Brandon Brooks Next in Line for Contract Restructure

The right guard's salary-cap charge will go down from $14.55 million as the Eagles continue to do deals in order to get under the cap

The Eagles’ offensive line will retain one of its key pieces with Friday’s news that right guard Brandon Brooks will restructure his contract, lowering his salary cap hit by $7.5 million.

Brooks, who will turn 32 this August, had been due to count $14.55M against the cap, which is decreasing from $198.2M in 2020 to $182.5M in 2021.

The big savings lends some credence to the possibility that he would be traded, which wouldn’t have saved the Eagles much at all, but would have lessened the cap charge over the next three years of the contract extension he signed in November of 2019.

Brooks was the first casualty of an offensive line that suffered injury after injury.

He began the parade to the operating room when he tore his Achilles during a June workout. Left tackle Andre Dillard was the next in line, tearing a biceps muscle in August, and was followed by ankle surgery for right tackle Lane Johnson.

Brooks and Dillard never returned. Johnson did, though he was far less than 100 percent, and didn’t last the entire season before undergoing another surgery.

Left guard Isaac Seumalo suffered a knee injury in Week 2 that required surgery that cost him seven games and even when he returned, he wasn’t 100 percent.

Finally, Jason Peters couldn’t finish the year, either, suffering an injury in Week 3 that forced him out for four games. He returned for five games, but a toe injury shut him down for the final four games of the season.

In between, there were injuries to fill-in rookie tackle Jack Driscoll.

It all added up to the Eagles having to use 14 different starting O-line combinations in 16 games, which is a dubious NFL record.

With Brooks set to return now, along with Johnson, whose contract could also be restructured the Eagles’ O-line could be in for a renaissance.

“I think the O line, quite honestly, is in a really, really good situation especially if everybody can come back healthy,” said Jason Kelce when he announced last week he would stave off retirement for another year. “We have a lot of depth, a lot of experience now with everybody having played for a full year. I consider it one of the strengths of this team, no doubt."

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.