Super Bowl champions rarely climb back up the mountaintop and successfully defend their title in the following season. If the Philadelphia Eagles want to become back-to-back champions, they’ll have to start by accomplishing something never done in franchise history: win their division the year after making a Super Bowl appearance.
Defending Super Bowl champions often struggle with managing the salary cap. Players often feel like they are deserving of a pay raise after hoisting a Lombardi Trophy, and they are typically compensated handsomely in free agency.
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman is one of the best executives in the league, but keeping the team intact will be a challenge. Philadelphia has several impending free agents who played a significant role in their Super Bowl victory, including offensive guard Mekhi Becton, defensive tackle Milton Williams, defensive end Josh Sweat and linebacker Zack Baun.
Eagles opened up just enough space to account for Myles Garrett’s cap hit
If Philadelphia can’t keep their defensive players together, they could potentially offset the losses with one single transaction: trading for Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett.
Whether Roseman’s aim is to retain his own free agents or sign somebody else’s, the Eagles have begun clearing space for new contracts. The Eagles released six-time Pro Bowl cornerback Darius Slay on Monday, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The move was made in an effort to cut spending ahead of free agency, which begins at the start of the new league year on March 10. If the veteran cornerback was released with a post-June 1 designation, the Eagles will save $4.3 million in salary cap space.
The cap space saved from Slay’s release isn’t too far off from the $4.9 million salary cap hit that Philadelphia would inherit from Garrett’s contract. Garrett would likely earn a contract extension after being traded, but Philadelphia would still be able to take advantage of his low cap hit for the upcoming season.
The 2023 Defensive Player of the Year publicly requested a trade after Cleveland’s disappointing 2024 campaign. Although Browns general manager Andrew Berry has refused to entertain the idea of trading Garrett, one anonymous general manager named the Eagles as a potential landing destination for the pass rusher.
A trade for the perennial All-Pro may not be that simple, however. If the Browns traded Garrett before June 1, they would be charged with $36 million in dead money. That dead cap figure would drop to $14.8 million if Cleveland traded him with a post-June 1 designation, but they wouldn’t be able to get any draft picks until the 2026 NFL Draft. Even for Roseman, that would have made negotiations quite difficult.