How Eagles limited salary cap hits for Anthony Harris, Joe Flacco

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The Eagles two biggest free agent pickups so far this offseason have been Anthony Harris and Joe Flacco.

And both have similarly low salary cap hits for 2021, a season in which the Eagles are really up against that cap threshold.

Before these moves, the Eagles had $3,340,821 in available cap space. So they were able to get these in but will still need to find more space eventually for future free agents and draft picks.

Harris’s cap hit for 2021 is $1.592 million and Flacco’s cap hit for 2021 is $1.56 million, according to a league source.

The Eagles were able to limit both of their cap hits by using a trick they’ve used a lot in recent years. The Eagles added four extra years that void automatically. They do this because signing bonuses prorate over the length of a contract for cap purposes. It’s a way to pay a guy now but spread out the cap hit. In this case, it pushes much of the cap hit to next year, when the Eagles are in a better cap situation.

Anthony Harris

While initially reported as a $5 million contract for Harris, it’s actually a one-year deal worth $4 million, with another $1 million in incentives. Like we mentioned, it also has four void years for cap purposes.

Guaranteed: $4 million

Signing bonus: $3.01 million

2021 base salary: $990,000

2021 cap hit: $1.592 million

Harris’s contract will leave $2.408 million in dead money in 2022.

Joe Flacco

Flacco’s one-year deal is worth $3.5 million but can be worth up to $7.5 million with incentives. So if Flacco ends up becoming the starter for whatever reason, he can earn more. Again, four void years for cap purposes.

Guaranteed: $3.5 million

Signing bonus: $2.425 million

2021 base salary: $1.075 million

2021 cap hit: $1.56 million

Flacco’s contract will leave $1.94 million in dead money in 2022.

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