New CBA Could Decide Alshon Jeffery's Fate

What the Eagles decide to do with the veteran receiver could be determined by the players' vote on a new agreement

When the clock strikes midnight and Saturday turns into Sunday, the NFL will either be locked into economic certainty in uncertain economic times or the league will be headed into the final season on the current collective bargaining agreement.

To call the up/down vote of the NFL's players a big story is kind of underselling things from a macro standpoint, labor peace for a decade, the ultimate move to a 17-game schedule, an expanded playoff field, and a revenue split to nearly 49 percent for the rank and file if a television-revenue kicker is met down the line.

If you want to go micro with the Philadelphia Eagles, it takes on even added significance when it comes to Alshon Jeffery's future with the organization.

One of the worst-kept secrets around the NovaCare Complex is that the Eagles would like to move on from the veteran receiver but in hindsight, an ill-conceived restructure last year that guaranteed Jeffery's 2020 salary has proven to be one of general manager Howie Roseman's poorer decisions.

While most focus on rumors of Jeffery's relationship with the face of the franchise, Carson Wentz, Philadelphia's bigger concern is actually football-related, in that Jeffery was clearly a descending player last season and that was before a Lisfranc injury shut down the 30-year-receiver. 

The Eagles would love to move on from Jeffery but he is scheduled to count $15.4 million against the salary cap next season and the dead money Philadelphia would be eating is over $26M, an unprecedented number.

Simply releasing Jeffery would affect many of the team's plans when it comes to player acquisitions and the dead money would be a nonstarter unless the new CBA is ratified.

In a typical season, a post-June 1st designation, which enables a team to spread any dead money over two seasons, would be in play. In the final year of the current CBA, however, that ability and goes away and all money is accelerated onto this season's cap.

The difference is $26.1M in dead money accelerated onto the 2020 books with no CBA - virtually assuring Jeffery staying with the Eagles - versus a post-June 1 move with a ratified CBA that would lower that number to $16.6M this season and nearly $9.5M in 2021.

Releasing Jeffery, in either case, would be taking some distasteful medicine but having the ability to kick the can down the road in the form of some of the financial penalty to the next season would make it much easier for the Eagles.

Internally, Philadelphia understands it needs speed at the receiver position and figures to add a number of bodies at the position whether they come from the draft, free agency, or both.

Jeffery is simply not in the team's plans from a football perspective.

The pie-in-the-sky outcome would be dealing Jeffery, but a big contract for an injured player on the downside who will likely not be ready for the start of the 2020 season is a tough sell to say the least.

That said, an NBA-like salary dump in which the Eagles send along a draft choice to another team with plenty of cap space would be the easiest way to get something like that done.

John McMullen covers the Eagles for SI.com. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen