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2011 Eagles offseason-week moves

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  • #91
    http://igglesblitz.com/philadelphia-...ney-come-from/

    Where Did All The Secret Money Come From?

    Old friend Derek of IgglesBlog fame politely asked me last night, “WHEN ARE YOU WRITING THE POST EXPLAINING WHERE ALL THE SECRET $ CAME FROM?” It is not true that it came from my big winnings from Las Vegas, where I spent last weekend. Didn’t come out ahead on that trip, not even close. No, the “Secret Money” came from … well, exactly where I told you it would come from a couple of weeks ago.

    See, as I said before the lockout ended, the Eagles were looking at about $26 million of space. They then went out and signed four large deals:
    • Nnamdi Asomugha ($10 million 2011 cap hit)
    • Jason Babin ($5.3 million 2011 cap hit)
    • Cullen Jenkins ($4 million 2011 cap hit)
    • Vince Young ($4 million 2011 cap hit)
    That’s $23.3 million against the cap, which put them at about $3 million of cap space left. They also signed a slew of other guys. But all of those guys, with the exception of Ronnie Brown, were signed to minimum contracts and barely impacted the cap, as I will explain. Some more went to rookies, though only the top three picks are actually counting against the cap right now. They actually saved some cap space by trading Kolb to Arizona for DRC. They saved a little bit more by trading away Brodrick Bunkley. My original estimate may have been off by a little … but not by much because, as of yesterday, they had $4.6 million left under the cap.
    This is for two reasons. First, look at the table that BJ has up at his invaluable EaglesCap site. See those notations for “veteran discount”? That means that veterans signed to minimum contracts count for LESS for cap purposes than they are actually getting paid. While I can’t recall whether this provision was part of the original 1993 CBA, it has certainly been part of the CBA since the late 1990s.

    Second, there is always something called the “Rule of 51″ in effect during the preseason. That rule means that the players with the 51 highest salaries count against the cap right now (along with any additional prorations from bonus money paid to players not in the top 51). Once rosters are cut to 53, then everybody counts. But until then, just the top 51 guys.

    Thus, for each veteran signed to a minimum contract, they only count $525K against the cap and are displacing guys who had previously been in the Top 51 and had counted only a little less — likely in the neighborhood of $450K. Thus, the impact of signing all of these minimum salary guys is only about $75K apiece. Because, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the Eagles had a lot of guys under contract already, the impact of signing guys is only the marginal impact over the guys they are displacing from the top 51 calculation.

    As to Ronnie Brown, he signed a deal worth $1 million, plus incentives. Again, that only increases the cap by the difference between $1 million and the guy he displaced from the top 51, or about $550K.

    Brown is also good example of what the Eagles have been up to. The NFL is weird this year: the draft happened before free agency. Guys like Brown who might have taken an open running back job for a team that would then draft a young back to compete with him now entered a marketplace where that drafted running back is already in place. Now, understand that teams really do always love their draft picks, especially if you give them a summer to do nothing but re-watch their college tape and without the chance to see them even in a mini-camp setting to get an additional read on them. Teams with a young drafted running back will not feel the need to hedge their bet with a veteran RB the way they would if they were staring at a hole at the position in March, not knowing who they will wind up with in the draft, and “never dreaming” that Joe Blow would fall to them.

    Anyway, the point is that the market for solid but not superstar veterans is far thinner than it would have been five months ago. And guys like Brown are forced to take deals far below what they would have taken. Consider this: in 2010, the Eagles signed Mike Bell to a fully guaranteed $1.5 million deal. In March, before the lockout, they tendered Jerome Harrison at the second round level, which I believe was worth $1.91 million. Getting a guy like Ronnie Brown at only $1 million is pretty good relative to those deals, in my humble opinion. And I don’t think it would have been possible given a typical off-season schedule.

