Eagles

Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox Retirements Leave Eagles with a Little Less than $40 Million in Dead Cap

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Mar 11th, 2024 · 10:55 AM EDT

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Contrary to popular belief, retirement doesn’t make salary cap hits disappear. In the case of Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox, the Eagles will eat the following over the next few years:

Jason Kelce walks away from the #NFL as the 3rd highest earning center in league history.

The #Eagles hold $25.1M of dead cap on his contract, which they can split across 2024/2025 as $8.6M/$16.4M if they process his retirement after June 1st. pic.twitter.com/1S2P9AlRZR

— Spotrac (@spotrac) March 4, 2024

Fletcher Cox contract details: #Eagles have $14.3M left of cap space to deal with. Will likely carry contract until June 1 when they can gain $1.5M in space for 2024 & be on the hook for $10.1 in 2025. The medicine immediately is $14.3 in dead money & losing $8.6M in cap space.

— John McMullen (@JFMcMullen) March 10, 2024

A retirement basically functions the same way as releasing a player. Kelce and Cox obviously are not getting roster bonuses or salaries, but the prorated bonus money that has not yet hit the salary cap can’t be avoided. In Kelce’s case, he had a lot of backloaded bonus $$$ that was packed into those void/dummy years, which is how Howie Roseman works his salary cap “magic.” He essentially just kicks the can down the road and spreads out the cap hits, limiting future ceilings for more immediate flexibility.

Same situation with Cox, though the number is smaller than Kelce’s number. Fletch had those void/dummy years packed into his restructuring as well, so the Eagles will have to navigate about $14,000,000 in dead cap for him and $25,000,000 in dead cap for Kelce, spread out over a couple of seasons. That’s a little less than $40 million in total that they’ll clear by 2026.