Eagles restructure Lane Johnson’s contract to create salary-cap space

The Eagles have restructured right tackle Lane Johnson’s contract to create salary-cap space for 2019, an NFL source said Tuesday.

Johnson, who had the Eagles’ highest cap number ($15,276,581) for next season, was slated to earn $10.85 million in base salary. While the exact details of the restructure weren’t immediately known, the Eagles converted all or part of his salary into a signing bonus.

Bonuses, which are paid in full up front, can be prorated over the remaining years of a contract. Johnson, 28, is signed through 2021. He could be the first of several core Eagles to agree to such a restructuring this offseason. Defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, tight end Zach Ertz, wide receiver Alshon Jeffery, and safety Malcolm Jenkins are other possible candidates.

Johnson, Cox and Ertz — homegrown Pro Bowlers who are expected to play at peak level for some time — agreed to restructures in previous years. The Eagles have already extended the contracts of center Jason Kelce and guard Isaac Seumalo and likely created additional space.

They signed defensive end Brandon Graham to a three-year, $40 million contract last week and should have enough space to ink other free agents. The Eagles also didn’t pick up the $13 million option for defensive tackle Tim Jernigan on Monday and trimmed $7 million of that number from the cap.

Executive Howie Roseman essentially gave his team’s offseason plan last week when he said at the combine, “We want to give our top players top-market deals. That’s really where we want to pay the money and look to free agency to kind of supplement that.”