While it wasn’t a big splash like the signing of Haason Reddick, the Eagles made another key move to improve their defense by agreeing to terms with free agent linebacker Kyzir White last week.
The contract was initially reported as a one-year deal worth up to $5 million, but now we have the full details.
White’s one-year deal with the Eagles is really worth $3 million guaranteed with the potential to make up to $5 million with incentives for playing time, individual improvement or team improvement and honors, according to a league source.
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If White plays as well in Philly as he did for the Chargers last season, this contract could easily be quite a bargain for the Eagles.
Here’s a breakdown:
Base salary: $1.035 million
Signing bonus: $1.465 million
NFL
Per-game roster bonuses: $500K total
Incentives: Up to $2 million
Cap hit in 2022: $1.828 million
Like many of their contracts in recent seasons, the Eagles utilized voidable years to spread out his cap hit, making for pretty minimal cap hit in 2022. And his base salary in the NFL minimum for someone with at least four years of service.
Because the Eagles used four automatically voidable years to spread out the cap hit, just $293,000 of White’s signing bonus counts toward the cap this year. His cap hit is determined by adding that $293K to his base salary to the per-game roster bonuses, which count in full because White played all 17 games last season.
Because of the structure with voidable years, this deal will leave just over $1.17 million in dead money in 2023.
Even if White, 26, ends up getting paid just the $3 million this season without hitting any additional incentives, he’s still the Eagles’ highest-paid off-ball linebacker for the 2022 season. But he’s tied for the 39th highest-paid off-ball linebacker in the NFL, according to OverTheCap, in terms of average per year.
White is coming off his best NFL season in 2021; he had 144 tackles, 2 interceptions and 2 forced fumbles. And the Eagles are hoping White can end a run of disappointing free agent linebackers from Corey Nelson to Eric Wilson.
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