Cowboys have $147M in 2014 cap commitments. At least $20M over projected cap already.

[Hoofbite]

If 2014 is bad....what's 2015?

http://i5.***BLOCKED***/albums/y188/thehoofbite/ScreenShot2013-10-19at23300AM.jpg

What is that? 9 players, $95M in cap space?

See any names NOT on that list. Dez Bryant and Tyron Smith, perhaps?

Any talk of restructuring contracts next year will only inflate these numbers. At best, because you spread the amount over 5 years, Dallas will increase their 2015 by $0.20 for every dollar restructured.

Good news is.......if Dallas can get 44 undrafted free agents to fill out the rest of the roster they'll have like $20M in cap space.

 

[Jerryrage]

Dead money this year is almost 15 million and next year will be almost 12 million. I don't see Ware and Austin on the roster next year.

 

[Smith22]

I think it would be unwise to restructure anyone on that list. Before looking at Lee's contract I was thinking he might be the only one simply because he's young, very good, and will likely play up to the level that a restructured contract would put him at. The rest are already being paid a lot, restructuring increases that, and three of them are getting up in age.

Lee:

Having looked at his contract, I wouldn't touch it at all. You'd be foolish to do so because it's set up very nicely. This is what spotract has listed so not sure of all the numbers. I've seen a couple mistakes before, have emailed them about a couple and the guy who replied was really cool and appreciative.​

Cap Hits (Dead Money If Cut Prior To Listed Season)

2014: $7.5M ($13.5M)
2015: $4.5M ($6M)
2016: $5.0M ($4M)
2017: $9.0M ($2M)
2018: $7.0M (None)
2019: $7.0M (None)​

His cap hit peaks at $9.0M in 2017. After that year, his cap hit declines and Dallas would have ZERO dead money if they felt the needed to move on from him. Restructuring down to $1M would spread an additional 900K to each of the 4 seasons following 2014. Pretty sure that you can only spread guarantees across 5 years. Also, you're delaying the time to a break even point in terms of cap relief outweighing the dead money that is generated by cutting him if it were ever to come to that.

As it stands Dallas will be getting a great deal for the years of 2015 and 2016, and we may be able to say the same for the years of 2018 and 2019 by the time they roll around. The high base salary in 2017 when compared to the others looks like they may restructure the contract at that point.​

Romo:

Restructuring Romo in 2014 almost necessitates an additional restructure in 2015 because his 2015 cap hit would be close to 28M after the first restructure. His cap hit for 2014 is going to be like $21M and if the cap situation requires that it be restructured it's pretty unrealistic to think that an additional 6M wouldn't have to be restructured the following year. With some of the contracts that are on the horizon in Tyron and Dez, I'm not sure the team can take that $28M cap figure.

I think 2015 is the year that was slated to be restructured because his total cap figure is the highest of the entire contract. Additionally, his base in 2016 is well lower than the years before and after and they could allocate more to that season than the others.​

Ware:

Right now Dallas can cut him after this season and only have $9.5M in dead money (spotract has $8.5M but that's not what you get when you total the misc. bonuses). Assuming equal proration of the restructured money that it would take to get down to a $1M base, they'd have to hold onto him until after the 2015 season in order to have a similar amount of dead money. Restructuring him for the past 3 seasons is what has put them in the position to likely need to restructure him again after this year. A cap hit equal to his base salary is not that bad for the type of player he is when healthy. A cap hit of $16M is pretty high but would still be acceptable for a healthy Ware. The big problem with Ware's contract is that he has been getting slowed down for the last couple years. A slowed down Ware is not worth $16M.

Furthermore seeing how his 2015 cap hit is higher than his 2014 cap hit, he'd probably have to restructure again in 2015, thus delaying the point in time where they can cut him for the same amount of dead money that they would be responsible for if they were to cut him after this year.

My point isn't that I think they should cut him. That'd be dumb. I think they need to let him play on his current contract because if he continues to decline they will NEED to cut him. Or I guess they could go ask for one of the best players they've ever had to take a pay cut. If he continues to get banged up and is limited by injuries they cannot justify his cap hits after restructuring yet again. Restructuring in 2014 would push his cap hit in 2015 to like $20M. That's just too high.

