The Financial Tush Push: How the Eagles Broke the Salary Cap
By Jared Fong | 07 October, 2025
Introduction
A salary cap is the maximum amount of money a team is allowed to spend on its players. The salary cap has become a major discussion topic across all leagues in America. The MLB is debating whether a cap is needed to preserve competitive balance. The NHL is wrestling with Long Term Injury Reserve (LTIR) maneuvering and uneven state income taxes. Teams in the NBA are navigating the brutality of the second apron while the league itself is investigating the Clippers for illegal payments made out to Kawhi Leonard.
The NFL, by contrast, has long accepted the league’s salary cap rules. Each year, the salary cap, $279.2 million in 2025, rises and falls based on the league’s revenue, and no team can exceed that spending limit. The salary cap puts a massive constraint on roster building, making it extremely difficult to get to the top and stay there. This is because star players are very expensive. Once a player’s rookie deal expires, the front office must choose: pay up and squeeze the rest of the roster or move on and preserve flexibility. We have seen both approaches take place recently.
The Dallas Cowboys shipped out star edge rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers so that they could afford to extend their in-house stars Daron Bland and Tyler Smith. The Cincinnati Bengals, on the other hand, concentrated most of their money on Joe Burrow, Tee Higgins, and Ja’Marr Chase, leaving them unable to fill gaping holes in their roster, particularly on the offensive line and their entire defense.
Yet, one NFL franchise has cracked the code to navigate around the constraints of the cap. Through meticulous contract structuring, the Philadelphia Eagles have retained nearly all of their core on long-term deals, including six All-Pros in 2024, bringing the franchise a Lombardi Trophy and keeping them at the top of the NFL. This is how the Eagles broke the Salary Cap.
The Eagles have utilized smart contract structuring and the Tush Push to ascend to the top of the NFL. (ESPN)
Signing Bonuses & Void Years
Before we dive into how the Eagles built a juggernaut, we first have to understand a few things — starting with signing bonuses. A signing bonus is the cash paid upfront that a player receives when they sign a contract; however, the cap hit of the signing bonus is spread across the length of the deal. For example, this past offseason, Brock Purdy signed a 5-year, $265,000,0000 contract extension with the San Francisco 49ers, which included a $40,000,000 signing bonus. This essentially means that Brock Purdy saw $40,000,000 added to his bank account when he signed his new deal. However, because this $40,000,000 is in a signing bonus, the 49ers are not hit with a $40,000,000 hit against the cap this season; they are charged $8,000,000 against the cap for each year of Purdy’s deal. In simple terms, signing bonuses are used to pay players now while allowing teams to spread out a player's money over multiple years.
Another vital concept necessary to understand is the concept of void years. Void years are fake years added to a contract where the player is not obligated to play for the team. The purpose of void years is to spread out the player’s salary across more years. Ja’Marr Chase’s contract with the Bengals is a great example of the use of void years. The Cincinnati wideout’s deal is worth $161,000,000 over 4 years, which averages out to $40,250,000 per year. However, Chase has two void years added to the back end of his deal, so the deal really is 6 years, $161,000,000, which turns into $26,833,333 per year. These two extra years on Chase’s contract save the Bengals $13,000,000 per year, which allowed them to pay other players like Tee Higgins and Trey Hendricksen. The caveat with this is that if Chase does not resign, the Bengals will still be paying him around $26,833,333 for those two years after his real contract ends. (Note: Ja’Marr Chase’s actual contract is a bit more complicated than just explained, but it shows how void years operate). Void years are great for teams contending now, as they lower a player’s current cap. The trade-off with void years is that money is paid later on, even after the player is off the team.
