Prescott and cap considerations

Bigdog · Oct 27, 2020

I think I read some where that the Eagles are even in bigger trouble than we are. I think they are $68 million over the cap and that was without it being reduced.

Rockport · Oct 27, 2020

atlantacowboy said:
Here is an ESPN article and there are many others online projecting NFL revenue losses in the Billions. Fan attendance at football games represents 20-25% of league revenue. The salary cap is tied to league revenue. So this absolutely impacts the Dak negotiations and player salaries in 2021. I've seen projections showing the cap going from where it is now at 198M all the way down to 130M. How do we sign Dak to what he wants if the caps going down 50M+?

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id...ure-salary-caps-central-nfl-talks-sources-say

There's no was they will reduce the salary cap that low or every team would have to cut veterans. No one would then sign them unless they take huge pay cuts. Common sense.

glimmerman · Oct 27, 2020

NorthTexan95 said:
Yep. We'll probably see free agents taking one year deals to reenter free agency next season.

Likely. Hoping there isn’t so many injuries next year. We been hit hard but looking around the NFL it’s happening everywhere.

jazzcat22 · Oct 27, 2020

I will look at it all after the season. Does nothing for me right now to speculate. Then even when it is announced. I still will not use my time to figure it all out.
I will leave that to the better people than I, that takes their time to do it. And then post the ramifications. Always good to have them post it on here.
I am very good at math, but do not care to crunch salary cap numbers or possible contracts.

I wonder if the NFL will come out with some special rules, or a soft cap type thing to prevent wholesale player cuts to get under any lower cap issues.

Verdict · Oct 27, 2020

jazzcat22 said:
I will look at it all after the season. Does nothing for me right now to speculate. Then even when it is announced. I still will not use my time to figure it all out.
I will leave that to the better people than I, that takes their time to do it. And then post the ramifications. Always good to have them post it on here.
I am very good at math, but do not care to crunch salary cap numbers or possible contracts.

I wonder if the NFL will come out with some special rules, or a soft cap type thing to prevent wholesale player cuts to get under any lower cap issues.

That’s my guess. Either a soft cap, borrowing from future cap, room, keeping the cap higher now in return for keeping it level after revenues increase.

The owners have to be careful here though. There is no guarantee that the cap will continue to rise. There have been some challenges that are hurting the NFL brand right now, and the popularity of the game has taken a bit of a hit. The league could be facing some potential profitability issues going forward.

DasTex · Oct 27, 2020

Verdict said:
That’s my guess. Either a soft cap, borrowing from future cap, room, keeping the cap higher now in return for keeping it level after revenues increase.

The owners have to be careful here though. There is no guarantee that the cap will continue to rise. There have been some challenges that are hurting the NFL brand right now, and the popularity of the game has taken a bit of a hit. The league could be facing some potential profitability issues going forward.

Agreed 100% - I think they've reached their peak in terms of popularity and it will continue to slowly drop. I'm not saying it's going to close up shop, but I can the days of the cap going up year in and year out as over.

TheMarathonContinues · Oct 27, 2020

Bigdog said:
I think I read some where that the Eagles are even in bigger trouble than we are. I think they are $68 million over the cap and that was without it being reduced.

Yeah they are in a complete mess. I think they have the worst cap situation of anyone. I'm interested to see how they get out of that mess but they are probably in the same boat we in. They have a bunch of guys they NEED to get rid of. I think they are fine with getting rid of anyone not named Wentz, Reagor, Hurts and Goedert.

TheMarathonContinues · Oct 27, 2020

Rockport said:
There's no was they will reduce the salary cap that low or every team would have to cut veterans. No one would then sign them unless they take huge pay cuts. Common sense.

Yeah I predict they do something to make sure the cap doesn't go that low. Not sure what but they will have a lot of employees out of work.

