Gang Green Nation
The Super Bowl champions will have some big bills to pay in the coming years
I always like trying to dive into the “how” of a Super Bowl winner. On the surface, the Philadelphia Eagles are a pretty easy “how:”
Easy, right?
But how exactly did they get to those first two parts in a salary cap league? It isn’t exactly easy to put together a top-flight defense and a top-flight offense while staying under budget. Well, part of it was actually just the successful implementation of a plan that the New York Jets also tried to execute in recent seasons: leveraging the deferred contact.
As shown here, the Eagles have more future cap charges accounted for than any other team in the league, and beyond the Cleveland Browns it isn’t exactly close. Basically, the Eagles opted for a “buy now, pay later” structure that operates conceptually like a credit card.
So what is there to take from this? Well, to me, this would suggest the importance of knowing when your window is open, then going “all in.” Where the Jets failed was that former part and the results were clearly far less enjoyable.
While no plan will work every time, this does suggest the viability of leveraging contract deferrals on the right players and roster. Perhaps something to keep in mind for the next Jets window... whenever that may be.
