Here’s How Much Money The Eagles Will Owe Carson Wentz If They Trade Him

ByJoey Heldon December 23, 2020inArticles›Sports News

Carson Wentz signed a massive four-year, $128 million deal before the 2019 season. At the time, the deal was defensible. Wentz had played well the previous two seasons, with a total of 54 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He led the Eagles to an 11-2 record in 2017 before getting hurt; Nick Foles replaced him and led the team to a Super Bowl victory. The following season, the Eagles started off only 5-6, but Wentz was putting up solid numbers before he again got hurt.

For the first year of his new deal, Wentz delivered. He led the injury-riddled Eagles to an improbable NFC East title, setting new career-highs in completions, pass attempts, and yards.

In 2020, though, Wentz has regressed. The Eagles are still injury-riddled, but Wentz doesn’t look as sharp in either his reads or progressions. As a result, he led the league in interceptions thrown (15), turnovers (19), and sacks taken (50) in only 12 games.

With Wentz struggling, the team turned to backup Jalen Hurts . Hurts played quarterback in college, but initially entered the league as a wide receiver. However, he gave the Eagles a boost offensively, throwing for 338 yards and three touchdowns.

It looks like the team is going to keep Hurts as the starter. Wentz has already expressed his displeasure with sitting on the bench, which means the Eagles may look to move him. If they do, they would owe him a ton of money.

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Wentz was paid $66.47 million of his contract at signing and has $107.97 million guaranteed throughout the contract’s duration. He’s only making $1.383 million in base salary this year, but he’s owed $15.4 million in 2021 and at least $20 million every year after that. And his cap hit and dead cap money numbers are staggering.

Releasing Wentz in 2021 would cost the team $59 million in dead money with a cap hit of $24.5 million. Trading him to another team would give them about $853,000 in salary cap relief, but would still cost the Eagles $33.8 million in dead money.

The Eagles may be best served to keep Wentz under contract for one more season and look to move him in 2022. If they release him before June 1, 2022, the Eagles would spend more than $24.5 million in dead money but save about $6.72 million in cap space. However, if they wait until after June 1, the cap savings would be $22 million – equal to Wentz’s base salary for the 2022 season.

The dead money number drops further in 2023 and 2024, so the Eagles could wait until then to release Wentz. If the team doesn’t plan on starting him, though, it makes little sense to hang onto him. They should at least try to get something of value back for Wentz, a player the team traded up twice to grab at No. 2 in the 2016 draft.

And who knows? Maybe Wentz becomes the starter again in 2021 and both the player and team can put this situation behind them. But a more likely scenario is that Wentz wants a change of scenery, and the Eagles will have to pay for him to play elsewhere.

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The Philadelphia Eagles Are Going To Spend A TON Of Money On Quarterbacks Next Season

ByTravis Pulveron May 7, 2016inArticles›Sports News

The purpose of the salary cap is to level the playing field as much as possible. Smart teams are careful about how they spend it and do not commit too much to one position. That is what makes the Philadelphia Eagles’ approach to the quarterback this off-season bizarre.

They started by signing Sam Bradford to a rather generous two-year, $35 million contract with $21 million guaranteed. He didn’t do enough last season to earn a long-term deal, but they felt like he was worth bringing back for another shot.

Another curious move followed that one: they signed Chase Daniel to a three-year, $21 million contract. For a possible starter, it is a fair deal, but for a back-up, it is insanely high. According to the Eagles’ new head coach, Doug Pederson , Daniel is going to be the just that.

At this point, most teams would start paying more attention to other positions, but not the Eagles. Before the draft, they traded a bunch of draft picks to the Browns for the No. 2 pick. With it, they would select the quarterback of the future – North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz .

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Thanks to the rookie wage scale, we can make a reasonable assumption as to how much Wentz’s contract will be. He’ll earn somewhere in the vicinity of $26.7 million over the next four years.

From a personnel standpoint, the Eagles have been smart. Bradford hasn’t won the job and has injury concerns. Daniel has shown promise, but you can only tell so much about a guy during the preseason and in Week 17 games when most starters are not playing.

Wentz had an incredible career with North Dakota State and looked great in the drills. However, it is not unusual for guys to struggle with the transition from the FBS to the NFL. Coming from the FCS, his transition is going to be even more challenging.

By signing three potential starters (four, if you want to count McLeod Bethel-Thompson), they are bound to find one that will work. From a salary cap standpoint, the Eagles have been foolish. Once they sign Wentz to a max-deal (four-years, $26.7 million), they will have four quarterbacks under contract for $83.9 million.

The number looks a little better when you look at just the salary cap hit for next season. Before the draft, they had $18.1 million in cap space committed to quarterbacks. Once Wentz signs, that total will be around $24 million. That’s the sixth-highest in the league.

It is important to note that the five team teams above them (and most of the teams below them) are spending the majority of their quarterback allocation on one guy, rather than spread it across three players.

With limited funds and plenty of holes to fill on the roster, you would think the Eagles would be a little more careful about how they allocate money. If they don’t make some tough decisions, it is going to get a lot worse next season. Bradford’s cap hit jumps to $22.5 million, and Daniel’s becomes $8 million.

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