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The Patriots Way is out, and with Philadelphia advancing to its second Super Bowl in three years, teams around the NFL sound prepared to start coping with the Eagles Way.
Howie Roseman has built a juggernaut, paying his star players while genius circumventing the salary cap and keeping cap hits below the league average. Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow recently made comments when he said this about the “Eagles paying their players.”
“The Eagles are paying everybody,” Burrow said. “That seems like the way. Whatever they’re doing.”
Joe Burrow saying that the Eagles pay everyone is … very offense-focused! It’s true they pay just about everybody on offense, as nine of their 11 starters (QB, RB, WR1, WR2, TE, LT, LG, RT) are on significant deals.
But on defense, they have … three guys on market-value…
— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) February 12, 2025
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Burrow is projected to have a $46.3 million cap hit in 2025.
The Bengals are also projected to have $45.9 million in cap space, and Burrow discussed potentially taking a pay cut or restructured deal to keep Tee Higgins, Ja’Marr Chase, and other elite offensive players on the roster.
“You could convert some of the money to a signing bonus, which will lower the cap hit,” Burrow said. “You can push some of the money to the back end of the contract. That lowers the cap hit. And then when you get to the back end of the contract, you can restructure it and convert it to a signing bonus. You can also just take less money.”
Burrow’s comments follow those of Dallas Cowboys co-owner Stephens Jones, who commented on the Eagles’ methods of roster building and pushing money back with void years.
“I know everybody has their different battles with the cap that hit at different times. Philly will have theirs coming up where they’ll have to make tough decisions.”
A current look at salary cap space shows the Eagles have $9,856,286 available to roll over to 2025, while the Cowboys have $19,411,873 available.
According to Over The Cap, Philadelphia will start with over $18 million before the cap rises, while Dallas is currently over.
Looking at cap hits for 2025, Dak Prescott has $89,896,666, CeeDee Lamb has $35,450,000, and so on. In Philadelphia, Jalen Hurts has just $21 million against the cap, with A.J. Brown and Lane Johnson having $17 million.
Roseman is a wizard, and salary cap hell will likely never happen as it continues to rise by $30 million each season, regardless of the dead cap hits accrued by pushing time back with void years.