Brandon Brooks is the latest Eagles veteran to restructure his contract to help the Eagles reach salary cap compliance.
Although he did not report any details, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler tweeted late Friday afternoon that Brooks had restructured to clear space under the Eagles’ 2021 cap.
Brooks carried a $10.4 million base salary in 2021, so there was plenty of room to trim. Generally, the Eagles clear cap money by converting base salary - which counts against a team’s cap entirely in the year it’s paid - into a signing bonus, which pro-rates over the life of the contract.
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Because of the decreased revenues from the pandemic, every team's 2021 cap is far lower than it will be in future seasons, so teams can advance the cap hits into seasons where they expect to have more cap space.
Minimum base salary for a player with Brooks’ experience level is $1.05 million, so the Eagles had the option of cutting up to $9.35 million in base salary and converting it into bonus money.
The exact cap savings won't be known until more details of the restructure are available.
Brooks, who missed all of last year with an Achilles injury, signed a four-year, $56.35 million extension in November of 2019 that runs through 2024. The 31-year-old Brooks made the Pro Bowl after the 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons.
NFL
According to OverTheCap, the Eagles were about $17.5 million over their adjusted 2021 salary cap of just under $207 million before tweaking Brooks’ contract.
Since last season ended, they have cleared out cap space by restructuring Brooks, Darius Slay, Javon Hargrave and Jason Kelce, releasing DeSean Jackson and trading Carson Wentz. They will clear out additional space by reworking Alshon Jeffery and Malik Jackson’s contracts with the intent of releasing them with June 1 designations.
They are also reportedly negotiating on a restructure with Brandon Graham and they can also cut cap money by either extending or releasing Derek Barnett. They will save additional money if the expected Zach Ertz trade comes to fruition. Lane Johnson's deal was also reportedly to be restructured, but NBC Sports Philadelphia's John Clark sent out an update this evening refuting that:
All teams must be at or under their adjusted cap figure by Wednesday, the first day of the official 2021 NFL league year.