Available Cap Space

Adreme said:

Except with COVID and the recent deal now finalized it looks as though the cap will be about 175m (possibly a little higher if things go really well). That is a 42m swing which gives the Cowboys just 1m in cap space. That means a LOT of restructures which will likely render a lot of players uncuttable (DLaw, Zeke, Cooper are the musts) as well as big extensions needed to create more space for Martin and Tyron. Basically the players are going to get a lot of money because the cap will go down for 1 year as weird as that sounds.

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Yep and that's $1m ...without signing Dak.

CowboyoWales said:

So with commitments of $179m, but with a pre-Covid CAP being estimated at just $210 how does that put us as being anywhere near "best shape"? Especially as it doesnt include a QB.

Yes we can restructure deals...and our only saving grace is the way that: Zeke, DLaw and Cooper are structured (long, but with limited guaranteed money at the end of the contract) problem is that they are dreadful contracts and i'm sure we'd be looking at the potential to cut them in 2022/23 in any case.

Our CAP position's poor for the next 3 years and the restructuring of the above 3 is something we want to do later rather than doing it now. The cost of restructuring contracts now will cripple us in the future, we'd get much better leverage restructuring after 2021 when we have the threat of cutting them if the

La'lel would demand more money upfront, not less and whilst we are getting outstanding production from Martin and Smith do we want to give them more guaranteed money for mid 30's?

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First hello to a fellow Welshman.. though I am very far removed.

Dallas can create A LOT of space with very few moves.

Amari Cooper is ALREADY GTD his entire 20M next year.
So you flip him and it changes zero except cap hit.
His 20m base becomes 19M Bonus, 1M base.
Cap hit of 22M becomes 8M. --14M in savings and changes zero since it was fully GTD.

DLaw: 16.9M base. you flip 16M.
Cap cost falls from 22M to 10M.
DLaw is DAL best DL by far and a truly elite player. He's no where near cut consideration.

Zack Martin is another easy one.
11M base. flip 10M and he has 5 years left so you go from 15M cap hit to 7M.
Easy 8M savings for a top 3 OG.
He is 29. You aren't extending him just pushing his cap hits down the line.

That is 32M in savings without touching other easy ones like Zeke. Jaylon and La'el.
Zeke (and Jaylon) like Amari has his base already GTD, exactly zero reason not to flip it.
Easy 5M savings.

Jaylon is a similar 5M savings.

And again those guys base money was already GTD.

This is why DAL is in better spots than most clubs.

They had not used any of these built-in restructure options.
Other teams have done this heavily many at the time contracts were created.

DAL has 40M on non-base money committed in 2021.
Philly has 90M.
NO has 65M with no starting QB.
Those are the dollars you must eat.

La'el is an easy one as well in 2021. His salary is already GTD. No reason not to flip it.


DAL also has a lot of draft picks again next draft.
They'll continue to bring in low priced rookies to balance the books.

If the cap were to be crap for 3 years then yes DAL and virtually every team in football would be in trouble.
But that won't happen.
They get a new streaming deal in 2023 that is already projected at 3x the current TV deals.

Flamma said:

Just out of curiosity, how would you structure a 4 year contract at 35 per? Since there's no years left on his rookie contract no need to get into signing bonus money. It's pretty straight forward now. What would his cap hits be in those 4 years that would make any kind of sense?

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We sorta already know the parameters.

50M SB
year 1 base of 1M - cap hit 13.5M
year 2 base of 20M All fully GTD. - cap hit of 33.5
year 3 base of 25M -- cap hit of 37.5
year 4 base of 35m -- cap hit of 47.5 ---none of this would be GTD and you extend or release in all likelihood.
--Cut in year 4 has only 12.5M in dead money but extension is more likely. You owe 12.5 and then you get another low cost first season of the extension.

A lot of folks are unnecessarily alarmist on this subject.
The 175M cap number was the NFL owners first offer. It will only go up.
Players are saying zero reduction and they meet somewhere in middle in all likelihood.

Keep in mind they've lost zero money yet except pre-season games. --tickets which are largely given away.

