Eagles Sit on Sidelines as League Year Begins

Well, that was exciting, huh?

Seven contract restructures, a former franchise quarterback officially gone, a defensive end with 19.5 career sacks in four years still on the books for $10 million in 2021, and a tight end who wants out.

This is what the Eagles delivered as the NFL’s business year got underway late Wednesday afternoon.

This do-nothing approach is unchartered waters for an organization that usually comes marching into the NFL’s new year the way the Mummers strut up Broad Street on Jan. 1.

It took an entire offseason to get to the salary cap ceiling of $182.5M.

In the hours leading up to the start of the new year, GM Howie Roseman was still presumably pecking away at a calculator looking to get under the cap.

He reached compliance in an odd twist on Tuesday night when the team returned WR Marquise Goodwin to the 49ers and acquired a seventh-round pick for sending him back.

On Wednesday, Roseman got a little further beneath the cap when he restructured the contracts of kicker Jake Elliott and safety Rodney McLeod.

Elliott struggled last year, but he was given a big contract by Roseman entering 2020, and the team refuses to bring in any competition for him.

McLeod is coming off a late-season torn ACL, leaving his availability for the start of the season up in the air.

Elliott and McLeod were two of seven contracts Roseman had to rework to get under the salary cap. The other five were Brandon Graham, Darius Slay, Jason Kelce, Brandon Brooks, and Isaac Seumalo.

Derek Barnett is still around, though, and, unless the Eagles restructure his deal in the future, will be paid handsomely and have a cap charge of $10M. Barnett, the lone player left from a disastrous 2017 draft class, has been hampered by injury so far in his young career.

Yet, he’s back for another attempt to stay healthy and at a very big number.

Ertz is back, too. For now. And you know he’s not happy about that.

He wanted out as badly as Wentz, who will speak to reporters on Thursday after his trade to the Colts became official on Wednesday. The Wentz presser, however, will be all Indy and other national media. No Eagles reporters are allowed to ask questions.

So, the Eagles' new year began with teams around them getting better, while they stayed the same and maybe even got worse, losing a pair of safeties in Jalen Mills (Patriots) and Rudy Ford (Jaguars).

The Eagles had 12 unrestricted free agents and lost just the two safeties.

That doesn’t speak very well of the roster they had in 2020.

The team’s other free agents still looking for homes include:

Corey Clement

Vinny Curry

Nathan Gerry

Cre’Von LeBlanc

Jason Peters

Hassan Ridgeway

Duke Riley

Nickell Robey-Coleman

Richard Rodgers

Nate Sudfeld

There’s still a second wave of free agency to come, and maybe the Eagles will busy themselves there and maybe some of their own will ride that wave to other teams.

For now, though, the start of the Eagles’ offseason is off to a mostly glum, if not totally unexpected, beginning.

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s EagleMaven. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.