My Case Against Re-signing Spencer

[Doomsay]

I've never seen a greater example of contract year performance than this guy.


Offer him something reasonable and never look back.

[Doomsay]

I think that his cap space would be better served elsewhere.

[Kristen82]

Originally Posted by Hoofbite

Which is why he shouldn't hit the market. He should be tagged and shopped around, letting him hit the market only as a last resort.

You have a couple extra teams going to the 3-4, Spencer just came off a very good season.

His value is at an all time high.

I thought a strong finish to the season could get Dallas into the 3rd, maybe late 2nd range as far as a trade goes.

He finished stronger than I had thought and now with more teams going to the 3-4, you might be talking solid 2nd sneaking up around top of the round. I highly doubt you could get a first but for a team that just made the transition and who is picking in the top 10 they can use their 1st pick to take one of the top quality talents and then trade their 2nd rounder. If a team thinks Spencer can have a similar season, he would be worth the pick because you aren't likely getting that from a 2nd rounder unless you really have confidence in your scouting.

[View Full Quote]Tag and trade. I've been saying it for a while. It's a chance for Dallas to use the cap space on other positions, acquire a good pick and build the roster.

Under no situation should they simply tag him and let him play under it again.

You can get two good OL for that same cap hit which makes the entirety of the deal something like this....

Spencer Playing Tagged

Or

2 quality OL and a 2nd round draft pick..........possibly 2nd rounder. A draft pick nonetheless.

I Imagine you'd slap the non-exclusive vs. exclusive tag on him. What if he refuses to sign though?

[Eskimo]

We should definitely not get in a bidding war for Spencer. He is a good but not great player and he is now creeping up on 30 years of age. The problem with investing in a big contract with him is that we also have Ware turning 31 and coming off of an injury plagued year. We could very easily have both players go south in ability or because of injury and get stuck with two mega-contracts at DE. I don't think we'd easily recover from that kind of cap hell.

Spencer is worth around $7M/year. I'm not convinced that he is going to be a good player at DE because he benefits a great deal from the freedom of moving around as an OLB. He doesn't consistently dominate OTs as a pass rusher which he will now have to do every down.

I think we are best off signing a vet to split snaps with Crawford. I think our best 3-Tech on the roster right now is Hatcher. I'd hope that Ratliff and Brent/Calloway/Lissemore can split some snaps at the 1-Tech. Maybe the draft will offer a chance to get a better 1-Tech.

We should definitely take one DL high in this draft. Maybe we should be trading down to grab two as you often can't find this depth at DL in most drafts. We have a lot of work to do to rebuild this front 7 after under-investing in DL since 2005 (only Hatcher taken as a 3rd rounder in 2006).

[Reality]

Originally Posted by Eskimo

We should definitely not get in a bidding war for Spencer. He is a good but not great player and he is now creeping up on 30 years of age. The problem with investing in a big contract with him is that we also have Ware turning 31 and coming off of an injury plagued year. We could very easily have both players go south in ability or because of injury and get stuck with two mega-contracts at DE. I don't think we'd easily recover from that kind of cap hell.

That's the way I feel. I like what Spencer did this past season, but he's not young any more and he will be in high demand in free agency and we have too many other holes to fill to tie up yet another chunk of cap space on one player. If we can get him at a decent cap friendly price, I am all for it. Otherwise, we need to move on.

/reality

[Erik_H]

Originally Posted by CyberB0b

He is good, but not worth 12MM. That is a huge cap number for 1 year of service, especially since we are "up against the cap" as Stephen said.

Exaggerating $$ works about as we'll as incrementally adding years to a players age. If the reader is not paying attention, you may make a point, but if they are paying attn, you come across as a liar.

His franchise number (at 120% of last year) would be 10.7. A longer contract would work out to a lower hit this year. Neither number is 12MM.

I guess I should expect a response saying we should sign a player who will be 30 soon, which is practically 31 and a 32 year old player is almost as bad as signing a 34 year old. I mean why would we give a guy who will be 36 a huge contract?

[Idgit]

Originally Posted by Eskimo

We should definitely not get in a bidding war for Spencer. He is a good but not great player and he is now creeping up on 30 years of age. The problem with investing in a big contract with him is that we also have Ware turning 31 and coming off of an injury plagued year. We could very easily have both players go south in ability or because of injury and get stuck with two mega-contracts at DE. I don't think we'd easily recover from that kind of cap hell.

Spencer is worth around $7M/year. I'm not convinced that he is going to be a good player at DE because he benefits a great deal from the freedom of moving around as an OLB. He doesn't consistently dominate OTs as a pass rusher which he will now have to do every down.

[View Full Quote]I think we are best off signing a vet to split snaps with Crawford. I think our best 3-Tech on the roster right now is Hatcher. I'd hope that Ratliff and Brent/Calloway/Lissemore can split some snaps at the 1-Tech. Maybe the draft will offer a chance to get a better 1-Tech.

We should definitely take one DL high in this draft. Maybe we should be trading down to grab two as you often can't find this depth at DL in most drafts. We have a lot of work to do to rebuild this front 7 after under-investing in DL since 2005 (only Hatcher taken as a 3rd rounder in 2006).

I was all for resigning him---back when he was going to be relatively affordable for his level of play. He's almost certainly pricing himself out of DAL this season. Sucks, because he's a good player.

The move back to the 4-3 helps, though. Crawford can play end, if he works on his pass rush and adds a bit of offseason weight. I think Hatcher could take some snaps at DE, too, though I agree that playing the three technique makes the most sense for him.

We're definitely going to have to add a 1-technique DL early in the draft and probably another DL somewhere in veteran FA. It'd be nice if Brent weren't such a question mark.

[Mr_Bill]

Originally Posted by xwalker

I think that it is based on the contract that the player signs after he leaves. Spencer and Jenkins should get big contracts. The contracts that Felix, Butler and Phillips receive are probably not significant.

If the Cowboys sign Zero Expensive Free Agents this off-season, then they should get a decent comp pick in 2014.

If they sign 2 expensive Free Agents then it's doubtful that they will get any comp picks.

If they sign 1 expensive Free Agent then they might get a comp pick in 2014.

Actually, whether a team receives any comp picks at all, and the number of those picks, is almost exclusively based on the amount of players lost versus gained in free agency. The round of the pick is what is determined by the size of the contract.

First, the NFL looks at the number of players lost and gained to determine if you even get a pick. If you have more lost than gained, you get picks amounting to the difference between the two numbers. Otherwise, you get zip. Then they look at the size of the contract, and somewhat at any awards earned, to determine the proper round. There are a few minor exceptions, but that is about it.

[Hoofbite]

Originally Posted by Kristen82

I Imagine you'd slap the non-exclusive vs. exclusive tag on him. What if he refuses to sign though?

From my perspective, getting him to sign isn't my problem. I'm not trying to keep him around, I'm trying to get what I can from the ability to offer a team his rights without that team having to get into a bidding war.

If he doesn't sign because he couldn't come to an agreement with my potential trade partner, so be it. Teams can go to war for the guy and while I may not have made out like the bandit I was hoping to, I have to do what is best for my team and that doesn't involve being a part of the bidding war.

Plenty of positions on this roster to fill. Lying to myself that Spencer is the only one that helps my team doesn't do me any good.

In terms of signing the deal, I'm more concerned about making sure he DOESN'T sign it because then he really is my problem.

[Sarge]

I think you have to a good look at what he has done UP TO and NOT including this past season when deciding if he is worth this new big contract.

I'd love to have him, but in the grand scheme of things, I don't see it.