DAL has been very frugal up to this point allowing them the mechanisms other teams have been using all along.

Calling Amari and Zeke and other bad contracts is just silly. They aren't. Those guys are young and elite at their position and deserve elite pay.
It's hardly like extending Jason Witten.

As you get to the end of contracts you have very large base and if you cut a guy you get that money back which means you have the cushion to absorb his dead money.

jterrell said:

A lot of folks are unnecessarily alarmist on this subject.
The 175M cap number was the NFL owners first offer. It will only go up.
Players are saying zero reduction and they meet somewhere in middle in all likelihood.

Keep in mind they've lost zero money yet except pre-season games. --tickets which are largely given away.

DAL has been very frugal up to this point allowing them the mechanisms other teams have been using all along.

Calling Amari and Zeke and other bad contracts is just silly. They aren't. Those guys are young and elite at their position and deserve elite pay.
It's hardly like extending Jason Witten.

As you get to the end of contracts you have very large base and if you cut a guy you get that money back which means you have the cushion to absorb his dead money.

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Honestly if I am the players I accept 175m and do it with a smile on my face because it is going to get them PAID. Basically nothing is better for the players then having the cap drop off for one year before exploding back up to where it was expected to be.

That might sound crazy but restructures are good for the players in the short term (they get more money immediately) and long term (makes them more painful to cut), and as such when the boatload of restructures happen it is going to be great for the players because they will get their 2021 salary ahead of time and have more job security after. Players like Zeke, DLaw, Martin, Tyron, and Cooper are about to be way more painful to cut if they Cowboys go that route. Meanwhile players near the end of their deals are going to be in a great position to have both a restructure and extension.

jterrell said:

First hello to a fellow Welshman.. though I am very far removed.

Dallas can create A LOT of space with very few moves.

Amari Cooper is ALREADY GTD his entire 20M next year.
So you flip him and it changes zero except cap hit.
His 20m base becomes 19M Bonus, 1M base.
Cap hit of 22M becomes 8M. --14M in savings and changes zero since it was fully GTD.

Click to expand...

Siwmae,

Im just getting my head around NFL contracts, very different from the MLB which i'm more familiar with.

So whilst Amari's contract looks costly, in reality it isnt so bad as its there's only a limited guarantee after 2021..... if cut after June2021 there's only $2M prorated bonus.

So prorated bonus' arent just given at the signing of the contract?

So we'll go to Coops and suggest conversion of GTD into bonus which is guaranteed in later years. In exchange he'd want non guaranteed money (in years 22-24) also converted into bonus as he can see there's a chance he's cut in 2022?

dallasdave said:

Getting rid of Crawford and getting Clowney would put a cherry on top with whipped cream

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You spelled Griffen wrong.

Adreme said:

Honestly if I am the players I accept 175m and do it with a smile on my face because it is going to get them PAID. Basically nothing is better for the players then having the cap drop off for one year before exploding back up to where it was expected to be.

That might sound crazy but restructures are good for the players in the short term (they get more money immediately) and long term (makes them more painful to cut), and as such when the boatload of restructures happen it is going to be great for the players because they will get their 2021 salary ahead of time and have more job security after. Players like Zeke, DLaw, Martin, Tyron, and Cooper are about to be way more painful to cut if they Cowboys go that route. Meanwhile players near the end of their deals are going to be in a great position to have both a restructure and extension.

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It'll force a lot of players to be cut and those guys will be hit or miss on if they recover in the future because so much of the NFL is short shelf life players.
Again a lot of teams were already leveraged going forward.
And some teams just don't have many players signed for 2021. Indy has 45 lol.
Not sure I'd wanna be cut from Philly or NO and have to go play for Indy.
NFL players really value stability.

CowboyoWales said:

Siwmae,

Im just getting my head around NFL contracts, very different from the MLB which i'm more familiar with.

So whilst Amari's contract looks costly, in reality it isnt so bad as its there's only a limited guarantee after 2021..... if cut after June2021 there's only $2M prorated bonus.

So prorated bonus' arent just given at the signing of the contract?

