Philly Front Office

Over the weekend, news came out that the Eagles had “adjusted” the contract of Zack Baun by adding an extra year. Normally, this would be called an extension but that would underestimate how deep the Howie Roseman rabbit hole goes. This is more of a parachute than an extension. Though the details aren’t out yet, here’s what happened…

Eagles Summer Primer

Baun signed a new contract with the Eagles before last season paying $51m over 3 years. As the Eagles are wont to do, the contract had 4 void years on the end of it in order to spread out the cap hit of his $15.5m signing bonus as well as his yearly option bonuses. Because of that, he only had a $3.1m cap hit last season, only a $7.5m cap hit this season, and a $12m for 2027. The downside is that all these shenanigans would leave a $27m dead cap hit in 2028. That’s where Howie came in.

Assuming Baun continues his high level of performance and plays out his contract, he would be in position to leave the Eagles with that $27m on the books in 2028. All the team would be able to do is sign him to an extension to kick the can down the road. This is what has been happening with Dallas Goedert.¹

The Eagles likely went to Baun’s camp and asked for some help in dealing with this so history would not repeat itself. The two sides agreed that 2028, instead of being the first of 4 void years, would become a real contract year at the league minimum. This would allow the team to cut him that season as a post-June 1 cut and let his cap hit prorate. Instead of $27m in dead cap due for accounting in 2028, now that becomes $9m with $18m coming in 2029.

Baun’s 2027 salary includes a minimum base of $1.3m plus a $14.4m option bonus and $1m roster bonus. While the first two years of his contract are guaranteed, the third year is not. Even without the additional year in 2028, the Eagles could cut him after June 1, 2027 and avoid paying his bonus for that season (depending on when the option date is) and spread his cap hit over 2027 and 2028. The thing is, Baun is still really good, so they wouldn’t want to do this.

2026 NFL Draft

Why would Baun do this? Why would he allow the team to cut him and take away contract leverage? This is where the missing details come in. Knowing the Eagles, they probably saw that Baun was overperforming his contract and wanted to get ahead of the situation like they did previously with AJ Brown and Saquon Barkley. My bet is that they at least partially (if not fully) guaranteed the 3rd year of his contract in exchange for the parachute year. There is also probably language in the new agreement that says he must be released by June 2, 2028. By then, the Eagles could still look to bring him back, but they also might not want to pay a 32-year-old LB right when likely extensions for Jalen Carter, Quinyon Mitchell, and Cooper DeJean are hitting the books.

Howie has essentially guaranteed a salary that he would have paid up anyway in order to allow him a soft salary cap landing three seasons from now. The Dallas Goedert contract situation (and Darius Slay before him) probably taught him a few things.

1. Goedert was set to have a $20m dead cap hit this year, but signed an extension to lower that significantly. The NFL is weird. ↩︎