Eagles Restructure Rodney McLeod’s Contract
The Eagles offseason began January 13th with the heartbreaking loss to the New Orleans Saints. The entire organization entered offseason mode where the players begin to train and study film, coaches review the playbook and evaluate positions, and the front office begins to prepare to make roster moves throughout free agency and the draft.
On Thursday, January 31st, the Eagles made their first, big move this offseason. The Eagles organization agreed to terms with Safety Rodney McLeod on a restructured contract that will keep him an Eagle through the 2019 season next to Pro Bowler Malcolm Jenkins in the secondary. This move will drop his 2019 base salary from $7.5M to $1.5M and save the team just under $7.5M in salary cap for this year. The money that the Eagles cleared up with this move is more than they could if they released McLeod in the offseason.
Rodney McLeod opened up an interesting situation for the Eagles this year. At 28 years old, McLeod still has a good amount of time left in the league and had great seasons in 2016 and 2017 with 137 total tackles and 6 total interceptions between the two seasons. Despite his performance, he has yet to earn Pro Bowl acknowledgments in his career. Regardless, he is a great compliment to Malcolm Jenkins in the secondary and a starting role in Philadelphia is well deserved.
This past season hurt McLeod’s case as an Eagle. In Week 3 of the 2018 regular season, he went down with an ACL tear against the Colts. Suddenly, his solidified starting role came with a lot of questions with the season ending knee injury. First off, Philadelphia began to look for a replacement. Instead of starting veteran Corey Graham or converting a cornerback like Rasul Douglas or Jalen Mills to safety, many wanted the Eagles to trade for Seahawks Safety Earl Thomas. There was some speculation, but nothing came from it and Thomas, too, suffered a season ending leg injury just before the trade deadline, leaving the Eagles with no choice but to deal with the players that they have. With a $9.5M cap hit for the following season, many were not confident in bringing back McLeod and thought the Eagles would turn to free agency or the draft instead.
Photo: nbcsports.com
With this new move, many opportunities open for the Eagles. First, they have another season to evaluate McLeod now that he will most likely return to a starting role. As McLeod will hit the free agent market in 2020, it is important to keep him until then to see if he is deserving of a contract extension.
McLeod returning to the secondary also helps the defense a lot. Without his skill and leadership on the field, the Eagles defense fell apart late in some regular season games, separating them from being 9-7 and potentially 12-4 after giving up large leads to the Tennessee Titans, Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys. There were many times where it was evident that they Eagles missed McLeod, and his injury set the defense back a lot.
If McLeod were to get released instead of agreeing to a restructured contract, there would be a huge hole to fill. Most likely, the Eagles would first attempt to move Avonte Maddox back to safety where he spent some time as the secondary dealt with injuries. Although he played well in that position, Maddox proved late in the season that he will excel in this league as a outside cornerback, something Philadelphia has lacked for years. Keeping Maddox on the outside will bring out the best in him and give the Eagles a better option at cornerback.
If McLeod were to leave and Maddox would remain at cornerback, the next starting safety would either come from free agency or the draft. Going into the offseason with many needs, it helps that the Eagles will not have to spend a lot of money for a veteran safety like Landon Collins or Tyrann Mathieu or a high draft pick for an established safety with one of their first three picks. Their money and draft picks should be prioritized to the defensive line, offensive line and running back positional groups instead.
Lastly, this move helps the entire team going into the offseason. With limited cap space, the Eagles have little opportunity to pursue a top free agent or extend any of their players to large deals. This move clears up an extra $7.5M which will be very important as soon as the free agent market opens. With this money and money saved by potentially losing Nick Foles, Jason Peters, Tim Jernigan and others will really add up and give Eagles leverage is they want to bring in elite talent to bolster the roster and try for another Super Bowl run in 2019.
All in all, this move helps the team on almost every level and Howie Roseman has yet again pulled off another great offseason move.
Featured Photo: eaglesyeblog.com
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Categorized:Eagles