Eagles Gain Cap Space by restructuring deal with Lane Johnson

PHILADELPHIA (973espn.com) - The Eagles restructured Pro Bowl right tackle Lane Johnson’s contract this week and the details are in.

According to ESPN's Field Yates, Philadelphia converted nearly all of Johnson's 2019 base salary -- $10.045 million of a scheduled $10.85M -- into a signing bonus, something that gives the Texas native his money up front and allows the Eagles to spread the money over the remaining years of the deal for cap purposes, creating $8.2M in space for the new league year which begins on March 13.

Johnson is under contract through 2021 and was scheduled to have the largest cap number on the team ($15.28M) until the accounting trick.

With free agency looming in a week the Eagles had previously restructured the deal of safety Rodney McLeod, re-signed defensive end Brandon Graham to a three-year, $40 million contract last week, extended All-Pro center Jason Kelce [creating $4M in cap space] and left guard Isaac Seumalo, as well as eschewing their $13M option on defensive tackle Tim Jernigan, something which created $7 million in cap savings.

-John McMullen covers the Eagles and the NFL for 973espn.com. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen