Big Contracts in 2019 - The real reason Dez was released

[buybuydandavis]

Thanks for being somebody that understands this concept.

I've been repeating the explanation for years but many people still try to use the logic of "It only saves X against the cap this year" as a reason a player should stay.

It is much easier to understand the real cost in keeping/cutting a player if just the total savings over all years is considered which is normally the base salary.

As you mentioned, dead-money is irrelevant unless the team has no remaining contracts to restructure.

Dead-money is money that would hit the cap with or without the player on the roster. It's called prorated when the player is on the roster but the amount is the same either way.

My .sig over at dallascowboys.com was something like "Dead cap is dead. Keeping a player on the team for another year doesn't resurrect it, it only adds this year's salary to his cumulative cap hit."

Trying to light a candle, instead of just cursing the darkness.

"It only saves X against the cap this year" makes me want to gouge my eyes out. The stupid; it burns. Please make it stop.

I'll debate the UnCatch forever. Analyze Garrett's clock management snafus play by play, counterfactual by counterfactual.

But for the love of God, can people stop arguing bad cap accounting in thread after thread after thread, year after year after year?

 

[xwalker]

My .sig over at dallascowboys.com was something like "Dead cap is dead. Keeping a player on the team for another year doesn't resurrect it, it only adds this year's salary to his cumulative cap hit."

Trying to light a candle, instead of just cursing the darkness.

"It only saves X against the cap this year" makes me want to gouge my eyes out. The stupid; it burns. Please make it stop.

I'll debate the UnCatch forever. Analyze Garrett's clock management snafus play by play, counterfactual by counterfactual.

But for the love of God, can people stop arguing bad cap accounting in thread after thread after thread, year after year after year?

 

[jobberone]

I'm not actually interested in talking about Dez. I added it to the headline to get more views...as bait.

Don't do that again, please. That is against the rules. The only reason I'm not closing the thread is it does involve multiple players.

 

[Jumbo075]

Dez was central to the theme of the thread title:

Big Contracts in 2019 - The real reason Dez was released

I wrote the title, so I know what I'm talking about. It was clickbait.

The real story is about CAP management and the Cowboys having to prepare for the scenario when a great many of their young players actually pan out to be really good players. But since I knew that some people couldn't resist a story with "Dez" in the headline, I added that extra to get more views. If you and some others want to argue about Dez again, for the billionth time, I'm not going to stop you.

 

[Jumbo075]

Don't do that again, please. That is against the rules. The only reason I'm not closing the thread is it does involve multiple players.

Fair enough. I do think future CAP management played into the decision to release Dez. If I didn't think it factored into their thinking at all, then I wouldn't have added to the headline. But I'm not interested in yet another orgasmic discussion about the merits of keeping or cutting Dez Bryant.

Also, while it may be against the site rules, per se, it is how the newspaper headline writers think also. I know. I wrote for a newspaper 30 years ago. The point of a headline is to attract readers. It's not necessary for the headline to 100% match the story, as long as it is tangentially relevant. The headline I wrote was tangentially relevant. And it drove clicks also.

I'm not arguing with you. I'm just explaining how I was taught to write headlines when I wrote newspaper articles in college.

 

[Verdict]

If having future cap space was the primary reason for Dez’s release, they probably wouldn’t have tried to sign Sammy Watkins for $16M per year.

And they would have offered to let Dez play with a pay cut. They wanted Dez GONE.

 

[Verdict]

you do not know that

No doubt. We also can't prove he's wrong yet.

 

[Verdict]

We didn’t treat Murray or Ware this way. Why Dez?

We didn't want to!

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Back in 1989, Jimmy Johnson's Cowboys didn't have many good established players. The one great player they had was Herschel Walker. So they traded him to the Vikings for 7 draft picks, and 5 players. We all know what came next.

Flash forward to 2018, and the Cowboys already have a bunch of good young players, but they need Salary CAP space in 2019 & 2020 - a lot of salary CAP space - to resign that good young talent base. So, a choice was made to part with Dez Bryant this season, and eat his entire Salary CAP hit. That reduces the Cowboys salary CAP hits by about $25M over two seasons. Witten's retirement frees up another $26M over the next 4 years. The Cowboys parted ways with Romo last year, freeing up $54M in CAP space planned for 2017-2019.

