Bob Sturm on the Dak Negotiations

[khiladi]

This thing is far from over as far as the parties involved are going to insist upon a repeat of the past. I think Dak wants to remain a Cowboys or else, he wouldn't have attempted to resolve his differences with the Cowboys at the last minute. That much is evident, by the looks of things. Let's stay tuned to what develops in the future. Circumstances could easily warrant a change of heart on both sides of this situation. Nothing is written in stone.

Like I said, with Jerry’s major energy investment taking a huge hit this year, Jerry isn’t overpaying for anybody. The guy has over a billion invested in the company and he invested around 500 million last year, before the economic hit.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/05/14/why-comstock-resources-plummeted-36-at-the-open-on.aspx

Two completely different economic situations between Zeke and Dak.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/busines...gas-investment-helped-pay-for-ezekiel-elliott

 

[gjkoeppen]

Some interesting points about the Dak Contract Situation from Bob Sturm in his latest column. To paraphrase –


1 – He firmly believes the contract gets done months ago if the pandemic hadn’t happened. France’s strategy is partly about pressuring the team with the player held out of the offseason workouts and meetings. No offseason contact, no pressure on the team.

2 – Goff’s contract was the benchmark but Goff regressed after signing it. So Dallas likely believed matching that contract was a significant raise for Dak but Todd France would think the numbers would have to be significantly over it. And France has a history of burning bridges with the contracts of Joey Bosa, Aaron Donald and DeAndre Hopkins. Dak clearly doesn’t want to burn the bridge but he is responsible for hiring a bridge-burner, which would also explain the reports that he was dealing directly with the team at the deadline .

3 – With the massive uncertainty going into next season, both sides had plenty of reasons to punt the issue for a year and let Dak play on the Tag. Its no big loss for Dak because his weekly paycheck this year will be equal to 93% of what he made for all of last season.


The overall tone of his article is that no one should freak out or assume anything is different now than a month ago, this just resets the clock by a year. In the middle of a hurricane, that isn’t a bad thing for Dallas or Dak.

Again people are eating up another sportswriter's speculation. Until any of the 4 people who were actually involved in the negotiations says something, everything else is just speculation.
.
.

 

[gjkoeppen]

Sturm is a clown at this point



Dak is gone

And when did you get promoted to GM of the Cowboys? He's not gone until he's actually gone if that happens,. That hasn't been decided now today regardless what some think because a long term contract wasn't done.
.
.

 

[blueblood70]

OK, I found one Franchise Tag player who signed a long term deal and it was DT Chris Jones in KC. That contract seems like an overpayment however, while Dallas had no reason to overpay at this point.

umm Henry did the same thing..look harder

 

[khiladi]

Again people are eating up another sportswriter's speculation. Until any of the 4 people who were actually involved in the negotiations says something, everything else is just speculation.
.
.

Read Dak’s friends and brother on Twitter about what they are saying. Here are a few for reference and follow the threads. They are putting it out there in public.

 

[gjkoeppen]

Dallas drafted a QB and then went and got Dalton during the pandemic, all after first offering Dak a contract. The latest excuse that I read was they wanted to get the contract done, but they just ran out of time at 4 pm.

https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/20...ried-last-minute-long-term-dak-prescott-deal/

And Dak’s brother also called out the Cowboys publicly.

Lets put a little perspective on what you said. DiNucci was the last player the Cowboys drafted, hardly considered as a possible replacement any time soon. Dalton who just got fired because the bengals would rather have a QB with zero snaps in the NFL. Dalton who signed a measly 3 mil contract as a 1 year insurance policy against Prescott getting injured and you're trying and failing to read more into that.
.
.

 

[khiladi]

Lets put a little perspective on what you said. DiNucci was the last player the Cowboys drafted, hardly considered as a possible replacement any time soon. Dalton who just got fired because the bengals would rather have a QB with zero snaps in the NFL. Dalton who signed a measly 3 mil contract as a 1 year insurance policy against Prescott getting injured and you're trying and failing to read more into that.
.
.

Possible replacement ‘any time soon’, within 4-5 years. Was Dak considered a replacement for Romo? How many snaps did he have before starting? Why was Moore ahead of him? And Dalton is here one year and right after that, Dak signed his franchise tag.

 

[gjkoeppen]

Read Dak’s friends and brother on Twitter about what they are saying. Here are a few for reference and follow the threads. They are putting it out there in public.