If Ware restructures after this year and goes down hill, Dallas would have $14.8M in dead space for 2015 (or split it, whatever). If they don't restructure, Dallas would have $5.8M in dead money if they were forced to make a move with Ware after 2014.
​

Witten:

Witten is already one of the highest cap hits for TEs in the NFL. If they restructure him down to $1M in 2014, it will push his cap number up to $9.5M.

(In case anyone has followed along, that would be $28M for Romo, $20M for Ware, and $9.5M for Witten after restructuring. That's almost half the salary cap. Even without restructuring their contracts they are scheduled to account for $51M, which is about $3.5M less than the scheduled 2015 cap numbers for Aaron Rodgers, Calvin Johnson and Adrian Peterson combined).
​

Carr:

He too is already slotted to have one of the highest Cap numbers for DBs. 3rd highest for 2014, 2nd highest for 2015, and 2nd highest for 2016. As it currently stands it doesn't look like Dallas can cut him before 2016 to get any sort of cap space. In 2016, they'll simply break even. If they restructure him in 2014 it likely creates a scenario where they'd get minimal cap space by cutting him even after 2016. He also has a "player option" listed on spotrac and I don't know how that works out. If you spread cap money to that year and he opts out, I guess you still take the hit? That would suck.


​

So how exactly do you propose getting under the cap?

 

[T-RO]

If 2014 is bad....what's 2015?

http://i5.***BLOCKED***/albums/y188/thehoofbite/ScreenShot2013-10-19at23300AM.jpg

What is that? 9 players, $95M in cap space?

See any names NOT on that list. Dez Bryant and Tyron Smith, perhaps?

Any talk of restructuring contracts next year will only inflate these numbers. At best, because you spread the amount over 5 years, Dallas will increase their 2015 by $0.20 for every dollar restructured.

Good news is.......if Dallas can get 44 undrafted free agents to fill out the rest of the roster they'll have like $20M in cap space.

This is like looking at the national debt. It's dead scary yet people live in denial about the coming pain. We are likely to lose 2 out of these 3 to free agency: Hatcher, Dez and TSmith.

 

[Common Sense]

This is like looking at the national debt. It's dead scary yet people live in denial about the coming pain. We are likely to lose 2 out of these 3 to free agency: Hatcher, Dez and TSmith.

Absolutely. Restructuring contracts year to year is an awful lot like running at a budget deficit. It's only kicking the can down the road into future years. It doesn't just go away -- it adds up.

 

[Hoofbite]

So how exactly do you propose getting under the cap?

I don't think they have much choice. They're probably going to have to restructure in 2014, upping the cap hits for 2015 and beyond.

If you look at the 2014 cap and how much money the team could even free up by cutting people, there's not much to be had.

The single biggest move to reduce the 2014 cap is probably off the table because that move is cutting DeMarcus Ware. Cap figure of $16M with $8.5M hitting the cap no matter what. Team would lower the cap figure by $7.5M by cutting him.​

After him there's Doug Free. Cutting him would lower the cap figure by $3.5M. This is also probably off the table because Free is killing it right now and he's probably a steal at $6M against the cap. In the offseason I was in favor of cutting him because I didn't see any way he would rebound. Worst-to-first just didn't seem possible. I did say though that if by somehow he could play well it might be a blessing because his cap number would be low. He's exceeded "well" so far and his cap figure is too good to let go for that production.

Next on the list: Bruce Carter, Jeremy Parnell and Phil Costa. Cutting them would lower the cap figure by $1.5M for each. Doubtful Bruce goes. Parnell, who knows. Cap figure less than $2M so probably not unless they find a swing tackle on the cheap somewhere. Phil Costa is pretty much a no brainer.​

Other notable players and the amount of cap space that cutting them would open up:

Kyle Orton: $1M
Bernadeau: $900K
David Arkin: $600K
Matt Johnson: $500K​

There's not just a lot there and when you consider than even a rookie UDFA will cost like $350K, you're not doing much to cut down on the cap total. You have players with high cap numbers like Witten, Austin, and Scandrick but there's no relief in 2014 even if you could find it in yourself to part with Witten. I think Austin would give you $400K and Scandrick would cost you an extra $100K.​

That said, here' what I would suggest.

