There is no Salary Cap Hell for Cowboys

Sandyf said:

I just don't get fans upset about the Cap. There is no reason to cut any player we have unless Dallas wants to get rid of them either because they don't believe they are really helping win or they don't fit what they want or the coaching staff wants to move on from them.

Sure we are over the cap by $21 million. IT IS NO BIG DEAL. The Saints on Friday were $76 million over and by Sunday they are $50 million over and will be under the cap by next week. Guess what, they haven't cut a single guy yet. The cap is fluid and rising. The NFL and NFLPA Look Forward to the Future Salary Cap ; 2023 will be $231,200,000 to $248,200,000 ; 2024 will be $249,200,000 to $268,200,000; 2025 will be $272,200,000 to $288,000,000.

If Dallas wants to get rid of Cooper and/or Lawrence or any other player it is not because of the cap. In fact over the last 4 years, Dallas has spent less on players than 26 other clubs and spent $134 million less in marketing and salaries than the small market of Jacksonville. Less spending means more money for the Jones.

Dallas can restructure both Lawrence and Cooper along with Dak and Martin and Smith thus giving them plenty of money to resign Gallup, Wilson, Schultz, Kearse and Gregory along with a few other free agents like say Justin Reid S and/or Will Hernandez LG and/or Josey Jewell LB and/or fill in the blank plus money for the draft picks.

If Dallas wants to jettison Cooper and Lawrence, it won't be because they have to, it will be because they want to but if they do they should at least get a 3rd round choice or more for either. If they don't then the FO of Stephen and Jerry have done an extremely bad job again.

Now I expect Dallas to either cut Jarwin or he agrees to a massive pay cut and in fact wouldn't surprise me if he retires due to the injury he has. Won't be surprised to see Anthony Brown and/or Jordan Lewis traded as their value will never be higher than after last year especially with this so-so draft of players (don't let the hype get you). This draft class would mostly be third day picks in the 2022 draft.

What will Dallas do? I am sure we will see it play out starting this week.

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Sydla said:

Possibly. But you still have to field a team. If you cut Cooper and DLaw and let Gregory and Gallup walk, what are your plans at WR and DE?

Or are you just going with the assumption we will regress anyway in 2022 so why lock up guys to long term contracts?

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tm1119 said:

I posted this in another thread, but I’ll reiterate

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...016-why-cash-trumps-cap-new-cba-and-more/amp/
“So, take a minute and hazard a guess as to which owners you believe have spent the least on actual payroll the past four seasons. Forget about the cap and funny money and focus on base salaries and signing bonuses and roster bonuses and make a list of who you figure are the six lowest-spending teams in the NFL from 2016-19.

OK, are you ready? Here are the actual bottom spenders, culled from NFLPA salary numbers, over that span (rounded to the nearest thousand).

Cowboys: $634,379,000
Texans: $646,479,000
Bills: $648,442,000
Colts: $654,999,000
Chargers: $658,299,000
Ravens: $678,220,000
Browns: $687,708,000

That is your bottom 20 percent in spending in the league in that time frame. The average NFL team spent $703 million on payroll in that span“

It’s a matter of desire and the Jones’ desires lie in the $ being made, and games won is a distant 2nd.

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Sandyf said:

I just don't get fans upset about the Cap. There is no reason to cut any player we have unless Dallas wants to get rid of them either because they don't believe they are really helping win or they don't fit what they want or the coaching staff wants to move on from them.

Sure we are over the cap by $21 million. IT IS NO BIG DEAL. The Saints on Friday were $76 million over and by Sunday they are $50 million over and will be under the cap by next week. Guess what, they haven't cut a single guy yet. The cap is fluid and rising. The NFL and NFLPA Look Forward to the Future Salary Cap ; 2023 will be $231,200,000 to $248,200,000 ; 2024 will be $249,200,000 to $268,200,000; 2025 will be $272,200,000 to $288,000,000.

