By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor 
The Eagles and safety Rodney McLeod have agreed to a restructured deal.
The #Eagles and Rodney McLeod have agreed to a reworked contract that will keep him with the team through 2019. #FlyEaglesFly
📰: https://t.co/eE6wzArl5T pic.twitter.com/sthFsj8DYb
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) February 1, 2019
A lower salary ensures that McLeod can stay in the clubhouse he loves while the Eagles don’t have so much money wrapped up in a player recovering from a serious knee injury.
McLeod told Eagles insider Dave Spadaro that he felt he let the team down after he suffered a season ending injury following a knee injury he suffered in week three.
“Honestly, Philly is where I want to be. I’m glad we were able to get things done and handled early on. I really get to focus more on rehab and getting back out there with the boys and getting back to making plays for the team this year.”
McLeod registered only 10 tackles this season before the injury. Over the past two seasons, however, McLeod played in 33 games registering 145 tackles, two sacks, two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, six interceptions and 14 passes defensed. He and Malcolm Jenkins have formed one of the best safety tandems in the league since McLeod joined the team in the 2016 offseason.
The return of McLeod likely means that the Eagles plan to use Avonte Maddox and Rasul Douglas as corners moving forward unless they do not believe Tre Sullivan can serve as the back-up safety.
As mentioned earlier today, the Eagles could have saved $5 million in cap space by moving on from McLeod when he had a $9.9 million hit. This new deal avoids McLeod ending up as a cap casualty. Details of the deal have not yet been announced.
Update: Field Yates of ESPN is reporting that McLeod took a massive pay cut to stay with the Birds.
Source: Eagles S Rodney McLeod’s reworked deal with the Eagles drops his 2019 base salary from $7.5M to $1.5M. In total, the move creates $7.469M in cap space for Philly.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) February 1, 2019
McLeod took a cut of $6 million off his base salary. While the move does not get the Eagles under the cap by itself, the team is now expected to be less than $5 million over the cap. Moving on from Nick Foles will get the Eagles plenty of room to start making other moves. The Eagles could also choose to create that extra $5 million in space and pick up Foles contract in an attempt to trade him rather than let him walk, though that option is less likely.