I don't have to read them because none of them are from Prescott. Believe what you want, I'll wait until ONE OF THE 4 PEOPLE THAT WERE ACTUALLY INVOLVED WITH THE NEGOTIATIONS makes a statement.
.
.

 

[khiladi]

I don't have to read them because none of them are from Prescott. Believe what you want, I'll wait until ONE OF THE 4 PEOPLE THAT WERE ACTUALLY INVOLVED WITH THE NEGOTIATIONS makes a statement.
.
.

So you aren’t going to believe that all his close friends or HIS BROTHER don’t reflect anything about how Dak feels? Dak isn’t telling his boys to stop burning bridges?

 

[Kaiser]

umm Henry did the same thing..look harder

Sure, that is 2 guys out of 15 on the tag. And in those two cases the team overpaid, while guys like Ngakuoe and Justin Simmons were just like Dak where both sides tried to do a long term deal - and failed.

 

[Kaiser]

This thing is far from over, as far as the parties involved. They aren't necessarily going to insist upon a repeat of the past. I think Dak wants to remain a Cowboys QB, otherwise, he wouldn't have attempted to resolve those differences with the Cowboys at the last minute. That much is clearly evident, by the looks of things. The present monetary situation is quite obviously bearable for both parties.

He also would have held out instead of signing the tag, which took away leverage.

 

[khiladi]

Again, Dak had no leverage. Jerry wasn’t overpaying in this context, considering his investments. Jerry still isn’t worried, because if there is no season, Dak doesn’t get paid.

 

[Hennessy_King]

Again, Dak had no leverage. Jerry wasn’t overpaying in this context, considering his investments. Jerry still isn’t worried, because if there is no season, Dak doesn’t get paid.

Neither does anyone else and he will get paid next year.

 

[khiladi]

Neither does anyone else and he will get paid next year.

Jerry isn’t overpaying fir anybody and you can be sure, when they negotiate the next salary cap, the players are going to have very little leverage with the way ad revenues are going. Jerry is one of the toughest negotiators around and of he pays a lot of money for players, that’s because the Cowboys is his toy. Last year there was a 15% hit in local ad revenue, and this is with sports in the picture. Now your talking close to 40%.

TV ad revenue is the reason the numbers are so high in the first place. Nobody is going to pay premiums money for advertising in this situation and when people aren’t spending money. They can’t afford to. The economy has been overvalued and a bubble for years and this is why the government did what it did. The amount of money they printed to bail these big companies out is unprecedented... And it’s the owners of sports teams that have major investments or ownership in these companies that allow them to buy teams in the first place..

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/ad...mmets-standard-media-index-sports-1234693005/

 

[jaythecowboy]

Which explains why both are overpaid, and why DLaw had to step in to get his contract done.

Horrible agent.

If both his clients got overpaid, wouldn't that make him a good agent?

 

[Reality]

Read Dak’s friends and brother on Twitter about what they are saying. Here are a few for reference and follow the threads. They are putting it out there in public.

I really have no opinion on the Dak-vs-Cowboys arguments because I really do not care either way. If Dak ends up as the quarterback for the next several years, I am good with that. If he wants more than the Cowboys are willing to pay and they move on, I am good with that as well.

But narrow-minded thinking that just because "it did not happen before" has any relevance to today's market, economy or state of the NFL and sports in general is an example of ignorance of the topic.

For example, if Romo had asked for $200 million, I guarantee you he would have been franchised.

With every negotiation there is a line for both sides, one that each will not cross. It does not matter who is right or wrong, only whether the lines meet at some point.

In this case, they did not. I do not blame Dak for wanting what he wants (most people would if they were in his shoes) nor do I blame the Cowboys for not being willing to pay what Dak wanted or in the structure he wanted.

In the end, it is what it is. Dak is here for at least one more year. If he has a great season, he will make even more money on his next contract with the Cowboys or another team. If he has a bad season, the Cowboys may very well move on from him unless he takes a lower contract next year.

I doubt they will franchise him a second time unless they think they can sign him to a long term contract or trade him before the July 15th deadline in 2021.

 

[Hennessy_King]

Jerry isn’t overpaying fir anybody and you can be sure, when they negotiate the next salary cap, the players are going to have very little leverage with the way ad revenues are going. Jerry is one of the toughest negotiators around and of he pays a lot of money for players, that’s because the Cowboys is his toy. Last year there was a 15% hit in local ad revenue, and this is with sports in the picture. Now your talking close to 40%.

