A look at Eagles salary cap situation ahead of 2026 free agency

A look at Eagles salary cap situation ahead of 2026 free agency originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

NFL free agency will kick off next week when the negotiating window opens at noon on Monday ahead of the start of the new league year next Wednesday at 4 p.m.

The Eagles aren’t expected to make any major splashes in free agency this year but might make a concerted effort to keep some of their own pending free agents.

The league-wide salary cap for 2026 has been set at $301.2 million. According to OverTheCap, the Eagles are projected to have $12,645,188 in cap space at the start of the new league year, which ranks 18th in the NFL.

There are 13 teams projected to have $30+ million in cap space, while 12 teams have some work to do just to become cap compliant by the start of the league year.

How can the Eagles create more cap space?

There was a time with standard NFL contracts where it was very easy to create more cap space. Basically, the Eagles would convert base salary into bonus money, which prorates over the full length of the contract. The Eagles in recent seasons have gotten ahead of that by paying out most of the big money in their contracts in scheduled bonus drops. Because of that, most of their ways to create cap space have already been figured out.

But there are a couple obvious ways to create cap space going into 2026:

• The most obvious way for the Eagles to create some cap room is to cut Michael Carter II. The Eagles acquired Carter in a trade with the Jets during last season and Carter still has two seasons left on his contract with big base salaries. Right now, Carter has a base salary of $9,697,500 and a cap hit of $10.12 million.

By cutting Carter, the Eagles would save $8.736 million in cap space, leaving just a dead money charge of $1.384 million (his guaranteed salary) for 2026, per OTC. This seems like an obvious move for a player who barely saw the field after he was acquired. If the Eagles want to keep Carter, perhaps he’d be willing to take a massive pay cut, but if that happens, he might want to look for a job elsewhere.

• The Eagles could also extend Jordan Davis. The defensive tackle had a breakout season in 2025 and is about to play the 2026 season on the fifth-year option of his rookie contract. That fifth-year option is a very inflexible chunk of base salary. While Davis is a bargain at under $13 million for this season, the Eagles would probably prefer to limit his cap charge.

Davis’s base salary is $12.938 million in 2026. If the Eagles sign him to an extension, they can pay out most of his money in a bonus that prorates over the length of that next contract (however many years + void years) and can knock his base salary down to minimum or near minimum, saving nearly $10 million in cap space this season.

• The Eagles could also extend Jalen Carter. Carter in 2026 has a salary cap hit of $6,938,331. That breaks down to a base salary of $1,145,000, a prorated signing bonus of $3,214,761 and a roster bonus of $2,578,570. Just like with Davis, if the Eagles and Carter can agree to an extension, the Eagles can pay out a large chunk of his money in a bonus, which would help alleviate some of the cap burden in 2026.

• There are some other players who could be released to save cap space but that seems unlikely. Guys like Sydney Brown, Byron Young, Kelee Ringo and Tank Bigsby could be released to save minimal cap space, but those guys should be back with the team in training camp. Maybe a couple eventually get released at final cuts in August but it wouldn’t make much sense now.

What about A.J. Brown?

Because we can’t go more than 30 seconds without talking about A.J. Brown, let’s quickly get into some of the cap ramifications of a trade. The trade looks very different from a cap perspective if it happens before or after June 1.

Here’s how a Brown trade would affect the Eagles’ cap situation:

Pre-June 1: Increases his cap charge by over $20 million, leaving a dead cap hit of $43,448,704 in 2026

Post-June 1: Saves $7.04 million in cap space, leaving a dead cap charge of $16,353,498 in 2026; the rest of the dead cap would hit in 2027

While a trade before the summer isn’t impossible, the cap ramifications make it at least a somewhat prohibitive. Because of that, a team would have to really wow the Eagles with an offer to make taking on that dead cap chunk in 2026 worth it.