Eagles Could Cut Asomugha's Salary Next Year By Benching Him

Change is coming to the Eagles. It's just a matter of who goes and when.

Michael Vick and Andy Reid are the two popular names, but there are other veteran players who could go.

According to ProFootballTalk, Nnamdi Asomugha is a player who makes sense. In the report, Mike Florio speculates that Asomugha could go because of the way his contract is structured.

Here are the details:

Cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha is due to earn a base salary of $15 million next season. Per a source with knowledge of the deal, $4 million of the salary is fully guaranteed. But $11 million isn’t; the question for the Eagles is whether they’re willing to pay Asomugha $4 million not to play for them — or $15 million to remain on the team.

Needless to say, $15 million is a lot of money for any player, let alone one who has had an average season. When you take into account that the Eagles could be in rebuild mode, and will likely have to invest big money into Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Asomugha makes sense as a cap causality.

Florio also got this nugget about the contract:

Per the source, the contract reduces Asomugha’s pay by $3 million in 2013 if the participates in fewer than 90 percent of the snaps in 2011 or 2012. Benching Asomugha late in the year for a couple of games would prevent him from hitting that number, dropping his salary to $12 million.

Asomugha has played in 589 of the Eagles 613 snaps this year, which is roughly 96% of the snaps. It's highly unlikely the Eagles would bench Asomugha to cut his salary, so it will be either $15 million for Asomugha or $4 million to show him the door.

What the Eagles do with Asomugha this offseason will be very interesting. The team does not have anyone behind him behind him right now other than Curtis Marsh, who has not seen very much playing time this year. They could draft a cornerback, but that would give them a rookie and a 2nd year player (Brandon Boykins) in the secondary.

If the team does go into rebuild mode, Asomugha's age alone might be a reason to move on. Asomugha will be 32 when the Eagles open camp next year.

Follow Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks