Breaking down Eagles’ new contracts with Darius Slay and James Bradberry
It looked like Darius Slay was gone last week. The Eagles had decided to cut him before both sides got back to the negotiating table and figured out a solution.
Eventually, the Eagles and the 32-year-old cornerback reached an agreement on a three-year deal that will run through the 2025 season and will keep him paired with James Bradberry for at least another couple seasons.
Slays deal is worth up to $42 million, with $24.5 million in guaranteed money, a league source told NBC Sports Philadelphia. And it has a very similar structure to the deal the Eagles gave Bradberry a couple days earlier. More on that below.
Slay was scheduled to have a $17 million base salary and a cap hit of over $26 million this season on the final year of his previous deal. By reaching this renegotiation, the Eagles reduced his cap hit in 2023 to $11.873 million, a savings of $14.238 million in cap space this season.
Here are some other relevant details of his deal:
Slay received a signing bonus of $10.185 million in 2023
He will receive a guaranteed option bonus of $11.64 million in 2024
Theres another option bonus of $16.095 million in 2025
Slay also has workout bonuses of $150,000 in 2023 and 2024
The 2026-29 years on the contract are void years for salary cap purposes
All the guaranteed money is in the first two years of Slays contract, so this could end up being a two-year deal worth $24.5 million.
Its very similar to the structure of the three-year deal the Eagles handed out to Bradberry this offseason. Bradberrys three-year deal is worth $38 million and has $20 million guaranteed, all in the first two seasons, according to a source. That contract similarly uses a signing bonus and two option bonuses in subsequent years to reach that $38 million figure.
By paying out most of this money in bonuses, it alleviates the cap hits earlier in the contract. That bonus money prorates over the length of the contract. This is a common tactic used by the Eagles, pushing the bigger cap hits into the future where the league-wide cap will presumably continue to rise.
Heres a look at Slays base salaries and cap hits for the years of the contract:
2023: Base salary of $1.165 million. Cap hit of $11.873 million.
2024: Base salary of $1.210 million. Cap hit of $10.996 million.
2025: Base salary of $1.255 million. Cap hit of $14.260 million.
If Slay plays out the three years on this contract, it would leave over $27 million in dead money in the 2026 season.
The Eagles, though, have an out after the 2024 season. If they release Slay before 2025, when Slay is 34, and decline that second option bonus (of over $16 million), it would leave $24 million in dead money in 2025.
But they could use a post-June 1 designation on the release to break up that dead money hit into two seasons. They would have to take on $9.786 million in dead money in 2024, which would leave $14.254 million in dead money in 2026, the second year without him.
Heres a look at Bradberrys base salary and cap hits for the next three years:
2023: Base salary of $1.165 million. Cap hit of $3.062 million.
2024: Base salary of $1.210 million. Cap hit of $4.735 million.
2025: Base salary of $1.255 million. Cap hit of $8.249 million.
Bradberry got a signing bonus of $7.685 million, a guaranteed option bonus of $9.64 million in 2024 and theres another option bonus of $16.595 million in 2025. There are also four void years on this deal for cap purposes and $150K in workout bonuses each season. Sound familiar?
If Bradberry plays out his contract, hed have a dead cap hit in 2026 of over $22 million. Like with Slay, the Eagles could avoid paying that second option bonus (over $16M) in 2025 and release him. That would leave over $12.5 million in dead money but they could break up that dead cap charge with a post-June 1 release; $3.525M in 2025 and $8.978M in 2026. Teams are allowed just two post-June 1 designations per year.
Because of the similar structure of these contracts, it could set up a decision for the Eagles in 2025 of which player to keep and which to move on from.
The reason the Eagles are fine with pushing these cap charges into the future and the reason they dont really care about dead money is because the salary cap continues to rise and is expected to do so drastically in the upcoming seasons.
For Slay, the $14 million average per year based on the top figure of $42 million ranks him 10th in the NFL among corners in APY, according to OverTheCap. Even though hes well over 30 now, Slay has been a Pro Bowler in each of the last two seasons and is still playing at a very high level. Bradberrys APY of $12.67 million ranks him 15th among corners. Not bad for the 29-year-old who was a second-team All-Pro this past season.
The Eagles are running it back and expect to be contenders with Slay and James Bradberry manning the top two corner spots for at least the next couple of years.
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