Salary Cap Analysis: Safeties and Specialists
February 8, 2011
Nate Allen:
This is one contract that I have very few details on, but I feel that I have been able to come up with a pretty good estimate based on the structure for high 2nd round picks established over the previous few years. According to Rotoworld, Allen received 3.1M worth of “guaranteed” money, which can take several forms. The trend for 2nd round picks in recent years has been to receive the majority of that in a signing bonus, with the rest coming in a second bonus in a subsequent year. Because of this, I am estimating that Allen received a 2.2M signing bonus in 2010 (the 37th pick in 2009, Alphonso Smith, received a 2.15M signing bonus), and will receive a 900K non-prorated bonus in 2011, bringing his cap number to $1,855,000. I’ll get a much better understanding of the structure if/when the USA Today Salary Database for 2010 is released. Regardless, his cap number will fall back to the 1M-1.1M range for 2012 and 2013, providing a good bargain for a starting safety.
Kurt Coleman:
Coleman is signed for three more seasons, with cap numbers never exceeding 600K and total cap overhang of slightly more than 30K. This is an ideal situation, as the team has a quality depth player for a minimal price, and can release him at any time while incurring an insignificant amount of dead money. This is the real strength of the 2010 draft, as the Eagles acquired players such as Coleman/Lindley/Clayton/Chaney/Te’o-Nesheim/Sapp/Cooper/Harbor who can provide valuable depth for little cost, allowing the team to allocate serious resources toward starters.
Marlin Jackson
Jackson’s 2011 base salary was originally listed as 2M, but has recently been changed on the NFLPA database to 640K. He may have some residual proration from a 2010 signing bonus, but I won’t be sure of this until the USA Today Salary Database is published. If his cap number is below 1M it doesn’t really hurt to keep him around until training camp, but I have a hard time believing he will make the team, which means the Eagles will recoup a small amount of cap space when he is ultimately released.
Colt Anderson is signed for two more seasons at base salaries of 405K and 490K, and Jamar Adams is signed for two more seasons at base salaries of 480K and 565K. In addition, starting strong safety Quintin Mikell will become an unrestricted free agent when the league year ends.
Jon Dorenbos
Dorenbos is signed for two more seasons at identical cap numbers of $916,453; with $216,666 worth of cap overhang currently remaining. There’s not a whole lot to say about this contract: any cap room saved by releasing him would be spent on finding his replacement. He seems to be doing fine, so I would expect him to finish out the remainder of this contract.
Among the other specialists, both David Akers and Sav Rocca are both scheduled to become unrestricted free agents. These two players, as well as Mikell, would seem to be easier to re-sign than to replace for the 2011 season. I would think that Mikell would be a priority, as he remains an above average player and Coleman is unlikely to be an adequate replacement. Last time around the Eagles were able to re-sign him for 4 years at roughly 4M, with close to 1.5M guaranteed. This time, I would expect those numbers to at least triple. Remember, the Eagles signed Dawkins through his age-35 season, and Mikell will be 31 for the 2011 campaign. For a comparison, Ryan Clark received a 4 year, 14M contract last offseason that included 5M in guarantees. As for Akers and Rocca, I would imagine they could garner contracts with yearly averages of roughly 2.5M and 1.5M , respectively.
I think it is reasonable to estimate that Mikell, Akers, and Rocca could all be re-signed a a total cap cost of no more than 8M. For a team that is expected to be in contention for a Super Bowl next year, I think that is a fair price in order to lock down three positions with low-risk, solid players.
