Cowboys want Thomas but only if he's cheap

Sandyf said:
I would take any media article or news banter with a grain of salt. If Jerry truly wants Earl, they will work out a deal. Earl moving his family to Austin and getting them settled should say he will either be playing for Houston or Dallas and hopefully it is Dallas.

To many people are getting caught up with the salary cap and total amount of the contract which is just crazy. If the Cowboys want Earl, they could sign him to a five year $60 million contract with $30 million in guarantee money and to show people how it would work:
5years $60 million, $30 million guarantees which include $20 million bonus and $10 million in salary guarantee
Year 1 cap hit - Salary $1 million, $4 million of prorated bonus for a total of $5 million cap hit
Year 2 cap hit - Salary $2 million, $4 million of prorated bonus for a total of $6 million cap hit
Year 3 cap hit - Salary $7 million, $4 million of prorated bonus for a total of $11 million cap hit, this would under new CBA where cap is expected to $250 million at a minimum
Year 4 cap hit - Salary $10 million, $4 million of prorated bonus for a total of $14 million cap hit - this is where you could release Earl and actually gain $2 million in cap space
Year 5 cap hit - Salary $20 million, $4 million of prorated bonus for a total of $24 million cap hit - if released then cap would gain $20 million

So the reality is that he could only cost $30 million if the contract is structured correctly. That would be a very doable deal and easily done with the available cap space even with resigning Lawrence and extending Cooper, Elliott, Jones and Prescott while also signing a couple of other cheap free agents and money for the draft. It is all about the contract structure, simply.
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Exactly.

And going beyond just Thomas, this front office's aversion to signing any FAs that aren't cheap is weird. Because every year there are guys out there that can help that sign pretty team friendly deals, that are often one or two year deals that don't kill your cap. Take a guy like Sheldon Richardson. I am sure people would squawk at bringing him in but who wouldn't want him on a one year deal like Minnesota got him for?
 
When you consider that Richard was his coach in Seattle, you'd think he'd push hard for ET. If he isn't, then I have to wonder why.
 
Runwildboys said:
When you consider that Richard was his coach in Seattle, you'd think he'd push hard for ET. If he isn't, then I have to wonder why.
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I’m sure he is pushing hard for him just as Earl is pushing hard to come to Dallas.

It boils down to money. How much will Stephen/Jerry offer compared to competing teams.

I will be mad if he signs a deal around 7-10 million a year. Now if he goes out and gets an astronomical contact, I wouldn’t be mad we didn’t sign him.
 
The Cowboys may indeed sign a FA safety to replace Heath.

He would just be younger, cheaper with less of an injury history.

Earl may be an option if he lowers his price. But everything I read is that he wants to get paid. He was ready to retire a couple of years ago after his first broken leg and only came back after he saw the contract Eric Berry got in KC. That what's he's looking for.

He might get it. But not in Dallas.
 
up is the new down here in Dallas. Its a no brainer to sign Thomas...and Stevie Jones knows this...yet he wants him for cheap? lmao....translation, it wont happen. Get use to more Jeff Heath.
 
Prime21 said:
No, they understand that they have a lot of contracts coming up and the cap space will be eaten up quickly just by signing our own. If vet FAs want to come here they need to take a discount.
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Isn't Stephen the one who said "we can do whatever we want in FA" or something to that effect.

They could sign ET and it wouldn't matter for any of the upcoming contracts. If it goes up to $190m, you could basically get ET simply with the increase in cap.
 
Sandyf said:
I would take any media article or news banter with a grain of salt. If Jerry truly wants Earl, they will work out a deal. Earl moving his family to Austin and getting them settled should say he will either be playing for Houston or Dallas and hopefully it is Dallas.

To many people are getting caught up with the salary cap and total amount of the contract which is just crazy. If the Cowboys want Earl, they could sign him to a five year $60 million contract with $30 million in guarantee money and to show people how it would work:
5years $60 million, $30 million guarantees which include $20 million bonus and $10 million in salary guarantee
Year 1 cap hit - Salary $1 million, $4 million of prorated bonus for a total of $5 million cap hit
Year 2 cap hit - Salary $2 million, $4 million of prorated bonus for a total of $6 million cap hit
Year 3 cap hit - Salary $7 million, $4 million of prorated bonus for a total of $11 million cap hit, this would under new CBA where cap is expected to $250 million at a minimum
Year 4 cap hit - Salary $10 million, $4 million of prorated bonus for a total of $14 million cap hit - this is where you could release Earl and actually gain $2 million in cap space
Year 5 cap hit - Salary $20 million, $4 million of prorated bonus for a total of $24 million cap hit - if released then cap would gain $20 million

So the reality is that he could only cost $30 million if the contract is structured correctly. That would be a very doable deal and easily done with the available cap space even with resigning Lawrence and extending Cooper, Elliott, Jones and Prescott while also signing a couple of other cheap free agents and money for the draft. It is all about the contract structure, simply.
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Why would we do this?
 
Sydla said:
So says CBS Sports.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...-in-earl-thomas-but-only-as-bargain-shoppers/

Now, I am certainly not advocating this franchise go stupid here and give Thomas some bizarrely high contract given his age and injuries, but this obsession with sitting out the first two weeks of free agency and bargain bin shopping has not worked and the team continually comes up short, year after year partially because of holes that easily could have been filled in FA on top of using the draft as wisely as they have.

But for some odd reason, Stephen Jones refuses to use FA to help this team.
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Blame Will McClay for identifying great players in the draft and FA on the cheap.
 
ItzKelz said:
Blame Will McClay for identifying great players in the draft and FA on the cheap.
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Are you saying we do a great job with cheap FAs?

LOL.

There is also nothing funnier than the annual, "we don't need FA because we draft so well" theory.
 
Prime21 said:
No, they understand that they have a lot of contracts coming up and the cap space will be eaten up quickly just by signing our own. If vet FAs want to come here they need to take a discount.
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exactly....im sure the same people criticizing for being "cheap" would also be mad if we could resign the guys they wanted to keep...at some point, balance has to be had in terms of who you sign and who you dont. The cowboys have been pretty good at not overpaying for FA and have had a hit here and there....as long as the drafting holds up then their apporach will work...however, in 2019 they need to go for at least 1 big splash FA to help offset the lack of a 1st round draft pick.
 
Cheap is relative
I think it’s gonna take 9-10 mil a year to sign him and it may be a 5 yr deal but really a 3 yr deal with options
So probably 27-30 mil in first 3 yrs gets it done and some will think it’s worth it, some will say we over paid
 
Jipper said:
exactly....im sure the same people criticizing for being "cheap" would also be mad if we could resign the guys they wanted to keep...at some point, balance has to be had in terms of who you sign and who you dont. The cowboys have been pretty good at not overpaying for FA and have had a hit here and there....as long as the drafting holds up then their apporach will work...however, in 2019 they need to go for at least 1 big splash FA to help offset the lack of a 1st round draft pick.
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Stop. Just stop.

Every year you guys do this where you act like people are suggesting this team just blow $60MM of cap space in one year on FAs. No one is saying that. What they are saying is that we've gone to the exact opposite end of the spectrum where instead of going stupid on big contracts in FA, we hit the bargain bin for bad players that are cheap.

This team can keep most of its best players and still use FA wisely by finding some key targets that are much better players than the slop they normally bring in. To deny that is just absurd.
 
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