Philadelphia Eagles starting to make cost cutting moves
With one of the smallest salary cap openings of any team in the league right now, the Philadelphia Eagles are caught between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, the team needs to bring in some talented free agents if it wants to compete for a playoff spot next season. However, to do that, it must start cutting some of it’s higher payed players.
Finally beginning to do that, the Eagles did cut former Pro Bowl defensive end Connor Barwin Thursday morning. The move will save the Eagles more than $7 million in cap space this next season. With that extra seven million, Philly may now have room to pursue cornerback A.J. Bouye, other wide receiver free agents, and still have enough room to sign all of their draft picks.
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That said, Philly must continue these cost cutting measures if it wants to see some real improvement next season. In need of two new starting cornerbacks, some quality wide receivers, and a new leader at running back — should Ryan Mathews be released anyways — Philly is stuck in a situation where they need to spend the cash but don’t have a lot of it to spend at this moment and time.
With the release of Barwin, the Eagles should now find themselves with close to $18 million in available cap. Considering that any deal for the aforementioned Bouye will cost around $11.5 million a season, the Eagles currently look to be in for signing only one free agent at this point. One fact to remember is that this cap space must also be used when the team signs its draft picks.
However, the Eagles still potentially have some aces in the hole. Mychal Kendricks is a player that will either be traded or cut this offseason, taking his salary off the team’s board. Ryan Mathews potential release would also free up some cap space for this team. In fact, cutting just these two players would give the Eagles another $5.8 million in cap room this offseason.
In need of some free agent help this offseason, the Philadelphia Eagles must find ways to cut some of their salary cap costs this offseason. Without doing that, I find it very hard to believe that the Eagles will be in contention for a playoff spot next season.
READ MORE: Eagles targeting former Texans cornerback Bouye
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