    In this sense, the Eagles have been value investors, signing good young players like Ryan Harris and Evan Mathis for bargain prices. The value is usually in the draft, but there is absolutely value in minimum salaried veterans in this market, and the Eagles are taking advantage of it. Yes, it feels different than their typical approach, but this isn’t a typical year. And as such, the Eagles are doing what they always try to do: buy under-priced assets. They did it with Mike Vick, which paid off — and that is a good parallel here, because Vick didn’t get reinstated until training camp 2009, and lots of jobs were “filled”. The Eagles saw a guy who was cheap and bought, figuring no job is ever really filled. That is happening again in 2011.

    The one thing that is striking about this off season is the fact that three of the four big deals are multi-year contracts for players in their 30s. That is odd. But understand that they are generally structured in a way that favors the Eagles. For example, Babin got a low signing bonus and large salaries. If he ever declines, he can be cut without impacting the team going forward.

    That’s nice, of course, but the problem with signing players in their 30s is that they will decline at some point, and it usually happens before you are smart enough to cut them, not after. Which hurts the team. In that sense, this is a high risk strategy, and one that has not been especially kind to the team when they have tried it in the past no matter how well the deal was structured.

    Finally, a word about cash. It is not the case that every team needs to spend 99% of the cap this year. The league as a whole needs to spend 99% of the cap. So it isn’t like the Eagles are just lighting cash on fire because they have to.

    That said, by BJ’s calculations at EaglesCap, the team has spent “just” $115.5 million in cash this year against a cap of $123.4 million. That will go up with extensions for Vick and DeSean Jackson, but again, it isn’t like the team has hit some secret trove of cash that they had kept hidden. They have still spent less than 100% of the cap in cash terms. And, if memory serves, they have actually spent less cash so far than they did last year.

    All of which means that there is nothing magical going on here. It just means that this year is a strange one for the league as a whole, and the Eagles have been clever in taking advantage.

    Comment


    • #92
      We know this, of course, but it's still fun to read about it over and over...

      http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/p...-losers-080111

      NFL free agency: Winners and losers
      Biggest winner — team
      Philadelphia: Swiping elite cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha away from serious suitors like Dallas and the New York Jets is reason alone to celebrate. But the Eagles made a slew of other impressive acquisitions like cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, defensive ends Jason Babin and Cullen Jenkins. Babin summed up his feelings about Philadelphia’s Super Bowl chances on Twitter: “I feel like we’re the Miami Heat of the NFL … except we win the final game.” That championship victory is something the Eagles have never accomplished in the Super Bowl era.

      Comment


      • #93
        This was probably said many places and I wasn't paying close attention, but Banner just said they had been targeting a big splash in 2011 since 2 years ago. All of the long-term deals they signed in 2009, they made sure that 2011 was the lowest salary in the contract, because they knew with the new CBA there would again be a cap, and it would probably be lower, and because of the rules in 2010, there would be twice as many FA's available in 2011 as normal, so they wanted to make sure they had more money than usual to take advantage of the glut of available talent. That's freaking genius.

        Comment


        • #94
          Yup, classic buyers market and compressed in a small time window to boot...which hurt them a bit on the Kolb trade, but ended up benefitting them otherwise since the players did not have alot of time to shop deals around due to TC starting and many teams not having cap space to offer anyway...good job by the FO
          Eliminate distractions, create energy, fear nothing, and attack everything.

          -Andy Reid

          Comment


          • #95
            Originally posted by Vote for Kalas View Post
            Yup, classic buyers market and compressed in a small time window to boot...which hurt them a bit on the Kolb trade, but ended up benefitting them otherwise since the players did not have alot of time to shop deals around due to TC starting and many teams not having cap space to offer anyway...good job by the FO
            It sure worked, and I would argue that in the end the Birds benefited in the Kolb delay too. Getting a Pro Bowl CB and a #2 pick? How can you do better than that?
            "Hey Giants, who's your Daddy?"

