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Eagles create salary cap room by restructuring Alshon Jeffery’s contract

The move may give Jeffery some assurance that he will be here next season despite the presence of J.J. Accega-Whiteside.

Eagle wide receiver Alshon Jeffery protects the ball from a hard slap from an assistant coach during passing drills at Eagles training camp at the NovaCare Center on Monday July 29, 2019.
Eagle wide receiver Alshon Jeffery protects the ball from a hard slap from an assistant coach during passing drills at Eagles training camp at the NovaCare Center on Monday July 29, 2019.Read moreMICHAEL BRYANT / Staff Photographer
    by Les Bowen
    Published 

The Eagles announced Saturday that they had restructured Alshon Jeffery’s contract, guaranteeing his 2020 salary and creating cap room for 2019.

Jeffery, 29, counted $14.725 million toward the cap this season under the terms of the four-year, $52 million deal he signed late in 2017, which extended through 2021. This was the highest cap figure on the team. He was due to have $1 million of his $13 million 2020 salary guaranteed next March 15, according to Spotrac.com.

The Eagles were nearly $21 million under the cap, according to Spotrac, before the restructuring, details of which were not available Saturday. That was the league’s eighth-most space.

Why would they need more cap room? They might want to do deals with other players. Malcolm Jenkins, we know, believes he has outplayed his contract. And/or they might want to push cap room forward into next season, when quarterback Carson Wentz’s cap number goes from roughly $8.4 million to more than $18.6 million under the terms of the four-year, $128 million extension he signed this offseason.

The guarantee of next year’s salary for Jeffery comes in the wake of speculation that the Eagles drafted similar wide receiver J.J. Arcega-Whiteside in the second round this year as Jeffery’s successor, given Jeffery’s high cap numbers. It is unclear how Saturday’s maneuver affects cap charges in future seasons.