TV ad revenue is the reason the numbers are so high in the first place. Nobody is going to pay premiums money for advertising in this situation and when people aren’t spending money. They can’t afford to. The economy has been overvalued and a bubble for years and this is why the government did what it did. The amount of money they printed to bail these big companies out is unprecedented... And it’s the owners of sports teams that have major investments or ownership in these companies that allow them to buy teams in the first place..

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/ad...mmets-standard-media-index-sports-1234693005/

Imagine thinking tv ad revenue in 2020 is the end all be all. You forget they now have legal sports betting and jerry owns a piece of draftkings. Plus advertising on streaming services which is huge and will probably overtake tv in the next 5 years. Imagine being broke and kissing up to billionaires on an internet forum lol

 

[khiladi]

Imagine thinking tv ad revenue in 2020 is the end all be all. You forget they now have legal sports betting and jerry owns a piece of draftkings. Plus advertising on streaming services which is huge and will probably overtake tv in the next 5 years. Imagine being broke and kissing up to billionaires on an internet forum lol

https://www.mediapost.com/publicati...l-tv-sinks-23-in-ad-revenues-to-7164-mil.html

Streaming is the same thing as TV ad revenue. It’s just digital. It’s advertising revenue. Who do you think is paying for the ads? You think when the NFL streams, they are going to put ads on for free? They aren’t going to have advertisements? FIFTY PERCENT the NFL’s revenue was from advertising as far back as 2015, but it also costs close to a billion a year to run a sports team. TV revenue is split equally across the league, so garbage teams don’t have any incentive to get better. The SOLE reason that the salaries have gotten so high in sports is precisely because of the as revenue.

https://wtop.com/business-finance/2020/07/maryland-casino-revenue-falls-27-for-fiscal-2020/

States haven’t even legalized sports betting and you think people are going to bet money when the economy is taking, besides the fact that’s exploitation of the poor and a sign of desperation. Who is kissing up to owners and billionaires? I don’t see Dak giving you any money from his check nor is he one of your boys. Jerry Jones is the key negotiator in the NFL and the owners called him to get the Rams deal done. That’s a fact.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...-make-hundreds-of-millions-on-nfl-relocation/

Jerry Jones is way ahead of the game when it comes to negotiating.

As far as revenue, that’s exactly the point.

 

[khiladi]

I really have no opinion on the Dak-vs-Cowboys arguments because I really do not care either way. If Dak ends up as the quarterback for the next several years, I am good with that. If he wants more than the Cowboys are willing to pay and they move on, I am good with that as well.

But narrow-minded thinking that just because "it did not happen before" has any relevance to today's market, economy or state of the NFL and sports in general is an example of ignorance of the topic.

For example, if Romo had asked for $200 million, I guarantee you he would have been franchised.

With every negotiation there is a line for both sides, one that each will not cross. It does not matter who is right or wrong, only whether the lines meet at some point.

In this case, they did not. I do not blame Dak for wanting what he wants (most people would if they were in his shoes) nor do I blame the Cowboys for not being willing to pay what Dak wanted or in the structure he wanted.

In the end, it is what it is. Dak is here for at least one more year. If he has a great season, he will make even more money on his next contract with the Cowboys or another team. If he has a bad season, the Cowboys may very well move on from him unless he takes a lower contract next year.

I doubt they will franchise him a second time unless they think they can sign him to a long term contract or trade him before the July 15th deadline in 2021.

Agree. I think Dak has every right to negotiate for what he thinks is fair. I also don’t have to agree with him.

The fact is Dallas spent four years baby-sitting him, including through the Zeke suspension, made the offense Dak-friendly, it didn’t work so they went and got Cooper and fired an OC that was instrumental in the 2016 season.. We saw him without Zeke, Cooper and when Smith is injured. He was awful...

This idea that Jerry owes Dak what he thinks he’s worth or what his fans think he is worth is utterly ridiculous.

 

[khiladi]

Imagine thinking tv ad revenue in 2020 is the end all be all. You forget they now have legal sports betting and jerry owns a piece of draftkings. Plus advertising on streaming services which is huge and will probably overtake tv in the next 5 years. Imagine being broke and kissing up to billionaires on an internet forum lol

And BTW, Draftkings got hammered last year too.

DraftKings reported a net loss of nearly 50% of its revenue in 2019, almost all of which resulted from a loss from operations. DraftKings reported losses of $146.6 million on sales of $323.4 million in 2019. In 2018, it recorded a loss of $76.8 million and sales of $226.3 million.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/d...re-than-6-billion-5-things-to-know-2020-04-27

This idea that economic growth is infinite is ridiculous.