            Comment


            • #96
              Originally posted by Eagle60 View Post
              It sure worked, and I would argue that in the end the Birds benefited in the Kolb delay too. Getting a Pro Bowl CB and a #2 pick? How can you do better than that?
              Yeah, I think so too. Arizona needed Kolb in camp asap to learn the offense.

              Comment


              • #97
                8/13/11...

                Collier released with an injury settlement.

                Jarrod Johnson released.

                C.Noonan released.

                Steve Smith put on PUP.

                Signed T Spencer Johnson.

                Comment


                • #98
                  8/13/11 Update...

                  Eagles CB Joselio Hanson has been demoted out of the team's nickel package.

                  Hanson has been the Birds' primary slot corner over the past several seasons, but he's now bumped down the depth chart with Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Nnamdi Asomugha in the fold. Eagles beat writers have speculated that Hanson will be released around final cuts, and SI's Peter King believes he may end up in Baltimore with old Philadelphia assistant John Harbaugh.

                  Comment


                  • #99
                    Oh this is priceless.

                    From BGN...

                    I just had to bring this to your attention. This was a thread on a popular Giants message board where these Giants fans have developed a conspiracy theory in which they're convinced that the Eagles have conspired with player agent Ben Dogra to hoard all of the best players in the NFL on the cheap. And yes, it's as desperate and sad as it sounds.
                    http://corner.bigblueinteractive.com...&thread=411257

                    Comment


                    • How can people believe that the Giants would offer a guy $35 million one year but wouldn't offer him $2million the next? Morons.
                      "Hey Giants, who's your Daddy?"

                      Comment


                      • Some funny stein going on in that thread....some really bitter & delusional Giants fans grabbing, reaching for anything so they do not have to admit their FO got totally outplayed and exposed by the Eagles...
                        Eliminate distractions, create energy, fear nothing, and attack everything.

                        -Andy Reid

                        Comment


                        • Redskins and Giants forums are gonna be fun to read this year after we kick their asses.

                          Comment


                          • In case you still aren't tired of reading about it...

                            http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/sp...ewanted=1&_r=3

                            Eagles’ Spree Was Years in the Making
                            When DeSean Jackson rolled into the Philadelphia Eagles’ training camp on Monday with his agent and his holdout in tow, it provided a brief reminder that even a team that has seized the N.F.L. marketplace by the throat this summer must occasionally deal with the mundane realities of insufficient contracts and unhappy players.

                            But Jackson is also a stark example of why the Eagles’ free-agent shopping spree, which netted top-line players like cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha and defensive lineman Jason Babin, and stunned the Giants by signing receiver Steve Smith last Wednesday, is unlike ones most others (read: the Washington Redskins) have periodically engaged in with disastrous results.

                            Jackson and quarterback Michael Vick are the only 2 of the Eagles’ 22 projected starters who are not under contract for next season, said the team president, Joe Banner, and Vick has said talks are under way to extend his contract. Banner estimated that 26 of the 28 players who are likely to get the most playing time in 2011, including kickers and punters, are under contract at least through 2012, and some of them beyond that.
                            Last year, the Eagles captivated fans with young, explosive offensive talent. Now they have injected some of the best veteran defensive help available. Banner cringed at the suggestion that the Eagles’ mind-set might best be described as “all in.”

                            “ ‘All in’ to me implies a short window, and that’s the only thing I object to,” Banner said in a recent interview. “Because we are going to do everything we can to win the Super Bowl, that’s accurate. But all in implies right now, bust if it doesn’t happen. We have structured this so it will be sustainable, and that’s a big difference between what we’ve done and what we’ve seen others do.”

                            The structuring, it turns out, began not long after N.F.L. owners decided in the spring of 2008 to opt out of the collective bargaining agreement. The Eagles examined the rules that would be put in place and realized the 2011 free-agency period, if it happened at all, would present an extraordinary buyer’s market.

