02-13-2025, 12:55 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Right.

The Bengals will continue to be at a disadvantage until they join modern NFL contract/salary cap structure. It really is that simple.

dead on, and the real head scratcher is why are they so stubborn to stick to a losing formula?

[GodFather]

(02-13-2025, 01:31 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Absolutely, I'm not getting any younger and I've already accepted the notion that the Bengals will never be one of those historic Dynasty type of franchises. I want a championship before I get entirely too old to come to Cincinnati and party down with Bengal Nation.

100% My joke with my two boys is I hope they get to see a Bengals SB ring because the way it's going I won't in my lifetime!  Katie and Troy look like they took Mikes attitude and added steroids to it.


All I think is Carson Palmer's quote years ago saying the organization always puts financial success first winning second. And the Brown family has not proven that wrong yet.

[CottonHill]

(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.

Yep, they, the Chiefs and the Ravens are all similar in that they take the obvious, best player available. Its how they win drafts even though they draft 25 or later. They dont try and outsmart themselves by drafting someone wit a hypothetical higher ceiling, they draft great football players, not traits, and they normally dont draft guys who dont produce or have chronic injury issues. 

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

Well, if they follow through, namely Burrow with a restructure I hope this is a template they look at and try and emulate.

The Eagles FO clearly know what they are doing contract wise with the void years and spreading the money like butter across too
much bread. Ja'Marr is going to be the highest paid WR regardless though, this was their major screw up, not extending him before
he had one of the greatest seasons by a WR ever.

We have players we can cut to free up a lot of cap space to do some good things. We will see how it is handled.

The last year or so has been pretty sad in not getting contracts done for Tee and especially Ja'Marr.

[Mickeypoo]

(02-13-2025, 12:55 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Right.

The Bengals will continue to be at a disadvantage until they join modern NFL contract/salary cap structure. It really is that simple.

I was going to say something negative, but instead, I am just going to hope for the best and pray for a miracle.

[J24]

Sign guys early if not trade them for picks, draft guys with great RAS and college production over players with mass, back load contracts, and utilize void years when necessary.

[Au165]

As always cap isn't the issue, cash is and will continue to be the issue. People do forget that wealth of the owner does allow for distinct advantages in how you manipulate the cap. All of those restructuring and even void years to an extent rely on buying cap with cash. So it's not just about the signing bonus to get the guy you want, it's the conversion of cap to signing bonus for other people (that gets paid immediately in cash) to create the cap to sign those guys.

Cap rich and cash poor is a thing and continues to be the crux of our issue. It's why drafting is so important and why you'd think the team would invest more in draft resources, and staff to support it, to potentially offset some of the other tactics where they are at a distinct disadvantage against other teams. Paying guys early is one way the could also couter act this to an extent because the signing bonuses would be cheaper earlier even if you had to take bigger cap hits later.

In all though, the Bengals have never embraced any sort of tactic to get around their bigger hurdles in roster construction and that's probably the most disappointing thing. When you are the underdog you have to utilize any sort of "gimmick" or work around to get an edge and we have simply never embraced it instead choosing to approach things head on like we are the elephant in the room instead of the mouse.

[Whatever]

(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.

Void years are great in that they allow you to spread out bonus money for extra years.  If you're a cash strapped team that doesn't have the funds to escrow for big signing bonuses, they don't really help that much.  Reiff had a void  year when he signed here, though, iirc.  

[ERIC1]

(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.

Philly has a much better scouting dept and management..end of point

[ERIC1]

(02-13-2025, 03:49 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Well, if they follow through, namely Burrow with a restructure I hope this is a template they look at and try and emulate.

The Eagles FO clearly know what they are doing contract wise with the void years and spreading the money like butter across too
much bread. Ja'Marr is going to be the highest paid WR regardless though, this was their major screw up, not extending him before
he had one of the greatest seasons by a WR ever.

We have players we can cut to free up a lot of cap space to do some good things. We will see how it is handled.

The last year or so has been pretty sad in not getting contracts done for Tee and especially Ja'Marr.

I know that if I were in management I would be rushing to sign tee higgins ..a player that misses 5-6 games a year..a player that had to leave another 4-5 games early because of chronic tendionapthy..and at the same time neglecting the monetary  needs that will be required to fill  the  multiple holes that we have on our defensive and offensive lines and linebacker positions