Similar to the Herschel Walker decision, these choices allow the team to commit to younger talented players, and they hope is that a similar result will happen to when the Cowboys made a similar commitment to youth 29 years ago.

The Cowboys have a number of players that will likely take a large chunk of the salary CAP in 2019 with much higher salaries than they currently are being paid.

1. Dak Prescott - will command a contract worth $18-$22M per season, perhaps more.
2. Zack Martin - the Cowboys are trying to sign Martin to a long-term deal this year. If they are unsuccessful, he'll be the franchise tag player a year from now. If they do sign him this year, his salary CAP hit next year will be substantial
3. DeMarcus Lawrence - if he repeats his performance from last year, will command a long-term contract worth slightly less than Prescott's deal
4. David Irving - this physical freak of nature hasn't yet put together a complete, unsuspended, uninjured year. If he does, the Cowboys will want to keep him around, and he might want a contract similar to the one the Cowboys anticipate giving Lawrence.

In 2020, these players will have their contracts coming up for extensions or renewals.

1. Byron Jones - the Cowboys picked up his 5th year option, and new DB coach Kris Richard calls him the "prototypical" cornerback for his system. That means the Cowboys will be paying Jones a lot more in 2019. If he breaks out over the next two seasons under Richard, he'll command top dollars in 2020.
   
2. Ezekiel Elliott - while the Cowboys will almost certainly exercise the 5th year option on Elliott, his contract will be subject to renewal in 2020. Since entering the league, he's led the NFL in per game rushing yards each of his first two seasons. The Cowboys will be in talks with him in 2020, just as they are talking to Zack Martin now.
3. La'el Collins - Collins current contract will expire after the 2019 season, and he'll be a free agent. If Collins develops into one of the better Right Tackles in the NFL, the Cowboys will want to lock him up on a long-term contract.
4. Jaylon Smith - Smith will be a restricted free agent in 2020, and the Cowboys can keep him by giving him a 1st round tender offer. If he's fully healed, and back to performing like the top 5 pick many thought he'd be, then the Cowboys may choose to give him a long term extension earlier to potentially save money over time.
5. Randy Gregory - Like Jaylon Smith, Gregory will also be a Restricted Free Agent in 2020. Like Jaylon, he was considered a top 5 talent in the draft that fell to the Cowboys in the 2nd round, and like Smith, he missed some seasons because of those reasons. But if he also comes back and performs at his talent level, the Cowboys will be talking about how to keep him with the Cowboys on a long-term deal.

So, the Cowboys potentially have at least 9 big new contracts over the next two seasons to keep their young talent base intact. Managing the Salary CAP now also includes planning for 2019 and 2020. Those focused only on this year's Salary CAP are missing the bigger picture.

That is great and all but in order to make your argument you need to look at cap space available with or without Dez and project what kinds of deals those players are going to demand.

I'm not convinced we won't have the issue you present unless we pay Dak like Matt Ryan.

 

[Nightman]

My .sig over at dallascowboys.com was something like "Dead cap is dead. Keeping a player on the team for another year doesn't resurrect it, it only adds this year's salary to his cumulative cap hit."

Trying to light a candle, instead of just cursing the darkness.

"It only saves X against the cap this year" makes me want to gouge my eyes out. The stupid; it burns. Please make it stop.

I'll debate the UnCatch forever. Analyze Garrett's clock management snafus play by play, counterfactual by counterfactual.

But for the love of God, can people stop arguing bad cap accounting in thread after thread after thread, year after year after year?

Preach

We are outnumbered here but we are strong resurrected Zombie Cap Killers

Everyone screamed about Tony Romo's dead cap hits of 10.7m and 8.9m but they saved 34m against the cap those 2 years.......in fact they rolled over almost 8m of those Romo savings so that further wiped away the 8.9m in Dead Cap this year

Same with Dez.....he left us with an 8m Dead Cap hit but they saved 25m in real cap space

 

[Darthkuriboh]

Why is Dez still being discussed?

it's the offseason. the draft and most of free agency are over. we're still stuck with the idiot carrot. it's not like we have a lot to talk about.

