The Eagles formally said goodbye to Alshon Jeffery and Malik Jackson Wednesday, releasing the two overpaid, under-achieving veterans with post-June 1 designations.
Last month, in anticipation of releasing the two players, Howie Roseman restructured their contracts to create cap space before Wednesday’s 4 p.m. deadline for the Eagles to become cap compliant while at the same time realizing the benefit of making them June 1 cuts. Dave Zangaro explained the complicated series of moves here.
Jackson was simply another disappointing big-money free agent. Jeffery had a complicated four-year career here, marked to a great extent by disappointing production but with some remarkable highs.
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His production here never matched his last four years in Chicago, when he had two 1,000-yard seasons, made a Pro Bowl in 2013 and averaged over 1,000 yards from 2013 through 2016.
Jeffery averaged 62 yards per game with the Bears but only 48 per game with the Eagles and considering what the Eagles paid him - nearly $50 million for his four years here - he’ll go down as one of the most overpaid players in franchise history.
But Jeffery played a key role on the 2017 Super Bowl championship team, with 57 catches for 789 yards and nine TDs during the regular season and then a brilliant postseason, with 12 catches for a franchise single-season postseason record 219 yards and three more TDs in wins over the Falcons, Vikings and Patriots.
Playing with a shoulder injury that eventually required surgery, he had catches of 17, 22 and 34 yards in the Super Bowl, including an acrobatic 34-yard touchdown catch from Nick Foles in the first quarter.
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The last two years were marked by injuries and a decline in production for Jeffery - just 490 yards in 2019 and six catches in seven games in an injury-plagued 2020 season.
Despite being one of the highest-paid receivers in the league, Jeffery had the 58th-most yards in the NFL during his four years in Philly.
The $47.15 million Jeffery earned from the Eagles is the 8th-most in franchise history and most ever by a wide receiver, about $8 million more than DeSean Jackson earned. It’s also the most money any Eagle has ever earned without making a Pro Bowl.
Jackson was a ballyhooed free agency signing with a three-year, $30 million contract before the 2019 season but he missed all but a few snaps of the opener with a foot injury and didn’t do much this past year when he was healthy. The Eagles wound up paying him $20.1 million of that original $30 million.
Jeffery will count $7.6 million through June 1against the Eagles’ 2021 cap, and Jackson will count $5.611 million through June 1. After that date, the Eagles will save another $2 million in cap space with each player.
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