jerry and stephen don't really care. there is a salary cap. we are 29th in dead cap. we are 16th in cash spent (mostly because of CD and Dak), and prior we were in the low 20s. we are closer to the cap floor than cap ceiling and we were 16th in void year money....what does this all mean? there is controls in place for spending and cash out. Jerry and Stephen don't mind, in fact love it. now who gets the money? does it matter to them? somewhat... they pay players that sell Jersey's because it has an ROI, given Cowboys are the only team that collect money for all the Jersey's they sell and its not part of the shared revenue. so agents sticking it to cowboys? of course for their players. usually top of the market players. and neither of the joneses care. they manage year to year.
they also don't like to pay for the same position twice...essentially never cutting or letting anyone go until the end of the contract so they don't have to replace the player and pay again, since they already paid a bunch of bonuses that counts against the cap. it doesn't matter the player, 90% of the time they are here to the end. perhaps some getting one year contracts. that's why we are so low in dead cap money. its inevitable, but its being managed by the joneses.
They market and sell the team year to year. I predicted middle of last season that given what had happened look for Jerry to have a semi-active off season to "generate hope", "show the fans". I said he will make one big name signing to make a splash. and like clock work. Jerry does that every time we have a down year. and brings fans back. then he just manages the roster and milks it. they rely on draft and when you have two bad drafts in a row, then we get 2024.
so this year he filled the roster. with low end FAs. resigned our own, since he likes to do that. and got one big name player. and just look at the excitement on this board. people are just soooooooooo giddy!.
