Biggest mistake was Franchising Spencer

[Nightman]

And it's not why you think. Wasting 10.6m in cap space was worse than signing him to a long term deal. If they had signed him to a 5/40m deal with 17m guaranteed they could have saved 5.6m on the cap last year and rolled it over to this year. He would only have 6m in dead money left after 2014, but would be under contract for 2014-2017.

Year Salary SB Cap Hit
2013 3m 2m 5m
2014 4m 2m 6m
2015 7m 2m 9m
2016 7m 2m 9m
2017 9m 2m 11m

It basically gives the team a "free" year in 2014 and plenty of options to keep him if he is still producing or dump him if he isn't. Obviously he would have had to agree to the deal and that may have been the sticking point. But this is more about the franchise tag in general. I think it is a terrible strategy when it the salary is that high. It removes any maneuverability and the player is still a FA after the season. Either work out a long term deal or let him walk. For 10.6m in cap space the Cowboys could have signed 3-4 FAs last year.

It applies to Hatcher this year. Franchising him would be the worst option. Either try to sign him a 4 or 5 year team friendly deal or let him walk.

 

[perrykemp]

It was absolutely the right decision by the Cowboys -- at least for 2013.

They has concerns signing him to a long term deal for various reasons and while I don't think injury one of them, they ended up getting a huge get-out-of-jail-free card by franchising him.

Now his return is somewhat questions due to the unpredictable nature of micro-fracture surgery to the knee, however, the Cowboys are not on the hook at all for future money.

 

[jrumann59]

Yes on paper but no one could have forecasted he would have missed the season, and would have been hit repeatedly by the injury bug on the DL. THey were leveraging his age on one year deal for him to duplicate his numbers. Now they can sign him to a cheaper deal either 1 year or long term since he missed most of last season.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

The best decision would've been to sign him after 2012, truly amazing how ahmad brooks is appreciate among 49ers fans compared to spencer here.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

And it's not why you think. Wasting 10.6m in cap space was worse than signing him to a long term deal. If they had signed him to a 5/40m deal with 17m guaranteed they could have saved 5.6m on the cap last year and rolled it over to this year. He would only have 6m in dead money left after 2014, but would be under contract for 2014-2017.

Year Salary SB Cap Hit
2013 3m 2m 5m
2014 4m 2m 6m
2015 7m 2m 9m
2016 7m 2m 9m
2017 9m 2m 11m

It basically gives the team a "free" year in 2014 and plenty of options to keep him if he is still producing or dump him if he isn't. Obviously he would have had to agree to the deal and that may have been the sticking point. But this is more about the franchise tag in general. I think it is a terrible strategy when it the salary is that high. It removes any maneuverability and the player is still a FA after the season. Either work out a long term deal or let him walk. For 10.6m in cap space the Cowboys could have signed 3-4 FAs last year.

It applies to Hatcher this year. Franchising him would be the worst option. Either try to sign him a 4 or 5 year team friendly deal or let him walk.

no changing to 4-3 was the biggest mistake.

 

[TwoCentPlain]

$17M guaranteed for a guy who may never play again is an awful contract. It was bad enough franchising him and paying him $10M. At least we are done with him now and not paying for that mistake for the next two or three years.

I think extending Ratliff was a bigger mistake than franchising Spencer. Both were major blunders and hurt the defense bad, real bad, especially seeing how the market tanked for DL in FA last year. I knew something was really wrong when Spencer didn't complain about the tag and signed it the first day he could. I think Spencer knew all along his knee was shot and gladly took the money and his agent may have even given him some good inside info that the DL market ain't all that.

Ratliff, Spencer and Ware accounted for roughly $25-28M of the cap and produced jack squat. That stung bad. Throw in Carr's pedestrian performance and Claibornes's putrid performance and it is pretty easy to see why this was the worst defense in the league.

 

[AbeBeta]

And it's not why you think. Wasting 10.6m in cap space was worse than signing him to a long term deal. If they had signed him to a 5/40m deal with 17m guaranteed they could have saved 5.6m on the cap last year and rolled it over to this year. He would only have 6m in dead money left after 2014, but would be under contract for 2014-2017.

Year Salary SB Cap Hit
2013 3m 2m 5m
2014 4m 2m 6m
2015 7m 2m 9m
2016 7m 2m 9m
2017 9m 2m 11m

It basically gives the team a "free" year in 2014 and plenty of options to keep him if he is still producing or dump him if he isn't. Obviously he would have had to agree to the deal and that may have been the sticking point. But this is more about the franchise tag in general. I think it is a terrible strategy when it the salary is that high. It removes any maneuverability and the player is still a FA after the season. Either work out a long term deal or let him walk. For 10.6m in cap space the Cowboys could have signed 3-4 FAs last year.

