Howie Roseman has been one of the most effective executives in the National Football League for years now, but this past season was his most impressive showing since he was promoted to the General Manager job in 2010. He owes much of his recent roster building success to one of his favorite maneuvers: the voidable year – years added to the end of player contracts that occur after the player has hit free agency and received the total cash value of his contract.

This past offseason’s blockbuster signing, Saquon Barkley, signed a 3-year $37.75 million contract that included a $11.625 million signing bonus. However, his cap hit for the 2024 season was a mere $3.8 million per Spotrac. Roseman was able to manage this via adding 4 voidable years to the end of Barkley’s contract, allowing him to prorate the signing bonus to the maximum 5 years allowable. Even so, how is the cap hit for a contract averaging a little over $12 million annually so low? The other key to Roseman’s cap manipulation lies in option bonuses – over $23 million worth. These are bonuses similar to roster bonuses – paid as long as the player is still on the active roster – but can be spread over the course of the contract, including all the voidable years.

The upside to all of this moving around of money is that the hit against the cap for each of the 3 years that Barkley is under contract with the Eagles is extraordinarily low for a player of his caliber. And Barkley is not the only Philadelphia star with phantom years on his contract. If you’re wondering how Roseman was able to pay all of his stars; the answer lies in voidable years. Devonta Smith, AJ Brown, Jalen Hurts, Landon Dickerson, Lane Johnson, Darius Slay, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, and even kicker Jake Elliot all have multiple voidable years at the end of their contracts. All of these guys played key roles in the Eagles Super Bowl run this year. Almost all of them have multiple years left under contract in Philadelphia, and most of them are in the primes of their careers. And despite having the most star-studded roster in the NFL, the Eagles will still have a little over $13 million in cap space to play with this offseason. This sounds like it should be illegal. 

The question many fans are asking themselves is: Why aren’t we doing this? And in all fairness, many other teams are structuring contracts in this manner, but few are doing it at the level of the Philadelphia Eagles. This is because, despite the salary cap manipulation, cash is still king. To go back to Barkley’s contract, his cap hit in 2024 was $3.8 million, but Barkley still received the full annual value of his contract in 2024 – bonus included it totaled $14.75 million in cash payments. Almost $11 million over his salary cap hit. Quarterback Jalen Hurts’ deal, another contract with bonus money spread out over voidable years, featured a cap hit of $13.5 million while his total cash payments for the year totaled $40 million. In total, the cash payments for the Eagles roster totaled almost $44 million more than the salary cap hits associated with the contracts in 2024. This figure is eye-popping – and again feels a bit illegal. 

The reason Roseman has been able to structure these contracts the way he has is because of Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie. He should be given just as much credit as anybody in the construction of this roster. He has committed cash payments above and beyond the salary cap in 2024 and beyond, and given Roseman the financial flexibility to lock down the deepest roster in the league for multiple years, securing Super Bowl contention for years to come.

In addition to structuring contracts, Roseman and the font office have added some fantastic value talent. First of all, through the draft, highlighted by adding Jalen Carter, Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean all on cheap rookie deals. In addition Roseman has been able to sign some great short term deals. Namely, All-Pro linebacker Zack Baun to completely overhaul a defensive unit that was below average at best for most of the season in 2023, and OG Mekhi Becton – a reclamation project after the highly-touted OT prospect had a rough start to his career with the Jets.

Conventional wisdom says that borrowing from the future to win today will eventually catch up to the Eagles. But with the salary cap continuing to increase year over year, and the Eagles consistently showing the ability to backfill positions of need with great, cheap talent through the draft – it begs the question of how long it may take to necessitate a full rebuild in Philadelphia. Could this borrowing from future success turn out to be more of a zero-interest loan? Or will the time to pay the piper finally come? Only time will tell.

Even if the Eagles can only manage to win 1 Super Bowl out of this core group of players, it will likely not be due to poor roster construction or a lack of investment at the ownership level. It will come down to execution on the field. And as a fan of a team, there is not much more that you can ask of your front office than to put your team in the best position to compete for a Super Bowl year in and year out.