Jordan Love’s contract also uses signing bonuses and void years to lower his current cap, allowing the Packers to bring in Micah Parsons, Josh Jacobs, and Xavier McKinney. (Spotrac)
The Philadelphia Eagles
Under general manager Howie Roseman and owner Jeffrey Lurie, the Eagles have become the NFL’s blueprint for success. Fresh off their decisive Super Bowl LIX win and a league-high six AP All-Pro selections in 2024, the Birds have opened the 2025 season with a 4-1 record, with most of their core secured on multiyear deals. What allows the Eagles to have such an elite roster top to bottom is the way that they structure their contracts. The widespread use of signing bonuses paired with carefully timed void years eases the Eagles' cap space in the present while pushing manageable charges later into the future.
The Eagles' cap management strategy is most apparent in their ten highest-paid players by average annual salary: Jalen Hurts, AJ Brown, Devonta Smith, Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailata, Landon Dickerson, Saquon Barkley, Zach Baun, Cam Jurgens, and Dallas Goedert. Quickly breaking down the structure of these deals, nine of the ten players are secured on multiyear deals, but the real edge comes from how these deals are constructed. Eight of the ten included significant signing bonuses (the expectations: Barkley and Johnson), and every one of them adds in at least four void years on the back end of the deal. Most of these void years start between 2028 and 2030 – Goedert’s kicks in earlier, in 2026 – with a large majority beginning in 2029.
The Eagles’ core players are mostly under contract until 2029. (Spotrac)
The Eagles’ heavy use of signing bonuses and void years creates immediate cap relief by shrinking players’ cap charges in the present. Jalen Hurts’ deal is the clearest example. On paper, Hurts has a five-year deal worth $255,000,000 (an average of $51,000,000 per season). However, the reality of Hurts’ contract is that the money that is charged against the cap is nowhere close to what’s on paper. Hurts’ deal has a $23,294,000 million signing bonus that is protracted over multiple seasons, and four void years added on the back to push more money into the future. The result of this contract structuring is that Hurts’ cap hit sits well below his average salary — $21,877,360 — freeing space in the present while the team is competitive.
That blueprint repeats across the roster. Most of the Eagles’ biggest contracts pair a meaningful signing bonus with multiple void years, which keeps annual cap hits below the players’ average salaries. With nine of their ten highest-paid players having contracts structured this way, Philadelphia gives itself significant present-day flexibility — enough to make additions like Saquon Barkley in the 2024 offseason – while staying under the projected cap through 2028. By current projections, they’re below the cap with roughly $21.1 million in 2026, $110.2 million in 2027, and $102.3 million in 2028.
9/10 of the Eagles' highest-paid players have lower cap hits in 2025 than AAV due to contract structuring. (Spotrac)
With all these contracts structured this way, there ultimately has to be a trade-off. Pushing all this money into the future invites larger charges later on if the contracts are not extended or reconstructed. Because of this, while the Eagles have a healthy cap situation throughout their current Super Bowl window, there’s a real long-term risk baked into their approach. Because many of the Eagles’ void years cluster around the same point in time, the team could be carrying significant dead money for players no longer on the roster. That said, the Eagles are aware of this potential problem and intentionally planned for most of their void years to begin in 2029 for a specific reason. The year 2029 is a key point for the league’s media rights. After the 2029 season, the NFL has the right to opt out of its current TV deals with Paramount, FOX, NBC, and Prime Video and after the 2030 season, the league can opt out of its deal with Disney. This will allow the NFL to renegotiate or sign new TV deals. With viewership on the rise, and new media giants like Netflix and YouTube showing significant interest in broadcasting the NFL, the league is projected to obtain a massive pay raise when the time comes. TV deals make up a significant portion of the NFL’s revenue, and when these new TV deals come in and significantly increase the league’s revenue, it means that the salary cap is going to explode.
What this means for the Eagles is that dead money from their void years won’t affect them too much. By having most of these contracts expire in 2029, right before the new TV deals are signed, this gives the Eagles a season to reassess their roster right before the salary cap jumps. The players that the organization wants to keep will be extended (likely on similarly structured, short-term contracts that smooth cap hits) and let others walk, knowing that any remaining dead money will be much more affordable with a larger salary cap. The result of this careful timing is a deliberate off-ramp for the Eagles. The franchise will comfortably have the ability to retain the core on the short, flexible deals that preserve yearly agility and accept manageable dead money where warranted, setting up the Eagles to enter the new rights cycle with both continuity and room to maneuver.
