The Cost of Winning a Super Bowl
Some owners want to win the Super Bowl, while others make the sacrifices necessary to win one. Jeffrey Lurie, Eagles owner, has been nothing short of successful since buying the team in 1994 for $195 million. Now, 31 years later, the Eagles are worth $6.6 billion, have made four trips to the Super Bowl, winning two of them, made the playoffs 19 times, and had a winning percentage of .556. Lurie sacrifices by shelling out any money necessary to win and lets his General Manager, Howie Roseman, do the work to make the numbers fit into the Salary Cap.
Last offseason the Eagles signed Zach Baun for a one-year $3.5 million deal as a role player and Saquon Barkley to a 3-year $37.75 million deal (12.6 APY). Both were first-team all-pro players on their way to the Eagles’ second-ever Super Bowl victory. These players were rewarded for their great seasons on the first two days of free agency. Baun signed a 3-year $51 million deal ($17 million APY) and Barkey signed a 2-year $41.2 million deal ($20.6 million APY) which makes him the highest-paid running back ever. Howie Roseman wants to reward his players and Lurie is why this is possible. Keeping their star players happy and out of contract to keep them on the field and performing for their team.
The biggest way the Eagles can keep their star players under contract and within the structure of the salary cap is to spread out their contracts. This year Jalen Hurts’ APY is $51 million with his cap hit only being $21 million this season. They do this by pushing off the Salary Cap value and converting their contracts into bonuses, which are paid upfront. This results in a player like Hurts having a cap hit of $97 million in 2028. This will likely be avoided by converting the salary again into a signing bonus in his next deal. The Eagles have a cap-to-cash ratio of 1.21, meaning they are paying more money out of their pockets in bonuses compared to taking the cap hit, which is a riskier move but it rewards players while still being able to field a successful team.
In 2029, 5 Eagles players have a cap hit of over $30 million which looks bad for the Eagles now but with the Salary Cap increases each offseason and the way the Eagles can convert these salaries into bonuses they will likely not be stuck with these contracts on their cap and will be successful for years to come. Because of this every player in the NFL should want to play for the Eagles since players will be guaranteed money if they perform well while the Eagles are not stuck in cap hell like teams like the Saints have been in for years. Every year the Eagles have money left in the cap to sign players in the offseason and get the top draft picks available.
As long as Jeffrey Lurie owns the Eagles and Howie Roseman is GM, the Eagles will always be successful at manipulating the cap and winning football games. The future is. Bright in Philly and it will be interesting to see if other owners are willing to take this approach.