2026 Offseason Preview: Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Eagles will have to work around a tight cap situation to improve on a talented roster
statbutler.com will be releasing offseason previews for all 32 teams in the lead up to free agency. Feel free to share any of the text/visuals below with attribution. All underlying contract data was collected by overthecap.com.
Recent Team History
The Eagles returned to the playoffs in 2025, but bowed out in the Wild Card round after a turbulent season. At 50-18, the Eagles continue to have the best regular season record in the NFL over the last four seasons.
2025 Season
Philadelphia had a few explosive games on offense, but otherwise were often left looking like a subpar unit. As a result, Sean Mannion will step into the offensive coordinator role, replacing Kevin Patullo. The defense, on the other hand, was more consistent with what we have seen from this team in recent years.
Returning Players
Note that all restructures below are assumed to be max restructures. This means that the team will use void years to prorate cash across up to five seasons, minimizing amount that will hit the current year’s salary cap.
For players who are not vested veterans, I’ve replaced information about the player’s active contract with a description of the team control remaining until the player can become an unrestricted free agent.
I would say the truest driver of Philadelphia’s consistent success over the last four years has been their offensive line. The 2025 edition was good, but perhaps was a bit worse than what we’ve come to expect. At receiver, the combination of A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith were sometimes not as involved as they had been. The tandem averaged 79.2 receiving yards per player game in their first season together in 2022. There were slight drops in 2023 (76.4) & 2024 (73.5), but their average of 62.8 this season should be a wake up call. You can really tell the same story across the board for every face of this offense: they took a step back in some form.
The Philadelphia defense was anchored by a pair of All-Pro corners in Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell. Zack Baun proved that he earned his contract extension by following up with another stellar year. I’m not sure if there are other returners on this defense (even Jalen Carter or Jordan Davis) who have truly made the jump from good player to star. That being said, I do think the Eagles believe in Carter enough to pick up his 5th-year option at a “star” price of $26.3m. Nolan Smith also has a 5th-year option that can be picked up for $15.4 and I believe the Eagles will take that as well.
Expiring Contracts
Now we get into the tough part. Jaelan Phillips pretty much has to be a guy that gets extended given that they sent a third round pick to Miami to bring him on last season. Dallas Goedert carries a meaningful cap boost if he can ink an extension before his contract voids on on March 11th. If Goedert does not sign before that point, he’ll count as $20.5m against the Eagles cap. If he can get a deal done however, a $12.9m portion of that hit can remain in future cap years. The new deal might carry a cap hit of $4m or so, so the extension should open up at least $9m of space. It should be noted that if the deal is for a single year, they’ll be back in the same spot at this time next year.
Roster Improvement Areas
This team remains strong at all the key positions. Regardless of who they can bring back from 2025, I think they’ll benefit from some help at tight end and safety, even if those players profile more as depth than starters.
The Five Paths to Cap Space
Having thought about it for some time, I see five paths for Philly to open up cap space:
Cut Michael Carter II - Clears $8.7m on 2026 cap. An easy call. Carter wasn’t able to break into the rotation after an inbound trade from the Jets. Maybe he negotiates pay cut, he just can’t get $10.2m if he’s not a locked in starter.
Dallas Goedert Extension - Clears ~$9m on 2026 cap. Mentioned this above. A Goedert extension allows the Eagles to continue deferring almost $13m in prorated cap paid out from previous years, but it has to be done before his contract voids.
Extend or max restructure Jordan Davis - Clears $9.4m at most on 2026 cap. Davis is playing under his 5th-year option in 2026, which can either be max restructured or reduced through an extension.
Lane Johnson Retirement - Clears $5.6m starting on June 2nd. Obviously this creates a much bigger problem so I’m sure the Eagles do not wish to clear cap space like this.
Trade a player after June 1st - Could clear between $4m-$7m in most cases.
My own projections below assume items 1 & 3, but none of the others.
The Salary Cap
In the image below, each blue bordered rectangle is equivalent to the cap hit of a single player. Within that rectangle, there are more rectangles that break down the player’s cap hit. Areas colored green can be pushed entirely into a future cap years via max restructure. Areas with vertical bars are “locked in” and the team cannot open them up by releasing the player. They represent either fully guaranteed cash that hasn’t been earned yet or remaining proration from cash earned in previous league years.
Unlike the Saints from a few years ago, Philadelphia’s setup essentially assumes a “restructure” in advance through option bonuses. It is a different path to the same destination. The Eagles approach makes very clear though how much maneuverability they really have.
As discussed above, the Eagles really don’t have too much they can do. They’ll be cap compliant right out of the gate, but they’ll be one of the few teams that are actually meaningfully constrained by the cap.
An AJ Brown Trade?
I’ve been vexed for some time about the actual viability of an AJ Brown trade. If Brown were to be traded before June 1st, his cap hit would increase from $23.4m to a $43.4m dead cap hit. As I outlined above, I can get the Eagles to an ultimate excess cap space of $12.2m, but before draft picks are signed it’ll be $29.4m. And if Dallas Goedert is extended, that number is probably closer to $38m. It is enough to absorb the increased cap hit from a Brown trade, keep in mind that there will be cap additions from any players/picks returned in the trade. Ultimately the Eagles will have to carve out space for unsigned draft picks, practice squaders, and an in-season buffer. Pile on the Jaelan Phillips extension and it starts to make even less sense. I’m not saying it is impossible, but if Brown is traded, it’ll cause far fewer problems in the window between June 2nd and Brown’s option exercise date (Sept 1st).
Draft Capital
Philadelphia holds a decent crop of picks in upcoming draft. They’ve got at least one pick in each of the first 5 rounds plus comp picks in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Their first pick comes in at 23. Overall, it is the 18th most valuable collection of picks in the 2026 draft.