Jamal Adams Trade Highlights Eagles Salary Cap Woes

The Jets trading their All-Pro safety to Seattle, and not Philly, is exhibit A why the Eagles' salary cap situation will prohibit them from trading for young superstars in near future

Jamal Adams is no longer a New York Jet.

Nor is he a Dallas Cowboy, or even a Philadelphia Eagle, for that matter.

Adams will, however, stay in the NFC, after the Jets dealt him to Seattle on Saturday, and the Eagles are scheduled to host the Seahawks on Nov. 30, so they will see one of the game’s premier safeties this year.

It could have been twice a year if he had gone to Dallas. There was no way he was coming to Philadelphia, especially after news broke on Friday that the salary cap for 2021 is expected to drop by about $23 million, and the Eagles were already $51M over the cap.

The math simply didn’t add for Philly to land Adams.

Nor does it seem to add up for the Eagles to land any other high-priced player in a trade, such as Jacksonville’s Yannick Ngakoue.

Throughout the offseason Adams was unhappy that he did not get a new contract offer, giving Eagles fans a glimmer of hope that maybe Roseman would make a deal for him.

The offseason, however, has been impacted by the uncertainty wrought by COVID-19, especially as it pertained to the salary cap.

Friday’s news lent a bit of certainty and the salary cap future for the Eagles is frightening. The cap is expected to be $175M in 2021 a decrease from 2020’s cap figure of $198.2M. There is a chance it the cap could come slightly, depending on whether or not fans will be allowed to attend games at some point this fall.

As it is now, the Eagles are sitting at about $75M over the cap.

Eagles general manager Howie Roseman has proven to be a magician with the cap, but he will need a turbo-charged magic wand to figure out how to whittle that number down.

There will be some fascinating decisions forthcoming from the Eagles’ front office.

As for the Jets, the blockbuster trade came a day after Jets GM Joe Douglas, the former right-hand man to Roseman as VP of player personnel from 2016-19 before leaving for New York, was singled out for “a series of bizarre decisions that created a cavernous divide between the organization and their biggest star” by New York Daily News Jets beat writer Manish Mehta.

Mehta spoke to Adams who didn’t speak highly of head coach Adam Gase, either.

The link to Mehta’s story is here:

https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/ny-jamal-adams-trade-joe-douglas-contract-extension-20200724-vc6zwwpmjrepjii67hojt2t5ri-story.html

A day after the story ran, Douglas hit a grand slam, acquiring a pair of first-round picks in the next two drafts for the Pro-Bowl Adams.

New York is also getting safety Bradley McDougald and a third-round pick in 2021. New York is sending a fourth-round selection in 2022 along with Adams.

With a declining salary cap, acquiring extra draft picks gives the Jets control of their future with rookies. Now, all Douglas has to do is get those picks right.

As for Roseman, he too must make certain his picks hit the mark, as he devises a plan to bring the cap number down. Way down.

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