If Dallas wants to get rid of Cooper and/or Lawrence or any other player it is not because of the cap. In fact over the last 4 years, Dallas has spent less on players than 26 other clubs and spent $134 million less in marketing and salaries than the small market of Jacksonville. Less spending means more money for the Jones.

Dallas can restructure both Lawrence and Cooper along with Dak and Martin and Smith thus giving them plenty of money to resign Gallup, Wilson, Schultz, Kearse and Gregory along with a few other free agents like say Justin Reid S and/or Will Hernandez LG and/or Josey Jewell LB and/or fill in the blank plus money for the draft picks.

If Dallas wants to jettison Cooper and Lawrence, it won't be because they have to, it will be because they want to but if they do they should at least get a 3rd round choice or more for either. If they don't then the FO of Stephen and Jerry have done an extremely bad job again.

Now I expect Dallas to either cut Jarwin or he agrees to a massive pay cut and in fact wouldn't surprise me if he retires due to the injury he has. Won't be surprised to see Anthony Brown and/or Jordan Lewis traded as their value will never be higher than after last year especially with this so-so draft of players (don't let the hype get you). This draft class would mostly be third day picks in the 2022 draft.

What will Dallas do? I am sure we will see it play out starting this week.

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blueblood70 said:

yet 20-21 and now the start of 2022 NFL league year, the NOW salary ranking and the why they are making some tough cuts was left out for reasons the OP wants us to see us lower we had a qb/RB and others under rookie deals that was before some of the larger deals were made or had the larger cap hit kick in like zeke for 2 years were still low not they are not LC, AC, dlaw same their cap hit is now huge and betting we aren't in the bottom right now...use all the years not up to a certain one that fits narrative. the have since doled out a ton

they are many things cheap isn't one. Sorry not buying the hype but go ahead keep cherry picking certain years to suit your needs.

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Sandyf said:

I just don't get fans upset about the Cap. There is no reason to cut any player we have unless Dallas wants to get rid of them either because they don't believe they are really helping win or they don't fit what they want or the coaching staff wants to move on from them.

Sure we are over the cap by $21 million. IT IS NO BIG DEAL. The Saints on Friday were $76 million over and by Sunday they are $50 million over and will be under the cap by next week. Guess what, they haven't cut a single guy yet. The cap is fluid and rising. The NFL and NFLPA Look Forward to the Future Salary Cap ; 2023 will be $231,200,000 to $248,200,000 ; 2024 will be $249,200,000 to $268,200,000; 2025 will be $272,200,000 to $288,000,000.

If Dallas wants to get rid of Cooper and/or Lawrence or any other player it is not because of the cap. In fact over the last 4 years, Dallas has spent less on players than 26 other clubs and spent $134 million less in marketing and salaries than the small market of Jacksonville. Less spending means more money for the Jones.

Dallas can restructure both Lawrence and Cooper along with Dak and Martin and Smith thus giving them plenty of money to resign Gallup, Wilson, Schultz, Kearse and Gregory along with a few other free agents like say Justin Reid S and/or Will Hernandez LG and/or Josey Jewell LB and/or fill in the blank plus money for the draft picks.

If Dallas wants to jettison Cooper and Lawrence, it won't be because they have to, it will be because they want to but if they do they should at least get a 3rd round choice or more for either. If they don't then the FO of Stephen and Jerry have done an extremely bad job again.

Now I expect Dallas to either cut Jarwin or he agrees to a massive pay cut and in fact wouldn't surprise me if he retires due to the injury he has. Won't be surprised to see Anthony Brown and/or Jordan Lewis traded as their value will never be higher than after last year especially with this so-so draft of players (don't let the hype get you). This draft class would mostly be third day picks in the 2022 draft.

What will Dallas do? I am sure we will see it play out starting this week.

Click to expand...

Tussinman said:

Technically not cap Hell because you can still field a decent roster next year but people view it as hell because you won't be able to field as competitive of a roster as last year

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tm1119 said:

From what I understood of this post I don’t think you understand what the term cherry picking means…would you have liked me to use #’s from the 90’s?

