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Brent Celek, the Philadelphia Eagles’ longest tenured player, doesn’t plan on retiring this offseason, according to NFL insider Adam Caplan.
For those asking about #Eagles TE Brent Celek: I'm told that he still wants to play. He's on the books for $4m this season (final year on contract). Team has 5 TEs under contract, but only 2 have them have played in a regular season game (Celek, Ertz) for the team.
— Adam Caplan (@caplannfl) March 6, 2018
This is a little surprising. Celek turned 33 years old in January and he just won a Super Bowl. It seems like this would be the perfect time for him to go out on top.
There’s no way the Eagles can reasonably bring back Celek at his $5 million cap hit in 2018. Celek helps the Eagles as a blocker but this is a guy who set career lows with 13 receptions for 130 yards in 2017. Philadelphia is currently ~$9.6 million over the cap and cutting Celek (or Celek retiring) would save $4 million compared to only $1 million in dead money.
Perhaps Celek would be willing to take a pay cut to stay in Philly. He did that last offseason. It would need to be a pretty significant pay cut, though.
Even if Celek is back, tight end is still a need for Eagles. 2018 is the last year of Celek’s deal and Trey Burton is expected to leave in free agency. Zach Ertz is signed through 2021 but the Eagles use more than just one tight end in their offense.
We’ll see what happens.
Brent Celek said that he has no plans to retire. "Yeah I wanna play," the Eagles TE said via text message, confirming a @caplannfl report.
— Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) March 6, 2018