                            Because players who would usually have been unrestricted free agents in 2010 were tied up instead, two free-agent classes would be rolled into one, at the same time as teams would again have to work within a salary cap after having none in 2010 — meaning some teams would not be buyers because they were close to the cap number.

                            So began the meticulous preparation for what finally came to fruition in the last two weeks. In contracts they made late in 2008 and 2009 — including those for Asante Samuel and Jason Peters — the Eagles purposely made the 2011 cap numbers the lowest of the contracts, which is unusual because most contracts have their lowest cap numbers early in the deal.

                            “You’ll have twice as many players available as usual, and we’re either locked out or there is a reduced cap,” Banner said. “You don’t have to be a brilliant person to figure out there’s going to be huge opportunity. You can’t have increased supply and reduced dollars and not have it. We didn’t know the names, but we did it to take advantage of what was clearly going to be a very team-friendly marketplace. There was a strategic element to this. There was luck as well. Frankly, it turned out better than we hoped.”

                            The Eagles had planning meetings throughout the lockout, the final one in June, when it became clear there would probably not be a spending minimum this season, most likely further eliminating a few more teams from competition. They set up “strike zones” for each player they sought — a range of money they would be willing to pay. When the player fell into their zone, the Eagles wanted to be able to move quickly to secure him.
                            Jeffrey Lurie, the team’s owner, abhors having dead money — dollars that count against the salary cap even after a player is gone from the team — because it has an effect on the opportunity to compete in later years. So the Eagles had to avoid the usual vexing element of other free-agency sprees: exceeding the salary cap, forcing teams to figure out how to make it work later. That created an uncertainty on the biggest prize of all.

                            “I really anticipated not being able to get Nnamdi,” Lurie said. “I knew we were poised if the economics worked out, but I thought there would probably be a team or two that would make him their sole acquisition and be in the stratosphere that wasn’t best for our football team.”

                            Some players the Eagles wanted they did not get, but even they seem stunned by their success. Banner said he would have been happy with adding cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (and a second-round draft pick) in the Kevin Kolb trade, then getting Babin.

                            “When the Nnamdi thing happened, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, wow, this is unbelievable,’ ” Banner said.

                            The signings came so rapidly that when quarterback Vince Young was brought in as Vick’s backup and running back Ronnie Brown signed, they were relegated to afterthoughts in the Eagles’ incredible makeover. Banner received text messages from people around the league wondering how he had any money left.

                            The danger is that so many headline-makers will not mesh with so little time to prepare. Banner has unreserved confidence that Coach Andy Reid can make it work, because he thinks Reid’s strongest suit is managing players, expectations and egos.

                            Banner pointed to 2002, when quarterback Donovan McNabb broke his foot late in the season and Reid never blinked when he received the news in the training room, even though A. J. Feeley and Koy Detmer were then his quarterbacks. Banner said Reid never allowed the thought that the injury might derail the Eagles. The Eagles went 5-1 to end the regular season before McNabb returned for the playoffs.

                            Although the Eagles are rarely portrayed this way, Lurie and Banner think of themselves as risk-takers, pointing to, among other things, their acquisition of Vick last season. (Smith, who is coming off microfracture knee surgery and might not be ready to practice for weeks, also fits the profile.) They know they have taken another big risk this year — risk with balance, Lurie calls it.

                            He has a taste for the theatric. In February, a film he produced, “Inside Job,” won the Academy Award for best documentary. That film was in part about the way risky behavior in the financial services industry led to the economic meltdown.

                            Lurie compares what the Eagles have accomplished so far to producing the movie. It was fun and exciting, but the Eagles have not yet won anything. After nearly three years of planning, though, almost everything has fallen into place for them.

                            Perhaps their meltdown is still to come. But even as the first rush of signings has ended and the team-building has begun, the good fortune continued. After all, by Monday afternoon, DeSean Jackson was back to practice, too.

                            Comment


                            • Check out the chart! This is awesome.

                              http://bloggingthebeast.com/2011/08/...cally-in-2011/

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