March 04, 2019
The Philadelphia Eagles will not be picking up Timmy Jernigan's option for the 2019 season, and he will become a free agent, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
Eagles are not picking up Tim Jernigan's option year and he will be a free agent on March 13, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 4, 2019
Of course, this was an obvious decision for the Eagles to make, as the only conceivable way Jernigan was going to stick with the team was if he took a drastic pay cut. That apparently will not be happening.
Jernigan only played 100 snaps (including the playoffs) in 2018 after suffering a mysterious offseason back injury. As a result of the injury, which was non-football related, the team renegotiated Jernigan's deal, and the guarantees were removed from his contract.
Jernigan was scheduled to be on the Eagles' cap in 2019 at $13 million. That would be $11 million in salary, plus a $2 million signing bonus proration. Now that the Eagles will not be picking up his option, the following will occur:
• The Eagles will on the hook for the aforementioned $2 million signing bonus proration in 2019, plus $2 million each in 2020 and 2021, which will both accelerate into 2019. That would mean a dead money charge of $6 million.
• The Eagles' total savings in 2019 would be $7 million.
• Jernigan would count toward the compensatory pick formula, because the guarantees were removed, and the option was added. (In other words, they would be choosing not to exercise an option, as opposed to releasing him, the latter of which would negate his inclusion in the comp pick formula.)
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