What’s the best way for the Eagles to avoid a salary-cap mess in 2027 due to the retirement of right tackle Lane Johnson? Behave as if he didn’t retire, of course.
We floated that idea both on PFT Live and in this item after Johnson unexpectedly retired from football this week. Placement of Johnson on the reserve/retired list would result in the Eagles taking the full acceleration of all past payments (signing bonus and option bonus). Keeping him on the roster avoids that outcome until 2028.
And so, via Ian Rapoport of ESPNFL, the Eagles will keep Johnson on the roster until June 2.
It’s a little surprising that they’re not coming up with a way to shift him to the non-football injury/illness list. That would invite inevitable gripes from other teams, who would accuse the Eagles of doing exactly what they’re doing — avoiding the 2027 cap mess while also clearing out the roster spot. And so they’ll willingly reduce their roster limit to 52 for the balance of the season in order to preserve the ability to delay the bulk of the cap hit until 2028.
The most immediate impact of that decision happened in the quarterback room. They trimmed the depth chart from three to two by cutting veteran backup Andy Dalton, who was No. 2 until he threw an interception in the red zone while starter Jalen Hurts was getting a concussion evaluation in the Week 3 Monday night loss at Chicago.
Keeping Johnson on the roster means that they won’t be able to declare that Johnson has committed a forfeitable breach and recover some of his signing-bonus money. Rapoport notes that, as to the $21.7 million option bonus Johnson earned earlier this year, Johnson will “pay back several million dollars -- with the exact number to be determined.”
As we explained earlier this week, the option bonus was split into two payments: $10.85 million paid within 15 days of the exercise of the option bonus and $10.85 million paid on or before December 1, 2026. Johnson will likely give up some, or perhaps even all, of the unpaid amount. Given that the $21.7 million had been part of his 2026 salary with the option bonus used as a way to layer the cap consequences, it was advance pay for a full season of service. By choosing to retire with 14 weeks left in the season, it’s more than reasonable for Johnson to give up half of the advance payment.
Could the Eagles have played hardball with Johnson, putting him on the reserve/retired list and seeking repayment of millions in signing bonus and option bonus? Yes. Beyond the fact that bullying one of the franchise’s all-time greats into giving back so much money (then again, that didn’t stop the Lions when Barry Sanders retired — or when Calvin Johnson retired), it would have sparked a full acceleration of all remaining payments previously made (minus whatever they recover) in 2027.
That’s the biggest flaw in the much-ballyhooed “financial hack” of using a stream of option bonuses in big-money veteran contracts to manage the cap. An unexpected retirement can handcuff the front office, to the point at which (as it’s doing with Johnson) the team behaves as if the retirement didn’t happen until the right moment arrives to officially process the move.