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NFL supplement allows Eagles’ Alex Singleton to nearly double 2020 pay — but the cash is deferred

Last year's NFL COVID-19 adjustments mean players won't see the extra money at least until 2024.

Alex Singleton scored his first NFL touchdown last October in an Eagles victory at the 49ers.
Alex Singleton scored his first NFL touchdown last October in an Eagles victory at the 49ers.Read moreTIM TAI / Staff Photographer
    by Les Bowen
    Published 

The 2020 season was not a great one for very many Eagles, as the team went 4-11-1, then saw head coach Doug Pederson fired and quarterback Carson Wentz traded. Alex Singleton was a rare exception.

Singleton, a 27-year-old journeyman linebacker who spent two pro seasons playing in Canada, played in all 16 Eagles games and started the final 11. He led the team in tackles, with 120, while playing 68% of the defensive snaps, though he saw action mainly on special teams until Nate Gerry went down with an ankle injury five games into the season.

In the final season of a two-year, $1.08 million contract, Singleton was quite a bargain for Eagles general manager Howie Roseman. But the NFL has a formula that awards performance-based pay, out of a pool set last year at $8.5 million per team. The NFL Players Association released the 2020 figures from that system on Tuesday, and Singleton was the Eagles’ top earner, gaining an extra $464,296. There’s a catch, though — as part of the COVID-19 agreements between the league and the union, to lessen the one-year coronavirus impact on salaries, the performance-based money won’t be paid before 2024, the union estimates. So Singleton has something to look forward to.

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Ten Eagles were awarded more than $250,000, and of that group, only safety Rodney McLeod ($279,275) could be considered a multimillionaire. Fourteen Eagles crossed the $200,000 threshold, out of 81 players who got at least a little of the money. At the bottom of that list was rookie tackle Prince Tego Wanogho, who pocketed (or will pocket, at some point) $781. That might go further in Kansas City, where Prince Tego now plays, after the Eagles didn’t bring him back for 2021.

Here are the figures for the Eagles’ top 10:

Singleton, $464,296; Nate Herbig, $414,188; Greg Ward, $380,242; Duke Riley, $365,121; Matt Pryor, $353,142; Jordan Mailata, $338,037; T.J. Edwards, $330,021; McLeod, $279,725; Marcus Epps, $269,505, and Travis Fulgham, $256,551.