The Rest of the NFL
Howie Roseman’s cap strategy of handing all his players big signing bonuses and void years has brought the Eagles to the top of the mountain and allowed them to stay there into the future. The question now is, if this strategy works for the Eagles, why doesn’t the rest of the NFL do it? There is one main reason why many NFL teams do not deploy the same cap strategy as the Eagles: it is extremely risky.
Howie Roseman’s cap playbook helped push the Eagles to the top and gives them a path to stay there for years to come. If this strategy was a huge component of what built one of the best teams in the NFL, why doesn’t everyone just copy it? The reason not everyone does this is that the strategy is inherently risk-heavy, and not every organization is built to absorb that risk. First, it’s cash-intensive. Large signing bonuses require real money paid today, which not every NFL owner is willing (or able) to do. Second, it relies on the rising cap. Both bonus proration and void years push costs into the future, so if the league revenue flattens or dips, those charges become much more difficult to afford with a smaller cap. Third, it demands precision in both the Draft and Free Agency period. If a player or players do not play up to their contract, this leaves the team with an expensive, aging core and fewer ways to improve the team. Finally, and most importantly, it takes an elite and competent front office that knows how to properly manage a roster and player contracts for this strategy to work.
Cap Management Gone Wrong
The Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints are cautionary tales for using the Eagles' cap strategy. Both these teams attempted similar strategies to the Eagles, leaning heavily on void years to maximize their championship windows. Each team had different reasons for why their strategy failed. For the Browns, some of their players did not play up to their contracts. The main perpetrator of this was quarterback Deshaun Watson. During the 2022 offseason, the Browns made a massive investment, trading three 1st round, one third-round, and two 4th round picks in exchange for Watson and a 6th round pick and giving their new quarterback a 5 year $230,000,000 contract. However, ever since returning to the field, Deshaun Watson’s tenure with the Browns has been filled with injury and disappointing on-field performances. In 19 games, Watson has had 9 wins and 10 losses as a starter while averaging less than 200 passing yards per game. The massive cap commitment, plus the capital used to acquire him, has limited Cleveland’s flexibility to patch holes elsewhere, so every missed throw and missed game carries extra weight. What ultimately went wrong for the Browns was low production from high-cost players, which led to a constant uphill climb.
For the Saints, they went all in during superstar quarterback Drew Brees’ twilight years. The strategy was working, as the Saints were top contenders year in and year out, until the pandemic hit. The league lost significant revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a massive drop in the salary cap in 2021. This decline made it harder for the Saints to afford all of the void years that began to kick in. Things only got worse after Brees retired, as the Saints were unable to find a strong, consistent replacement that they could afford. These after effects are still hitting the team hard today as they continue to pay off high-cost players such as Michael Thomas and Marshon Lattimore, hindering thabilityties to make roster moves in the present.
Drew Brees’ contract was one of the first to utilize big signing bonuses and void years to lower cap hits. His contract led to the Saints handing out similarly structured contracts to other role players on the roster. (Bleacher Report)
Conclusion
None of this means that Roseman’s cap strategy is flawed; it means that the margin for error is thin. Philadelphia has all the right pieces of the puzzle to make it work. Owner Jeffery Lurie is more than willing to pay out these big signing bonuses, believing that a winning franchise will pay dividends. The timing has been on their side as the cap has been rising during their window. The hit rate on their players from the Draft and Free Agency has been high, with players like Saquon Barkley, Jalen Carter, and Cooper DeJean exceeding expectations. Finally, the front office is exceptionally disciplined about when to push, when to extend, and when to walk away. With void years deliberately clustered around 2029 and a plan to reassess the core before the next media rights reset, the Eagles have engineered a runway that turns today’s flexibility into tomorrow’s staying power. In a league built on parity and short windows, that combination of conviction, timing, and precision is why Philadelphia isn’t just at the summit – it’s set up to keep climbing.
