February 02, 2016
During Doug Pederson's introductory press conference, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie announced that the team was going to hire a new "player personnel head." According to Geoff Mosher of Eagles Scouting Nest, the Eagles are holding off on that for now:
The Eagles, who have no scouting chief after firing coach Chip Kelly and top personnel executive Ed Marynowitz, are looking for a high-ranking senior executive to lead the scouting department and determine the fate of current scouts, per sources, but they opened their search at a time when NFL teams are knee deep in the pre-draft process and would be reluctant to allow a top personnel executive to leave.
Teams don’t normally allow an experienced, senior executive to walk out their doors about one month from free agency and less than three months from the draft.
Late last week, we pointed out that the Eagles' offseason plan is already well underway, and wondered exactly what a new player personnel head would be "heading."
In the last week, the Eagles have locked up Zach Ertz, Brent Celek, and Lane Johnson to long-term deals. None of those deals were of the urgent variety, seeing as all three players are signed though the 2016 season. In other words, it's not as if the Eagles got a deal done, with, say, Vinny Curry, who is set to become a free agent in March, and they were working under some kind of time constraint.
If a true "player personnel head" were indeed "heading" personnel decisions as his or her title might suggest, the deals for Ertz, Celek, and Johnson could have waited.
Instead, it would appear that the team is already very much carrying out the beginning stages of an offseason plan, and the commander of the ship is Howie Roseman.
Make no mistake -- The Eagles' 2016 offseason will be Howie's show.
When the Eagles signed Lane Johnson to a six-year deal worth up to $63 million with $35.5 million guaranteed, it made Johnson the highest paid right tackle in the NFL. It also put him among the highest paid left tackles in the league, a position Johnson will likely eventually play whenever Jason Peters is no longer an Eagle.
On the surface, Johnson's deal looked like an overpay to some. However, the salary cap may continue to skyrocket, as Tim McManus of Birds 24/7 points out. (Tim's piece is very informational, and definitely worth your time).
It might not take very long at all to see that value. The 2016 cap number is expected to be released in early March. The 32 teams have already been told to expect an increase from $143.28 million to as high as $153.4 million. And that could prove to be conservative. The NFL just signed a deal with CBS and NBC for Thursday night games that will pay them $450 million annually -- up from $300 million this past season. That's an infusion of $150 million, over half of which will be designated for the players. Add that with an increase in ticket sales and the possibility of two teams moving to the L.A. market, and you're looking at a potentially big leap in revenue over the coming years. This will be the third season that the salary cap has gone up at a clip of $10 million. It may only grow faster from here.
In other words, assuming Johnson continues to progress as a player, his deal may look like a bargain in a few years.
Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @JimmyKempski
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