So we'll go to Coops and suggest conversion of GTD into bonus which is guaranteed in later years. In exchange he'd want non guaranteed money (in years 22-24) also converted into bonus as he can see there's a chance he's cut in 2022?

Click to expand...

Gareth Bale forever. (One of the best mate ex co-workers is a Gareth from Wales ironically)

NFL is def different from MLB/NBA/EPL in it's a lot of funny money in the NFL side.

You can restructure guys every year if you desire and the player agrees taking the season's yearly salary and converting it to a restructure bonus.
Those bonuses can be spread just like the signing bonus over the life of the deal up to a max of 5 years.
Then when you cut guys you can designate them post June 1st cuts which spreads their dead money costs over 2 seasons.

Generally teams can get by for 3-4 years living in cap credit before it comes home to roost.

Some people say cap hell is a myth.
I wouldn't go that far and think in general you should be conservative with the cap so you can use the extreme measures when needed like a pandemic.
But there are so many ways to move money around and good teams with high contracts always find more room it seems.

CowboyoWales said:

Dead right.

Some people are looking at ending contracts like Crawford's and claiming we've got an additional $9m to spend, not looking at increases - Coops - $10m, Zeke - $3 and La'el - $7m.....virtually all the other contracts increase by upto $3m.

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I haven’t checked how many player we have under contract next year but if cap stayed the same as this year we would not have enough to tag Dak if they wanted too

conner01 said:

I haven’t checked how many player we have under contract next year but if cap stayed the same as this year we would not have enough to tag Dak if they wanted too

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OTC has us at 59 and 175+ in salaries. That obviously can change.

jterrell said:

It'll force a lot of players to be cut and those guys will be hit or miss on if they recover in the future because so much of the NFL is short shelf life players.
Again a lot of teams were already leveraged going forward.
And some teams just don't have many players signed for 2021. Indy has 45 lol.
Not sure I'd wanna be cut from Philly or NO and have to go play for Indy.
NFL players really value stability.

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Not as many cuts will happen as restructures. Now the Saints and Eagles were inevitably going to have to pay the price (the Saints will most likely just tank 2021).

There might be a lot of roster shuffling but most would happen on 3-4 year deals with minimal salary cap hits year 1 and larger than normal signing bonuses (or more guaranteed dollars). In most cases NFL players will come out ahead as the GMs are forced to push money onto the next years cap.

hey let the owners , lawyers, cpas ,and others worry about the cap.. they can find money when they need it..worry about football..the season cant start fast enough,

jterrell said:

First hello to a fellow Welshman.. though I am very far removed.

Dallas can create A LOT of space with very few moves.

Amari Cooper is ALREADY GTD his entire 20M next year.
So you flip him and it changes zero except cap hit.
His 20m base becomes 19M Bonus, 1M base.
Cap hit of 22M becomes 8M. --14M in savings and changes zero since it was fully GTD.

DLaw: 16.9M base. you flip 16M.
Cap cost falls from 22M to 10M.
DLaw is DAL best DL by far and a truly elite player. He's no where near cut consideration.

Zack Martin is another easy one.
11M base. flip 10M and he has 5 years left so you go from 15M cap hit to 7M.
Easy 8M savings for a top 3 OG.
He is 29. You aren't extending him just pushing his cap hits down the line.

That is 32M in savings without touching other easy ones like Zeke. Jaylon and La'el.
Zeke (and Jaylon) like Amari has his base already GTD, exactly zero reason not to flip it.
Easy 5M savings.

Jaylon is a similar 5M savings.

And again those guys base money was already GTD.

This is why DAL is in better spots than most clubs.

They had not used any of these built-in restructure options.
Other teams have done this heavily many at the time contracts were created.

DAL has 40M on non-base money committed in 2021.
Philly has 90M.
NO has 65M with no starting QB.
Those are the dollars you must eat.

La'el is an easy one as well in 2021. His salary is already GTD. No reason not to flip it.


DAL also has a lot of draft picks again next draft.
They'll continue to bring in low priced rookies to balance the books.