But ok, here’s the chart for 2016-2020 updated for you. Let me know if you find 2021 included
https://d1dglpr230r57l.cloudfront.net/images/original/nfl1.png

Highest grossing sports franchise on planet earth…still bottom 1/2 of the league in spending and 1 playoff win in a 5 year span.

And I don’t even understand what you are trying to defend. When we had Dak on a rookie contract is when we SHOULD have spent $ on free agents. That’s the most damning part. Look at the list of guys the front office acquired in that time frame to improve the team. It was borderline criminal what Jerry did as a GM after the 2016 season after the team made the playoffs with a promising QB on a dirt cheap contract.

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buybuydandavis said:

And you'll have a ton of cap overhang to make sure that you'll be even less competitive in 2023.

The problem with most analysis of the cap is that people look only at *this* year, and blank out what happens in the future. They want to kick the cans down the road forever. Stack up that credit card debt and pretend the balance never comes due. And for what? Go into cap debt trying to hang on to One and Done?

Not for me. Go young. Develop players. Get your cap in good shape so that *if* you start looking like a contender, you have the money to bring in more pieces to put you over the top.+

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tm1119 said:

I posted this in another thread, but I’ll reiterate

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...016-why-cash-trumps-cap-new-cba-and-more/amp/
“So, take a minute and hazard a guess as to which owners you believe have spent the least on actual payroll the past four seasons. Forget about the cap and funny money and focus on base salaries and signing bonuses and roster bonuses and make a list of who you figure are the six lowest-spending teams in the NFL from 2016-19.

OK, are you ready? Here are the actual bottom spenders, culled from NFLPA salary numbers, over that span (rounded to the nearest thousand).

Cowboys: $634,379,000
Texans: $646,479,000
Bills: $648,442,000
Colts: $654,999,000
Chargers: $658,299,000
Ravens: $678,220,000
Browns: $687,708,000

That is your bottom 20 percent in spending in the league in that time frame. The average NFL team spent $703 million on payroll in that span“

It’s a matter of desire and the Jones’ desires lie in the $ being made, and games won is a distant 2nd.

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basel90 said:

this is amazing. the cowboys spent the least out of all NFL teams ? No one below the cowboys?

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ChronicCowboy said:

We were scheduled to be well over the cap next season.

There are two ways of handling this. Restructure contracts to push cap dollars into the future, or cut players whose salaries outweigh their production. I support the second option which appears to be the team’s plan.

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tm1119 said:

Yeah, could you imagine if we restructured players and it got us to a point where we couldn’t win playoff games? I can’t even imagine what that would be like…oh wait.

This is a short term league anyway. Unless you find a way to clone a young Tom Brady there’s no such thing as building a long term success. You’re building for a 4/5 year window until the salaries become unmanageable and/or injuries take their toll.

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Adreme said:

It is just a weird timing with how signing bonuses worked out. It is not as though the Cowboys were massively under the cap in those years.

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TexasFrog said:

Cant just restructure without a players consent and guys like DLaw aren’t taking a cut. That’s the issue. At some point you just have to make business decisions. A lot of that is “does that players play equal even close to contract now or if restructured.” I’d say Coop and DLaw is a no.

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Bobhaze said:

One thing that’s been made crystal clear for many years- the best GMs in this league somehow find a way to build a good roster with the same cap rules as the Cowboys.

Les Snead of the rams, Brett Veach of the chiefs, Jason Licht of TB, and GBs Brian Gutekunst all “miraculously” find ways to sign good FAs, and still pay top dollar for big time QBs like Rodgers, Mahomes and Stafford. It’s a myth that having “cap issues” prevent teams from building a good roster. Snead has taken two teams to a SB with two different QBs and a cap strapped roster every year.

Here’s the hard truth: Our GM and his “capologist” son aren’t very good outside of their “business wheelhouse”. They’re geniuses at making money. They are complete doofuses at team building in the off-season. We have 26 years of receipts.

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