Brian Westbrook will be released by the Eagles, but he’s not available to other teams just yet.
NFL Network’s Jason La Canfora first reported that Westbrook will not be officially cut until March 5, and we’ve since confirmed the news with the team.
It makes us wonder about this statement from Andy Reid: “We wanted to make this move now in order to maximize Brian’s chances of
landing with another NFL team.”
NFL teams know Westbrook will be available, but they basically already knew that. Unless possible suitors are allowed to speak to Westbrook, what’s the difference?
We’ll follow up to see if Westbrook truly gets any advantage from the move being announced Tuesday.
salary cap issues(a la Joey Porter) or some hidden motive ?
It allows Westbrook to draw interest from teams who might also be interested in LT.
Isn’t it kind of tacit permission to tamper?
I think this is an attempt to defuse tampering allegations.
Probably some team called and said
“hey, before you release him, can we holla atcha for a minute?”
Even if they get a 5th or 6th, its better than nothing.
“salary cap issues(a la Joey Porter) or some hidden motive ?”
Bingo. The Eagles always roll tons of LTBEs into the last few contracts of a year to eat up any remaining cap space and get credit for that space the next year. Those dont roll off even though they *weren’t* earned until the NFL calendar year resets on the 5th. If they released him now, the accelarated portions of his signing bonus would push them over the still-in-place 2009 cap.
Is there a quality free agent RB out there that the Eagles are willing to pay? Chester Taylor maybe? They can’t be thinking of going with McCoy; he was downright mediocre.