PHOENIX - The Eagles have just $8.6 million in salary-cap space following the recent head-spinning flurry of free-agent signings (Byron Maxwell, DeMarco Murray, Ryan Mathews, Walter Thurmond) and trades (Sam Bradford, Kiko Alonso), according to numbers-crunching spotrac.com. But $5 million of that is earmarked for the rookie pool.
That means that, unless the Eagles restructure some other contracts, it isn't likely that defensive end Fletcher Cox and linebacker Mychal Kendricks will be receiving early contract extensions.
Cox and Kendricks both are entering the final year of the 4-year rookie deals they signed in 2012. Cox, the 12th pick in the 2012 draft, has a $1.8 million base this season. Kendricks, the 46th overall pick in that draft, is scheduled to earn $896,000.
If Howie Roseman still was the general manager, re-signing Cox and Kendricks to early extensions would have been a high priority. With Chip Kelly, not so much. He's more concerned with today than tomorrow.
One possible restructuring candidate is the Eagles' new quarterback, Sam Bradford, who is in the final year of his 6-year rookie contract. His base salary this year is just under $13 million, which also is his cap number.
But aside from creating a little more cap space, neither Bradford nor the Eagles really has a lot of reason to do a new deal right now.
Bradford is coming off back-to-back ACL injuries. And while Kelly may feel he's a better fit for his offense than Nick Foles, the Eagles coach is not going to offer the quarterback much in the way of guaranteed money until he proves he can stay healthy for more than a few months.
By the same token, Bradford and his agent, Tom Condon, have little reason to sign anything less than a blockbuster deal right now.
Before Bradford was traded, the Rams asked the 27-year-old quarterback to take a substantial pay cut. According to a league source, they wanted to reduce his 2015 base salary to $5 million. Bradford declined and the Rams quickly began shopping him around the league.
His $78 million rookie contract has set him up for life, so he doesn't need money. He can afford to roll the dice and see what happens next season. If he stays healthy and has a good season with the Eagles, he'll get a great contract, from either the Eagles or another team.
"I think Condon's thinking is, 'Sam, go knock it out of the park and we'll get an above-market deal,' '' an executive for an NFC team said. " 'Go play 16 games and have a top-10 year and the ball will be in our court.'
"He doesn't really need money. He got the last big rookie contract, so he's set. And he collected it all. So he's not in a situation where he has to worry about his next contract.
"The two downsides for him are: a) he gets hurt again; or b) he has a mediocre year. But I think in Chip's offense, it's hard for a quarterback to have a mediocre year. It's such a quarterback-friendly offense. If he stays healthy, he's going to put up good numbers. And if he puts up good numbers, he's going to get paid."