Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman has been no stranger to adding veteran playmakers to buttress a Super Bowl-caliber roster in recent years, and those moves have mostly been big winners.
Even before Roseman and the Eagles won the Shaq Leonard sweepstakes, signing the former three-time All-Pro linebacker despite an overture from the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia previously plucked veteran safety Kevin Byard from the Tennessee Titans just before the NFL trade deadline.
Byard has already made a big impact on the Eagles’ secondary, producing 42 total tackles with one interception through his first five games in Philadelphia.
Over the past two seasons, Roseman has acquired veteran defenders Robert Quinn, Ndamukong Suh, Byard, and Leonard, among others.
While Byard has helped backstop an inconsistent secondary, the flexibility provided by how the cap hits on his contract is structured could ultimately wind up being an even more valuable asset to a general manager as aggressive as Roseman.
ESPN’s Aaron Schatz lists Byard’s contract as one of the NFL’s best, relative to the value he provides his team:
Philadelphia’s complex use of long-term contracts with void years made this a tough choice,” Schatz writes. “For example, Haason Reddick has a cap number of just under $7 million this season. But next year, his cap number is currently scheduled to balloon to $20.9 million, with $14.8 million of dead money on the cap during a 2025 void year. James Bradberry is another example, as his cap number is a very reasonable $3 million this year and $4.7 million next year, then $8.25 million in 2025 and a ridiculous $22.25 million in 2026. Those last couple years are pretty much fake, as Bradberry will probably be cut off this contract after 2024, but there’s going to be a lot of extra dead money from him on the Eagles’ cap in the future.