I'd look at both 2014 and 2015 and see what I could do to get the best result. I'm not going to consider splitting cap dead money because it's too much hassle. For the purposes of 2014 I'd cut Phil Costa, Orton, Arkin, Johnson. And the sake of 2015 I'd take the cap neutral move of cutting Austin and Scandrick. I would also cut Bernadeau for 2014 but also 2015.​

Orton, Costa, Arkin and Johnson would give you about $3.6M​

Bernadeau, Austin and Scandrick would give you about $1.2M​

I paired Austin, Scandrick and Bernadeau together because they're on the list for 2015's sake and if you cut them after this season and take the full dead money in 2014 the team will free up about $20M of cap space for 2015. Bernadeau and Austin aren't contributing and while I like Scandrick, sometimes you gotta make those moves. I'm not sure I would pay him $7M in 2015 knowing that Claiborne is going to need a new contract shortly after.​

That frees up $5M but there's still a long ways to go. Spotrac has Dallas at $143M. They have $2M in space which will carry over and there will probably be a small increase. This would put Dallas at like $134 to $135M?​

So what's left? You have the big base salaries you can restructure. Romo, Ware, Carr, Witten. There are some smaller base salaries that can give a bit of room such as Lee. But after that there isn't much left because some of the other candidates are listed above as guys I would cut. As far as restructuring goes, I've covered a few players but here's a breakdown of the future cap implications.

Starting in 2014, restructuring would give the following cap numbers through 2018:

The increase in cap figure from the currently written contract is next to the name. What follows are the cap hits from 2014 to 2018. I assumed base salaries dropped to $1M and the rest of the money was prorated over fives years. I've added a year to Carr, Ware and Witten. Pretty sure this is usually done to get the most bang out of restructuring. Doesn't really matter to the player. If he makes that season he gets what is likely one of his highest base salaries paid to him and if he doesn't make it, he's in no worse of a position than if he hadn't restructured at all.

Carr: (+$1.3M) $7M, $14M, $15M [2016], $14M, $11M (Added a year to the deal)
Ware: (+$2.25M) $7M, $19.7M, $16M [2016], $16M, $12M (Added a year to the deal)
Witten: (+$800K) $5M, $9M, $7M [2016], $8M, $9M, $7M (Added a year to the deal)

Lee: (+$900K) $4M, $5.4M, $6M [2016], $10M, $8M (Has additional year remaining)

Romo: (+$2.5M) $11M, $27M, $17M [2016], $21M, $22M (Has additional year remaining). Obviously not gonna roll with $27M so I would assume another restructure in 2015.

2nd Restructure & Cap Figures for 2015 to 2018: (+$3.2M) $14M, $20M [2016], $25M, $24M​

Romo, Ware and Lee would give about $22.6M in space. I'm guessing that would be like $10M under the cap but also raises the cap figure like $5M for every year after 2014.

The answer is, who knows what they should do. I guess my answer would have been to never create a situation in which you absolutely have to restructure every single year just to get under the cap. How many times can you increase the amount for seasons 3-4 years down the road before all the restructuring accumulates into an inflated cap number?

I've thought of a couple routes they could go but this post is long-winded as it is. One of them is kind of interesting and has me wondering how it would play out. I might throw something together here after a bit.

 

[Smith22]

new article now posted on underthecap that shows how we can get under the cap.

The most troubling contract is Ware. Would he consider taking a paycut if he fights through injuries the rest of the year?

 

[Smith22]

If 2014 is bad....what's 2015?

http://i5.***BLOCKED***/albums/y188/thehoofbite/ScreenShot2013-10-19at23300AM.jpg

What is that? 9 players, $95M in cap space?

See any names NOT on that list. Dez Bryant and Tyron Smith, perhaps?

Any talk of restructuring contracts next year will only inflate these numbers. At best, because you spread the amount over 5 years, Dallas will increase their 2015 by $0.20 for every dollar restructured.

Good news is.......if Dallas can get 44 undrafted free agents to fill out the rest of the roster they'll have like $20M in cap space.

Ware won't be on the roster in 2015 with a base of 13.75 million. Austin will be long gone as well (6.8 million base).

If Romo still can deliver, you restructure again. His last 2 years are all base salary. If not, Cut him and save money.