Looks like he won’t be leaving after all.
After officially releasing him with a post-June 1 designation on Thursday, it appears the Philadelphia Eagles are re-signing Fletcher Cox.
The @letsgo2thephone Twitter account, which originally pointed towards the Cox release hours before other news-breakers did, tweeted the following on Thursday evening.
Fletcher Cox 1 yr deal for $15mil guaranteed with incentives to recoup rest of money https://t.co/Crz7MaDkEc
— Let’s Go to the Phones (@letsgo2thephone) March 18, 2022
NFL insider Mike Garafolo clarified that, while nothing is yet finalized, progress is being made in that regard.
Headed that way, according to sources. Not done yet. https://t.co/X68M60j0Zm
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) March 18, 2022
John Clark also had something similar to say:
I’m told Fletcher Cox is most likely coming back on a 1 year deal and staying with Eagles
Eagles needed to lower his salary@letsgo2thephone had it first pic.twitter.com/r9Kj7fy6Le
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) March 18, 2022
This whole situation has been pretty strange.
From a restructure that cap expert Jason Fitzgerald dubbed as “one of the more complex contracts I’ve seen in the NFL” to Cox being designated as a post-June 1 cut and then essentially brought back hours later … this is hardly standard procedure.
The bottom line, though, is that it appears Cox will be returning for his 11th season with the Eagles.
On one hand, the Eagles are a worse team without Cox. In that regard, his return is welcomed.
On the other hand, it’s hard to say the Eagles are optimizing their resources by spending them on a declining, aging player with 4.5 sacks in his last 22 games.
We’ll be staying tuned for official word that Cox is back. As we’ve seen multiple times in this free agency cycle (see: Randy Gregory, J.D. McKissic, and Za’Darius Smith all backing out of deals), nothing is official until the ink has dried.
Some more financial context from Garafolo:
Nothing really changes. Provided everything is base salary and incentives, whatever came off goes right back on. Or most of it, anyway.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) March 18, 2022
Not manipulating. Whatever came off will pretty much go back on. Same as if they’d just reduced his contract in the first place. By designating him a June 1 cut, they prevented any bonus allocation acceleration into this year.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) March 18, 2022