 

[Nightman]

I wrote the title, so I know what I'm talking about. It was clickbait.

The real story is about CAP management and the Cowboys having to prepare for the scenario when a great many of their young players actually pan out to be really good players. But since I knew that some people couldn't resist a story with "Dez" in the headline, I added that extra to get more views. If you and some others want to argue about Dez again, for the billionth time, I'm not going to stop you.

We have 124m in cap space for 2020
/end thread

 

[Jumbo075]

We have 124m in cap space for 2020
/end thread

We won't have that much by the time 2020 rolls around.

/Restart thread.

 

[Nightman]

We won't have that much by the time 2020 rolls around.

/Restart thread.

that is with 25 players under contract
add 5-10 next year with the draft and we have around 30 players after a few busts

that leaves 120m in cap space for 21 players......
/end thread

 

[Jumbo075]

that is with 25 players under contract
add 5-10 next year with the draft and we have around 30 players after a few busts

that leaves 120m in cap space for 21 players......
/end thread

/restart thread anyway, just because.

 

[xwalker]

I wrote the title, so I know what I'm talking about. It was clickbait.

The real story is about CAP management and the Cowboys having to prepare for the scenario when a great many of their young players actually pan out to be really good players. But since I knew that some people couldn't resist a story with "Dez" in the headline, I added that extra to get more views. If you and some others want to argue about Dez again, for the billionth time, I'm not going to stop you.

So you don't want to talk about Dez bit you made the title of the thread about Dez...

Now you're blaming everyone else when they reply about Dez.

Maybe you need some rest and you'll see that this makes no sense.

 

[MCMetal69]

I met Jimmy Johnson years ago..................According to him , the reason Walker was traded was not the money he was making (there was no salary cap at the time) , but simply because Hershel's running style wasn't what Jimmy preferred and Johnson wanted the entire team to be improved quicker and their only real asset was number #34..............He wanted a "nifty/shifty" running back (I can't really recall the exact word or term that he used) , and Walker , although he always had speed , wasn't that type............

 

[OmerV]

Im not totally dismissing it. I’m just leaning towards we didn’t treat Dez like we had with Murray and Ware. And that has brought some bad blood with Dez. I didn’t create that soap opera. Just offering my view based on the info provided thus far.

We didn't treat him the same as those guys because their situations weren't the same - particularly with Murray, who was a free agent - we didn't release him.

Ware was a little closer to the same situation, but it appears the Cowboys made a firm decision on releasing Ware from the outset, whereas it appears with Bryant they wanted to see how free agency worked out first and then weigh their options.

That's likely what was going on with Marshall and Anderson and other notable players from other teams that were released later than Dez was - their teams were seeing what the possibilities of free agency were, and were weighing options after going through that process. That's a normal, natural decision making process for a team, especially with a player they may be on the fence about, and in and of itself that doesn't constitute anything unusual or unseemly.

 

[Dwight]

it's the offseason. the draft and most of free agency are over. we're still stuck with the idiot carrot. it's not like we have a lot to talk about.

But he is not a Dallas Cowboy anymore.

There are other aspects to discuss.

 

[Diehardblues]

We didn't treat him the same as those guys because their situations weren't the same - particularly with Murray, who was a free agent - we didn't release him.

Ware was a little closer to the same situation, but it appears the Cowboys made a firm decision on releasing Ware from the outset, whereas it appears with Bryant they wanted to see how free agency worked out first and then weigh their options.

That's likely what was going on with Marshall and Anderson and other notable players from other teams that were released later than Dez was - their teams were seeing what the possibilities of free agency were, and were weighing options after going through that process. That's a normal, natural decision making process for a team, especially with a player they may be on the fence about, and in and of itself that doesn't constitute anything unusual or unseemly.

It’s still uncertain if we ever intended to retain Dez at any price . And why the discussion .