MyFairLady · Oct 27, 2020

Our front office prefers to spend our cap dollars on magic beans so it doesn't really matter anyway.

tm1119 · Oct 27, 2020

atlantacowboy said:
That is not the case. Revenue is revenue. That has nothing to do with profit. The salary cap is tied to revenue not profit. Going from an expected 2021 cap of 210M to 175M is a huge hit that greatly impacts veterans looking for new contracts this offseason. And certainly will impact Dak.
No where in your article is there reference to an increase in the salary cap.

Yeah I’m aware what revenue means, my point was that they are losing overall revenue...which doesn’t mean they are losing $. They just aren’t making as much $. Again, obviously not a good thing...but I’m sure they’ll manage to get by. If not I’m sure there’s a line of rich people that would love to buy an NFL franchise for 100’s of millions, if not Billions, if it’s so hard for them to operate for 1 year without fans.

And I also never said the cap would go up. It’s just going to be more than the absolute floor of 175. Look at all the $ that was thrown around this off season, even after all the lockdowns were in place. Several record setting deals were signed. Do you really think the owners signed off on all that spending without having a good idea of what’s to come.

Long story short: the idea of there not having enough $ to sign Dak, or anyone for that matter, is ridiculous and only a convenient excuse at best.

Diehardblues · Oct 27, 2020

We’ll just release some defensive players. How much more could it suk. Lol

atlantacowboy · Oct 27, 2020

tm1119 said:
Yeah I’m aware what revenue means, my point was that they are losing overall revenue...which doesn’t mean they are losing $. They just aren’t making as much $. Again, obviously not a good thing...but I’m sure they’ll manage to get by. If not I’m sure there’s a line of rich people that would love to buy an NFL franchise for 100’s of millions, if not Billions, if it’s so hard for them to operate for 1 year without fans.

And I also never said the cap would go up. It’s just going to be more than the absolute floor of 175. Look at all the $ that was thrown around this off season, even after all the lockdowns were in place. Several record setting deals were signed. Do you really think the owners signed off on all that spending without having a good idea of what’s to come.

Long story short: the idea of there not having enough $ to sign Dak, or anyone for that matter, is ridiculous and only a convenient excuse at best.

Whether or not the owners are losing money is irrelevant to the salary cap which was the entire point of the thread. If it doesn't effect the cap, it is not relevant. I could care less what the owners or players are making. I care about the salary cap b/c it affects the quality of talent the Cowboys can field. If you think Dallas can build a defense paying Dak whatever you think he's worth, then we just disagree.

FiveSuperBowls · Oct 27, 2020

atlantacowboy said:
Here is an ESPN article and there are many others online projecting NFL revenue losses in the Billions. Fan attendance at football games represents 20-25% of league revenue. The salary cap is tied to league revenue. So this absolutely impacts the Dak negotiations and player salaries in 2021. I've seen projections showing the cap going from where it is now at 198M all the way down to 130M. How do we sign Dak to what he wants if the caps going down 50M+?

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id...ure-salary-caps-central-nfl-talks-sources-say

More reason to pick up more draft picks.

atlantacowboy · Oct 27, 2020

FiveSuperBowls said:
More reason to pick up more draft picks.

Its a sad thing that our window to win with Dak is passed. We had 4 dirt cheap seasons to build this team around him and Jerry/Jason couldn't get it done.........now the major injury.

So, we either try to win with a super expensive QB surrounded with less talent (which rarely ever happens) or re-load at QB in the draft.

Tussinman · Oct 27, 2020

Cowboys I think would be fine but the problem is they're not in a position to restructure

Most of their high dollar players they don't want to restructure because it means they'll be tied to them longer. Guys like both Smith's, Elliot, Lawrence, Cooper are all either injury concerns or underperforming.

Zach Martin is really the only high dollar player that you feel 100% fine pushing money down the line and committing to him longer.

