Parcells: Why Dallas Cowboys could be headed for salary cap problems down the road - Dallas Cowboys Forum

**WoodysGirl** · 03-12-2013

By Jon Machota / Special Contributor
jmachota@dallasnews.com
2:22 pm on March 12, 2013 | Permalink

During a special edition free agency show Monday on ESPN, Polian and former Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells discussed several aspects of free agency and navigating the salary cap.

Parcells mentioned the Cowboys when talking about teams that are top heavy with big contracts.

For the upcoming season, the Cowboys’ 12 highest-paid players represent 67 percent of the money being paid to the 51 players under their salary cap.

Polian said one year he had 12 players make up about 78 percent of the Colts’ salary.

“It only works if the linchpin, the quarterback plays at a high level through all of his career,” Polian said. “If you have a drop-off, as we did when Peyton Manning got hurt, then you can’t handle it, that theory doesn’t work.”

Read the rest: http://cowboysblog.dallasnews.com/20...the-road.html/

**Idgit** · 03-12-2013

We should totally extend Romo and Spencer, and then cut Free, then. Somebody tell the organization to work on that.

DallasDW00ds0n · 03-12-2013

This will be a whole new team in 2 years.

**BrAinPaiNt** · 03-13-2013

We are not headed to salary cap problems down the road.

We are already in salary cap problems.

However SOME of that can be fixed with cutting Free, Fixing the Romo contract (extension), Getting Spencer of the franchised tag and finally finishing up the cap penalty that the league gave us and washington.

Even with that we will still have problems as we have been kicking the proverbial can down the road.

KB1122 · 03-13-2013

Down the road?

burmafrd · 03-13-2013

Jerruh is counting on big increases in the CAP starting in 2016 to save the situation.

If it does not happen we will be in a world of hurt.

rockj7 · 03-13-2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by KB1122

Down the road?

Wood · 03-13-2013

ssshhhh. Nobody wants to hear about that on here.

silver · 03-13-2013

I miss BP

CashMan · 03-13-2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrAinPaiNt

We are not headed to salary cap problems down the road.

We are already in salary cap problems.

However SOME of that can be fixed with cutting Free, Fixing the Romo contract (extension), Getting Spencer of the franchised tag and finally finishing up the cap penalty that the league gave us and washington.

Even with that we will still have problems as we have been kicking the proverbial can down the road.

How is cutting Free, going to solve part of the problem? Doesn't he have this and next year left on his contract? That would mean, Dallas would have a lot of dead money next year, and I believe ATM, they are either over or up against the cap without Romo counting against it(for the 2014 season). The team needs to be rebuilt, and that probably means, no Ware, Romo, Austin, Ratliff, to be able to do that.

perrykemp · 03-13-2013

[quote=CashMan;5021968]How is cutting Free, going to solve part of the problem? Doesn't he have this and next year left on his contract? ]

Forget the money! You cut Free because he sucks. He was one of the worst 2-3 starting tackles in the entire NFL last year.

Draft a rookie tackle in rounds 3 or 4 and start him in Free's spot. Could he suck any more?

anj113 · 03-13-2013

Threw up in my mouth when I read 10 million next to Free's name.

**Idgit** · 03-13-2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by anj113

Threw up in my mouth when I read 10 million next to Free's name.

It's killer. You can't whiff on a second deal at a premium position.

To that point, I wonder why it is that we seem to get in these positions of having to guess on long-term contracts with only a short sample size to project from. Free, Austin, Barber, Robinson was a bullet we missed. Some of the worst contracts we've done we've done because we've had to guess on these guys after a single season's worth of work. Are we just too slow elevating some players to the starting lineup? Or too likely to overpay based on a small sample? Or is this just par for the course with NFL franchises and I only notice the problems in Dallas?

Probably the latter, but it sure seems like rolling the dice on some of these guys has hurt us over the years.

birminghambuckeyes · 03-13-2013

This group is not going to win anything. OL and DL need to be built to compete. Football is a young mans game. They are way too old and extending old guys that don't contribute in a fashion that justifies their pay. He just extended a bunch of mediocre players. The Ravens just made a lot of hard decisions and they will continue to compete because they can draft.

Jerry never makes the hard decision and just keeps adding to the problem that he is hoping to push down the road. He could have got a 1 for Romo (I don't blame Tony for the problems here). The Colts rebuilt in a year by cutting a lot of dead weight. Jerry never will and he won't win the SB as a result.

john van brocklin · 03-13-2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by Idgit

It's killer. You can't whiff on a second deal at a premium position.

To that point, I wonder why it is that we seem to get in these positions of having to guess on long-term contracts with only a short sample size to project from. Free, Austin, Barber, Robinson was a bullet we missed. Some of the worst contracts we've done we've done because we've had to guess on these guys after a single season's worth of work. Are we just too slow elevating some players to the starting lineup? Or too likely to overpay based on a small sample? Or is this just par for the course with NFL franchises and I only notice the problems in Dallas?

Probably the latter, but it sure seems like rolling the dice on some of these guys has hurt us over the years.

To your point, we did not have to sign Barber when we did, we still had control of his rights for another year.