IS GLAD SPRING TRAINING IS FINALLY HERE
Earlier this week, when the Eagles locked up Brent Celek with a 6-year extension, the team touted how it has 22 players on its current roster signed through 2012 and beyond. Apparently, the Winston Justice and Celek deals pretty much used up all the remaining cap money the Birds have available for that sort of thing this season.
One guy they haven't locked up, though, is plucky wideout Jason Avant, last Sunday's hero and a favorite of teammates and coaches. There have been some preliminary talks, but nothing concrete for the fourth-year wideout, in the final season of his rookie deal.
If there is a new collective-bargaining agreement, Avant becomes an unrestricted free agent this offseason, which would be a huge "uh-oh." The Eagles (like much of the league) clearly believe there will be no new agreement this offseason, and unrestricted free agency will go from 4 years served to 6. That would make Avant a restricted free agent for 2010. But given the clutch year he's having, they certainly couldn't tender him at his draft level (fourth round). It's not even clear they could put a second-round tender on him and not risk losing a heart-and-soul guy. (The tender level refers to the draft pick compensation you get if somebody else signs your guy.)
A first-round tender, last offseason, would have meant paying Avant $2.5 million, a second-round tender, $1.8 million.
This might be a tough deal to do, given that DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin are going to be ahead of Avant on the pecking order forever. But it probably shapes up as a top offseason priority.
Linebacker Chris Gocong fits into the same free-agency category, by the way, but teams might not be lining up to bid for him.
To read Paul Domowitch's weekly What We're Watching, click here.
Les
Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News
since 2002.
Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les
only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no
penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite
what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News
from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much
lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their
two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
E-mail Les at bowenl@phillynews.com
and follow
him on Twitter.
Paul
Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982.
He has spent most of his nearly 3 decades with the paper covering the
Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a
selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre
and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo started his career in Texas,
working first for the Midland Reporter-Telegram (1976-78), and then for
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas
Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually was
boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose 2 sports coats to
blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley,
a University of Oklahoma grad who still hasn’t gotten over
that Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State 5 years ago, have 2 terrific
daughters -- Allison, 28, who is an attorney in South Jersey, and Amy,
25, who works in administration for a professional baseball team.
E-mail Domo at PDomo@aol.com and follow
him on Twitter.
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