WEDNESDAY, 3:08pm: The Eagles made the move official today, announcing (via Twitter) that Cole has been cut.
TUESDAY, 4:26pm: Despite initially engaging in discussions to keep him around on a reworked contract, the Eagles are expected to part ways with Trent Cole, according to Geoff Mosher of CSNPhilly.com (via Twitter). Although the move isn’t official yet, two league sources tell Mosher that the club will eventually release the veteran edge defender. Adam Caplan of ESPN.com tweets that it’s expected to become official within the next 24 hours.
Cole, 32, has been a fixture on the Eagles’ defense since being selected by the club in the fifth round of the 2005 draft. During his 10 years in Philadelphia, Cole has played 155 games (145 starts), racking up 85.5 sacks, 569 tackles, and 19 forced fumbles. After posting six consecutive seasons with eight or more sacks from 2006 to 2011, Cole’s production has fallen off in recent years — he has just 17.5 sacks since 2012.
Cole’s cap number had been set to jump from $6.6MM in 2014 to $11.625MM for the coming year, meaning the Eagles needed to address it. With only $3.2MM in prorated bonus money left on the deal, Philadelphia can create $8.425MM in cap savings by parting ways with the veteran.
While the additional cap room created by cutting Cole could be put toward retaining another edge defender, Brandon Graham, Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets that Graham is 99.9% likely to test the open market. Mosher had reported earlier this afternoon (via Twitter) that talks between the Eagles and both Cole and Graham weren’t progressing very well.