If the cap were to be crap for 3 years then yes DAL and virtually every team in football would be in trouble.
But that won't happen.
They get a new streaming deal in 2023 that is already projected at 3x the current TV deals.

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I think you are wrong with your numbers, but if you could give some clarity to the numbers, and help me understand something i'm missing i'd appreciate it. If coopers cap number is 22 million in 2021, as far as I know it doesn't matter if its 22m is a bonus or base salary, he still cost 22m against the cap. For example ben roethlisburgers base salary in 2020 is $1.5m with a prorated bonus of $22,250,000 but his cap hit is still $23,750,000. If what you are suggesting is true, I don't know why more teams wouldn't employ this strategy. Thanks for your input

dreameaglegreen said:

I think you are wrong with your numbers, but if you could give some clarity to the numbers, and help me understand something i'm missing i'd appreciate it. If coopers cap number is 22 million in 2021, as far as I know it doesn't matter if its 22m is a bonus or base salary, he still cost 22m against the cap. For example ben roethlisburgers base salary in 2020 is $1.5m with a prorated bonus of $22,250,000 but his cap hit is still $23,750,000. If what you are suggesting is true, I don't know why more teams wouldn't employ this strategy. Thanks for your input

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Any salary converted to bonus next season would be spread out between the remaining 4 years of the contract.

dreameaglegreen said:

I think you are wrong with your numbers, but if you could give some clarity to the numbers, and help me understand something i'm missing i'd appreciate it. If coopers cap number is 22 million in 2021, as far as I know it doesn't matter if its 22m is a bonus or base salary, he still cost 22m against the cap. For example ben roethlisburgers base salary in 2020 is $1.5m with a prorated bonus of $22,250,000 but his cap hit is still $23,750,000. If what you are suggesting is true, I don't know why more teams wouldn't employ this strategy. Thanks for your input

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Teams do, especially your Eagles.

Amari Cooper
for 2021
20m base salary
2m signing bonus
22m cap

But that 20m base is FULLY GTD and basically a planned restructure.
In another words DAL will hand Amari 19M or so and call it a roster/restructure bonus.
He had 4 years on deal left so 4.5 M or so will hit cap plus the 2M and the 1m base.
So 7.5 to 8M is all the cap hit will be.
they will add that 15M to the 3 future seasons at 5m per season.

Let's look at Philly WR1.
Alshon Jeffrey
for 2021
12.75m base
1,25M signing bonus
2.5M restructure bonus
1.725 option bonus.
18.5M cap hit.

Philly can turn the 12.76 into 5.5 by restructuring.
His cap cost would be 11M or so... BUT they may not wanna do that as they have a team option in 2022 and Jeffrey is older and been injury of late.
They may not wanna eat a massive cap hit upon his release.
Realistically, they may cut him in 2021. Save the 12,75M base and eat the 1`0M in dead money so they'd come out ahead by 2M or possibly more.

speedkilz88 said:

Any salary converted to bonus next season would be spread out between the remaining 4 years of the contract.

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speedkilz88 said:

Any salary converted to bonus next season would be spread out between the remaining 4 years of the contract.

Click to expand...

So this is coopers contract

Year Age Base Salary Prorated Bonus Guaranteed Salary Cap Number Cap % Dead Money & Cap Savings
2020 26 $10,000,000 $2,000,000 $10,000,000 $12,000,000 5.5%. $40,000,000. ($28,000,000)

2021 27 $20,000,000. $2,000,000 $20,000,000 $22,000,000 10.2%. $28,000,000. ($6,000,000)

2022 28 $20,000,000 $2,000,000 $0 $22,000,000 9.7%. $6,000,000. $16,000,000

2023 29 $20,000,000 $2,000,000 $0 $22,000,000 9.1%. $4,000,000. $18,000,000

2024 30 $20,000,000 $2,000,000. $0 $22,000,000 8.6% $2,000,000. $20,000,000

Total $90,000,000 $10,000,000 $30,000,000 $100,000,000


If coopers bonus is converted it raises his remaining years cap numbers. So you would save $15m next year but be adding an additional $5m for the remaining years (if I did the conversion correctly). My point is that just by restructuring his base number doesn't make the cap number disappear. (I didn't fix percentages or dead and cap saving)