TwoCentPlain · Oct 27, 2020

atlantacowboy said:
That is not the case. Revenue is revenue. That has nothing to do with profit. The salary cap is tied to revenue not profit. Going from an expected 2021 cap of 210M to 175M is a huge hit that greatly impacts veterans looking for new contracts this offseason. And certainly will impact Dak.
No where in your article is there reference to an increase in the salary cap.

The owners had to put in a $175M floor or it would have fallen even more. With the virus still lingering and the Cowboys now irrelevant, revenue will go down even more than expected. If Cowboy fans tune out, I would guess that is a further 20% drop in viewership. Big worry for these owners is if the revenues do not recover in 2021. Too many people streaming for free.

jterrell · Oct 27, 2020

atlantacowboy said:
Here is an ESPN article and there are many others online projecting NFL revenue losses in the Billions. Fan attendance at football games represents 20-25% of league revenue. The salary cap is tied to league revenue. So this absolutely impacts the Dak negotiations and player salaries in 2021. I've seen projections showing the cap going from where it is now at 198M all the way down to 130M. How do we sign Dak to what he wants if the caps going down 50M+?

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id...ure-salary-caps-central-nfl-talks-sources-say

They've already stated the absolute floor was 175M.
Early indications are it will be between 175 and 190 depending upon attendance as season wears on.

jterrell · Oct 27, 2020

ninja said:
The owners had to put in a $175M floor or it would have fallen even more. With the virus still lingering and the Cowboys now irrelevant, revenue will go down even more than expected. If Cowboy fans tune out, I would guess that is a further 20% drop in viewership. Big worry for these owners is if the revenues do not recover in 2021. Too many people streaming for free.

That's actually not a bad thing for the league. Only 1 additional year of swoon which may happen anyway given COVID.
Streaming rights will be a large part of the next package so the revenue is already being projected at TWICE what they had under the current TV only contracts.

Flamma · Oct 27, 2020

thunderpimp91 said:
The good news is the cap will be down for everyone, so its not like some random team will be able to come along and offer dak some crazy number.

What gets ignored is the cowboys cap situation for 2021 isn't that great. As of right now, who knows what the nfl will do, but the cowboys are showing to be around 25 million under the cap. Tagging dak alone puts the cowboys way over the cap, and that is assuming it stays put.

I know the cap can be manipulated, so cap gurus feel free to tell me where I am wrong on the subject, but is tagging dak even realistic?

I'm assuming to do so we need to restructure contracts of guys like dlaw, tyron smith, jaylon, zeke, etc which just makes it harder to move on from those guys in the long run doesnt it?

There is no reason to let Dak play under another tag. Either pay him or release him. 37+ mil against the cap for another losing season.

Yes, the cap will be down for everyone. But everyone isn't looking to give their qb a new contract while rebuilding the defense. It's kind of a catch 22 regardless of what they decide.

thunderpimp91 · Oct 27, 2020

Flamma said:
There is no reason to let Dak play under another tag. Either pay him or release him. 37+ mil against the cap for another losing season.
.

If not for the injury I would agree, but you just had your QBs foot facing the wrong direction. It sounds like more often than not guys recover just fine, but if not and you pay him you just set back your franchise a decade. The tag makes sense provided you can make it work financially.

Prescott and cap considerations

Bigdog

Well-Known Member

Rockport

AmberBeer

glimmerman

Well-Known Member

jazzcat22

Verdict

Well-Known Member

DasTex

Well-Known Member

TheMarathonContinues

Well-Known Member

TheMarathonContinues

Well-Known Member

MyFairLady

Well-Known Member

tm1119

Well-Known Member

Diehardblues

Well-Known Member

atlantacowboy

Well-Known Member

FiveSuperBowls

Well-Known Member

atlantacowboy

Well-Known Member

Tussinman

Well-Known Member

TwoCentPlain

Numbnuts

jterrell

Penguinite

jterrell

Penguinite

Flamma

Well-Known Member

thunderpimp91

Well-Known Member