It applies to Hatcher this year. Franchising him would be the worst option. Either try to sign him a 4 or 5 year team friendly deal or let him walk.

A free year in 2014? He'd have a cap hit of 6 mill. If he didn't come back 100% and we needed to cut him, we'd repeat that 6 mill cap hit in 2015.

 

[5Stars]

I hope I never see his ugly mug again!

 

[JBS]

Nope. Cost us a lot last year but now we are done w him. Long term deal and we'd be still paying that guy.

Having him last year wouldn't have made a difference anyways. So big deal.

As opposed to being strapped by bum players year after year, that deal only hampered us for one year.

 

[xwalker]

And it's not why you think. Wasting 10.6m in cap space was worse than signing him to a long term deal. If they had signed him to a 5/40m deal with 17m guaranteed they could have saved 5.6m on the cap last year and rolled it over to this year. He would only have 6m in dead money left after 2014, but would be under contract for 2014-2017.

Year Salary SB Cap Hit
2013 3m 2m 5m
2014 4m 2m 6m
2015 7m 2m 9m
2016 7m 2m 9m
2017 9m 2m 11m

It basically gives the team a "free" year in 2014 and plenty of options to keep him if he is still producing or dump him if he isn't. Obviously he would have had to agree to the deal and that may have been the sticking point. But this is more about the franchise tag in general. I think it is a terrible strategy when it the salary is that high. It removes any maneuverability and the player is still a FA after the season. Either work out a long term deal or let him walk. For 10.6m in cap space the Cowboys could have signed 3-4 FAs last year.

It applies to Hatcher this year. Franchising him would be the worst option. Either try to sign him a 4 or 5 year team friendly deal or let him walk.

Your logic is that it would have been better to guarantee 17M instead of 10.6M to a player that might never play again? That does not make sense at this point.

Franchising Hatcher is not a great idea. It would prevent them from having any opportunities to get other free agents.

 

[birdwells1]

The best decision would've been to sign him after 2012, truly amazing how ahmad brooks is appreciate among 49ers fans compared to spencer here.

You can't compare Spencer to Brooks because Brooks played last year.

Michael Bennett 1 year 5 million 8.5 sacks
Cliff Avril 2 years 13 million 8 sacks
Anthony Spencer 1 years 10.6 million 0 sacks

No matter what you think about the decision of signing him, this would have made a difference in our season.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

You can't compare Spencer to Brooks because Brooks played last year.

O......for some reason I thought the NFL existed before 2013.....silly me

Funny how you then go on to compare Spencer to 3 guys that played last year

Michael Bennett 1 year 5 million 8.5 sacks
Cliff Avril 2 years 13 million 8 sacks
Anthony Spencer 1 years 10.6 million 0 sacks

No matter what you think about the decision of signing him, this would have made a difference in our season.

I don't see what that has to do with my post since both players were signed in 2013 and I said we should've signed him after 2012.

 

[Nation]

Truly a devastating blow not having a guy coming off microfracture surgery locked up longterm

 

[birdwells1]

O......for some reason I thought the NFL existed before 2013.....silly me

Funny how you then go on to compare Spencer to 3 guys that played last year



I don't see what that has to do with my post since both players were signed in 2013 and I said we should've signed him after 2012.

I'm comparing the decision in the off season, shouldn't have sign him at all is what I'm trying to say, you could've had 2 good pass rushers instead of one.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

I'm comparing the decision in the off season, shouldn't have sign him at all is what I'm trying to say, you could've had 2 good pass rushers instead of one.

My post was referring to the 2012 offseason

 

[JoeyBoy718]

I'm comparing the decision in the off season, shouldn't have sign him at all is what I'm trying to say, you could've had 2 good pass rushers instead of one.

You know another poor decision? Having Tom Brady under contract the year he went down in the 1st game of the season and Cassell started the rest of the season. All that money they wasted on a guy with 0 TD passes.

 

[theogt]

Be careful with the distinction between "mistake" and "undesired result". You can make a correct decision and have the results turn out poor.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

Be careful with the distinction between "mistake" and "undesired result". You can make a correct decision and have the results turn out poor.

amen. however, I would say spencer was very unpopular so most of the same posters calling it a "mistake" didn't want to see it from the beginning

 

[birdwells1]

You know another poor decision? Having Tom Brady under contract the year he went down in the 1st game of the season and Cassell started the rest of the season. All that money they wasted on a guy with 0 TD passes.

You're right, like Spencer, Brady had never done much to deserve his contract either.

 

[ShiningStar]

No...end of story...also a bigger razz to all the people who said we would miss him when hes off the field....noooo......move on