February 25, 2016
INDIANAPOLIS -- Back in January, Fletcher Cox said that he wanted to finish his career in Philadelphia. That feeling, from the Eagles' perspective, is mutual.
"For us, we haven’t been shy," said Howie Roseman at the NFL Combine. "He’s a great player. He’s going to get 'great player money.' We’re not shy about saying that. It still comes down to structure, and all the things that kind of complicate the negotiation, but I think the intention is right from him, from his representatives, and certainly from us and how we feel about him."
The Eagles would like to lock Cox up long term, then build their defense around him. In April of 2015, the Eagles exercised Cox's fifth-year option, which means that Cox is scheduled to make $7,799,000 in 2016, a figure that is far south of what he would be worth on the open market.
If the Eagles and Cox are unable to work out a contract extension this offseason, Cox will have to play out the 2016 season for a fraction of what he's worth, while also risking serious injury. If at the end of the 2016 season, if Cox remains intact and is the same dominant player he was in 2015, the Eagles can simply slap the franchise tag on him in 2017, which will likely be right in the same ballpark as what Cox would make on a per year basis on the open market.
In other words, the average of Cox's fifth-year option in 2016 and his franchise tag amount in 2017 will fall far below what Cox would make on a per year basis with a new deal.
Conversely, the start of free agency is set to begin in less than two weeks. With a salary cap that is likely to balloon this year, there may be contracts handed out that would otherwise seem absurd. Both sides have leverage.
Roseman noted that the Eagles don't have as much cap space as they have had in the past.
"This will be my 17th season here, and we’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of cap space," he said. "It’s tighter this year; it’s tighter next year. It’s tighter than it’s been. When we look at it and when we went into the offseason and said we wanted to sign all these players, and we knew that we didn’t have a lot of space, but we also knew we didn’t want to lose these guys. We’re just going to have to manage it, kind of earn our money in that regard, and try to fit as many players as we possibly can into it."
Cox continues to be a priority, and the Eagles are well aware that he is worth a lot of money. It seems it's just a matter of structuring the contract to fit their cap situation.