Year Age Base Salary Prorated Bonus Guaranteed Salary Cap Number Cap % Dead Money & Cap Savings

2020 26 $10,000,000 $2,000,000 $10,000,000 $12,000,000 5.5%. $40,000,000. ($28,000,000)


2021 27 $2,000,000. $5,000,000 $7,000,000 $7,000,000 10.2%. $28,000,000. ($6,000,000)


2022 28 $20,000,000 $7,000,000 $5,000,000 $27,000,000 9.7%. $6,000,000. $16,000,000


2023 29 $20,000,000 $7,000,000 $5,000,000 $27,000,000 9.1%. $4,000,000. $18,000,000


2024 30 $20,000,000 $7,000,000. $5,000,000 $27,000,000 8.6% $2,000,000. $20,000,000


Total $90,000,000 $10,000,000 $30,000,000 $100,000,000

jterrell said:

Teams do, especially your Eagles.

Amari Cooper
for 2021
20m base salary
2m signing bonus
22m cap

But that 20m base is FULLY GTD and basically a planned restructure.
In another words DAL will hand Amari 19M or so and call it a roster/restructure bonus.
He had 4 years on deal left so 4.5 M or so will hit cap plus the 2M and the 1m base.
So 7.5 to 8M is all the cap hit will be.
they will add that 15M to the 3 future seasons at 5m per season.

Let's look at Philly WR1.
Alshon Jeffrey
for 2021
12.75m base
1,25M signing bonus
2.5M restructure bonus
1.725 option bonus.
18.5M cap hit.

Philly can turn the 12.76 into 5.5 by restructuring.
His cap cost would be 11M or so... BUT they may not wanna do that as they have a team option in 2022 and Jeffrey is older and been injury of late.
They may not wanna eat a massive cap hit upon his release.
Realistically, they may cut him in 2021. Save the 12,75M base and eat the 1`0M in dead money so they'd come out ahead by 2M or possibly more.

Click to expand...

Ok sorry i misunderstood, thanks for clearing it up.

jterrell said:

We sorta already know the parameters.

50M SB
year 1 base of 1M - cap hit 13.5M
year 2 base of 20M All fully GTD. - cap hit of 33.5
year 3 base of 25M -- cap hit of 37.5
year 4 base of 35m -- cap hit of 47.5 ---none of this would be GTD and you extend or release in all likelihood.
--Cut in year 4 has only 12.5M in dead money but extension is more likely. You owe 12.5 and then you get another low cost first season of the extension.

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Ok. Lets say they did that instead of playing under the tag. And assuming the salary cap goes up like usual.

Year 1 is great.at 13.5 with 198 million dollar Salcap.
year 2 is 33.5 million with a 210 million dollar cap. That's 16% of the cap.
Year 3 is 37.5 million with a 220 million dollar cap. That's 17% of the cap.
Year 4 is 47.5 Million with a 231 million dollar cap. That's 20% of the cap.

In a case like this you'd probably have to restructure year 4 with any extension.

jterrell said:

Teams do, especially your Eagles.

Amari Cooper
for 2021
20m base salary
2m signing bonus
22m cap

But that 20m base is FULLY GTD and basically a planned restructure.
In another words DAL will hand Amari 19M or so and call it a roster/restructure bonus.
He had 4 years on deal left so 4.5 M or so will hit cap plus the 2M and the 1m base.
So 7.5 to 8M is all the cap hit will be.
they will add that 15M to the 3 future seasons at 5m per season.

Click to expand...

Argh, I get that but doesnt it mean that the 5m per season becomes guaranteed against the CAP, so in effect paying him 27m per year?

Would Coop demand that other monies owed in 22-24 are converted into guaranteed money in exchange for his cooperation in 2021 (not that that's a bad thing).

If this is the case i'm beginning to like the way we structure contracts....though as you correctly say you can only go to the well so many times (i see the Eagles and Saints are going to have to restructure quite a bit next year).