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Paul Domowitch: Making cents of Brown situation
The Eagles are caught between a rock and a hard place with Reggie Brown.
Because of the contract extension the wide receiver signed in November 2006, the team can't afford to trade him and can't afford to release him. That's why he is still an Eagle.
Brown's deal, which runs through 2014, includes $7.3 million in bonus proration over the next 4 years, according to sources familiar with the contract. If the Eagles trade or release him, all of that $7.3 million, minus his $844,000 base salary for this year, would get accelerated into the Eagles' 2009 cap.
According to league sources, the Eagles have about $9 million in cap space. Brown's 2009 cap number is $3.2 million, including $2.35 million in bonus proration.
In previous years, if you released a player with bonus proration left on his contract, you absorbed the prorated amount for just that year, with the remaining proration charged to the following year's cap.
But because of the possibility of 2010 being an uncapped year, the rules have changed a bit. Bonus prorations of released players are being treated the same way as those of traded players.
The Eagles have received several inquiries from teams in recent weeks about Brown's availability, but have been reluctant to pull the trigger on a trade because of the cap hit they'd have to take. Same thing with releasing him. So he sits.
He wasn't even activated for last week's game against Carolina. When the team needed roster space to sign quarterback Jeff Garcia, it dumped another wideout, Hank Baskett, rather than Brown, even though Baskett played last week and, unlike Brown, can contribute on special teams.
There were no cap consequences for releasing Baskett, who signed a 1-year, $1.5 million deal in the offseason.
"I don't know about Hank's contract," Brown said yesterday, when asked if he thought that's why Baskett got released rather than him. "I don't even know about my contract."
He might want to call his agent and find out.
Brown's cap numbers and base salaries for the final 5 years of his deal: 2010, $3 million, $1.2 million; 2011, $2.8 million, $1.3 million; 2012, $3.4 million, $1.7 million; 2013, $3.2 million (all salary); 2014, $3.8 million (also all salary).
Because of the fairly low base salaries in 2010 and 2011 for a player with his experience, his deal clearly would be a favorable one for any team that traded for him. All they would be responsible for is his 2009 base of $844,000 plus his subsequent salaries for as long as he was with the team. That's not the problem.
But as long as the Eagles refuse to trade or release him and refuse to play him, Brown essentially is the NFL's version of A Man Without a Country.
"You just try to stay positive," he said. "You try as hard as you can and you keep working hard. Even a rose can grow out of piles of [bleep]. Why can't I?"
While he frequently has been the butt of talk-show jokes, the truth is Brown is not a bad player. He proved that in his first three seasons with the Eagles when he caught 150 balls. If they released him, he would have no trouble finding another job. If they released him.
"I just want to play," he said. "I think I'll get an opportunity to play here, and make the best of it. I've been dealing with [not playing] since last year.
"I can't sit around and hope and wish. I've just got to go out there and make something happen."
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