May 31, 2017
In most NFL teams' offseasons, the date "June 1" comes and goes, and nobody bats an eye. This year, that date is an interesting one for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Why?
Well, in terms of the salary cap, the NFL makes a distinction between player moves (cuts or trades) that happen before June 1, and after it. We'll use a concise explanation from OverTheCap.com on the difference:
When a player is removed from a players roster prior to June 1st all his remaining unamortized bonus money immediately accelerates onto the salary cap (for the current year).
After June 1 the NFL changes the way the acceleration works. After June 1st only the current years expense remains on the books after the player is released. The balance accelerates onto the following years salary cap.
To put that in terms you can relate to, we'll use the trade of Sam Bradford a year ago as an example. When the Eagles traded Bradford a year ago, they did so on September 3, which, of course, is after June 1. Included in the deal he signed in March of 2016 was an $11 million signing bonus. Had they traded Bradford before June 1, the entirety of that $11 million bonus would have counted toward the Eagles' salary cap in 2016. Because they traded him after June 1, only $5.5 million counted toward their cap in 2016, with the other $5.5 million counting toward their cap in 2017.
In other words, post-June 1 trades give teams immediate cap relief, and allow them to put off the full effect of the cap hit until the future. Got it? Good.
In terms of how that applies to this year's team, there have been a number of Eagles players rumored to be on the trading block this offseason, most notably linebacker Mychal Kendricks and center Jason Kelce. If the Eagles were to trade either player, doing so after June 1 would be more palatable, especially for a team with less than $4 million in overall cap space.
Here's a look at how the post-June 1 distinction would apply to Kendricks and Kelce in a trade scenario.
• If the Eagles trade Kendricks before June 1, he would count for $4.8 million against the cap in 2017, with $1.8 million in savings.
• If the Eagles trade Kendricks after June 1, he would count for just $1.6 million against the cap in 2017, with $5 million in immediate savings, and $3.2 million counting toward the cap in the future.
• If the Eagles trade Kelce before June 1, he would count for $2.4 million against the cap in 2017, with $3.8 million in savings.
• If the Eagles trade Kelce after June 1, he would count for just $1.2 million against the cap in 2017, with $5 million in immediate savings, and $1.2 million counting toward the cap in the future.
To be clear, we are not saying that Howie Roseman is sitting in his office staring at the clock waiting for midnight to announce some kind of deal he already has in place for Kendricks or Kelce. If that were the case, those players would already be tightly wound in bubble wrap, not out on the field practicing in OTAs.
We just wanted to point out that after June 1, there is an added benefit should they choose to trade either player.
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