Verdict
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 26,102
- Reaction score
- 20,294
At times, this place is a riot when posters are putting value on players without regard for what sets the price. There are 3 factors that affect this and none has to do with the quality of the player. 1) the cap rule regarding how much each team will spend, 2) the amount of cap space by the teams shopping and 3), the availability of players by needed positions.
Another factor is how much cheap labor does a team have? All of these pbers in their 1st contracts are huge bargains, temporary, but what is permanent in the NFL? There also is the factor of competition for players, especially within divisions. If I can help myself and hurt them at the same time, I am wunderkind.
You're a GM with money like IND or any of the top 5 cap space team. You need a Safety, how many that can step in and upgrade your secondary are there available? There aren't enough good players at this position to put 32 on teams, let alone 64, so those 5 stars are getting a hell of a lot of money. And HOU, the other AFC South playoff team, is a top 5 in cap space.
The Cowboys have refused to get into the first feeding frenzy of FA (alliteration award due here) because the money is stupid being thrown at these players because of those 3 factors. I would be very surprised if the Cowboys are willing to pay Thomas what those top 5's will pay him and he will be an early prize in FA. There are teams with enough cap to make him the top paid S in the NFL and they don't care if they're overpaying by a few million, they've got money to burn.
All of that is 100 percent accurate. The Cowboys should not get in a bidding war over a player like that because even though market value for the player is what it is, it is higher than it makes sense for the Cowboys to pay.
That is where the rubber meets the road. If you guys don't think Tank knows what his market value is on the open market then you are smoking crack. The question is should the Cowboys pay market value or not and if not, is Tank willing to take a little but less to remain a Cowboy.
The open market value on Tank might approach $23 million per year. Anyone want to pay that? I personally don't think it's a good idea for the Cowboys to do that. It's a cap wrecker and will cost us a player (or two) that we want to keep somewhere down the road.
We used good fiscal judgment on Hitchens and it was a great decision in retrospect. Hopefully we do that again this offseason.
Lee is another one of these decisions. Do you go with sentiment or do you look out for your team? The Dez and Hitchens treatment indicate that the team is starting to act more like the Patriots and make the hard calls that need to be made.
Cutting a guy like Lee might allow you to overpay for Tank if that's what you really feel like you have to do. The cap is a finite resource. Personally I would rather overpay a little on Tank than pay Lee based on past performance when his recent performance says he's done.