Bill Barnwell: Jerry's Broken Toy

[movaughn88]

I don't think it is the fact that we have had 4 RBs in 10 years...though I look at many teams and there are more long termers than I expected. I think it is how they are managed a) tire of the guy before b) throw mad money at the new guy, who used to be part time c) run the new flavor of the year into the ground to the point where they breakdown and d) rinse and repeat. It seems the system works best when back are sharing time and can use their strengths vs..needing a bell cow who makes a lot of cash on a 4 year deal.

I don't have a problem running backs into the ground, and that sounds harsh but why not if they are performing in their first few years. I just don't get his and your "throwing money" other than Barber. Yes that was bad, 100% agree there. But Julius wasnt paid a ton, Felix was paid mid 1st round money but not anything close to a big FA contract, and Murray isn't getting paid much either.

In fact, here are 2013 salaries by position. Cowboys are #32 on Running backs, lowest in the entire league.

http://overthecap.com/offensebreakdown.php?Year=2013

 

[TellerMorrow34]

As usual I agree with some of it and some of it I don't.

 

[Gameover]

I guess Parcells has a lifetime pass for his failures with this organization.

Failed draft classes, millions wasted on subpar free agents doesn't matter to the masses. He won 2 SB w/ Giants!

 

[Zordon]

Claiborne is an "unmitigated disaster?" Wow, I just don't see it.

90th ranked cornerback is a disaster when you gave up a 2nd for him.

 

[Matts4313]

This is not saying anything we didnt know. When Wade Phillips was here, and Jerry had no one to hold him back, the franchise was being flushed down the toilet. Literally everything that Jerry and Wade did from 2007 - 2010 was screw up the strong unit that Parcells had left. Thats why many of us are so enamored with Garrett. Like Parcells and Jimmy, he has control over operations. Sure, Jerry pulls a power trip every now and then. But for the most part, the day to day stuff, the franchise has a clear leader and direction.

Regarding Ware - First, the article is wrong. He only has 2 years left on his contract. Secondly, that is a reality of Salary Cap NFL. You cant pay everyone. Ware got his. He has had 10 years with the team. He will likely be gone in two years when he is in his mid-30s. What is wrong with that?

Garrett is remaking the team. Almost every one of those bad contracts is off the books as of now. Miles will be gone this offseason.

I still dont see where the "Armageddon" is. He talks about how we can put off paying Smith until 2016.... Well guess what? We literally have 14 players under contract for 2016... As of right now, we are like $60+M UNDER the cap when we need to resign Smith. 2015? We are ~20-30M Under the cap. Pretty sure there is more than enough to sign Bryant.


Lastly:
Quote:
Now, since Parcells has left, Jones's drafts have mostly been bad (2010 aside) and he has traded away valuable draft assets for hunches on players who weren't worth it.

Quote:
that a trade would cost Jones one of the draft picks he desperately needs to restock the depth on his paper-thin roster


Both of those are flat out lies. Under Garrett we have had very solid drafts. We have also built up significantly more depth than what he had a couple years ago.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

As always, I'm more interested in AdamJT13's take on this.

Barnwell is the same guy that kept preaching how unstoppable Chip Kelly was going to be, particularly his offense. When it was pointed out the major flaws in the system and how packaged plays have their own flaws, he just stuck his head in the sand.

To me, it's all about player development.

If you have it, you can restructure and work out just fine. If you don't, then you've got issues.

Great teams are going to have cap issues as well. Their players are going to be valued higher by the league and then it comes down what they can afford. It's all good if the team develops talent well and can replace them. For instance, does anybody think that Miles is more productive than Terrence Williams? And does anybody think that a top-3 WR corp of Dez-Miles-Williams is better and more productive than Dez-Williams-Beasley at this current time?

Is anybody overly missing Anthony Spencer in place of George Selvie?

Player development.

If you have it, you're in good shape. If you don't, you end up like Wade...sooner or later you're going to go belly up.





YR

 

[Temo]

Claiborne is an "unmitigated disaster?" Wow, I just don't see it.

Probably an overstatement, but he's been terrible and lost his starting spot to Scandrick (he doesn't play in the base 3-4 anymore, but does take over his old spot in the Nickel/Dime when Scandrick plays the slot).

 

[Miller]

This is not saying anything we didnt know. When Wade Phillips was here, and Jerry had no one to hold him back, the franchise was being flushed down the toilet. Literally everything that Jerry and Wade did from 2007 - 2010 was screw up the strong unit that Parcells had left. Thats why many of us are so enamored with Garrett. Like Parcells and Jimmy, he has control over operations. Sure, Jerry pulls a power trip every now and then. But for the most part, the day to day stuff, the franchise has a clear leader and direction.

Regarding Ware - First, the article is wrong. He only has 2 years left on his contract. Secondly, that is a reality of Salary Cap NFL. You cant pay everyone. Ware got his. He has had 10 years with the team. He will likely be gone in two years when he is in his mid-30s. What is wrong with that?

Garrett is remaking the team. Almost every one of those bad contracts is off the books as of now. Miles will be gone this offseason.

I still dont see where the "Armageddon" is. He talks about how we can put off paying Smith until 2016.... Well guess what? We literally have 14 players under contract for 2016... As of right now, we are like $60+M UNDER the cap when we need to resign Smith. 2015? We are ~20-30M Under the cap. Pretty sure there is more than enough to sign Bryant.


Lastly:
Quote:
Now, since Parcells has left, Jones's drafts have mostly been bad (2010 aside) and he has traded away valuable draft assets for hunches on players who weren't worth it.

Quote:
that a trade would cost Jones one of the draft picks he desperately needs to restock the depth on his paper-thin roster


Both of those are flat out lies. Under Garrett we have had very solid drafts. We have also built up significantly more depth than what he had a couple years ago.

I see some points here but...and this is just MHO...you are giving Garrett too much credit. The guy has the same faux power that we've seen with many and that was shown this summer when Jerry neutered him and they both came out with different quotes regarding different happenings...like who was O-Coordinator. You can't say Garrett has had solid drafts all around when we gave up a pick to move up in the 1st to get Claiborne and he hasn't produced. The point of the article is that the talent might be there but at what cost. 2011 you get Smith and Carter but then Murray who has been hurt and was hurt in college. In 2012 you get Dez but as much as I love Lee he has had similar issues until this year. This year is barely going so I refuse to grade a draft 7 games in. As for the cap stuff. You are looking at what those cap figures are NOW. When the restructures have to be done AGAIN, than those numbers will change again.

 

[big dog cowboy]

As always, I'm more interested in AdamJT13's take on this.

Yep. Too many people thinking they "know" what they are talking about when the truth is they don't.

 

[ChooChoo73]

Yeah, a bit unfair to ding the organization for an unsourced, unsubstantiated rumor that we were looking to trade for a running back. Jerry says enough dumb things into a microphone that can get him dinged directly.

This x 10. I could not say it better.

 

[Matts4313]

I see some points here but...and this is just MHO...you are giving Garrett too much credit. The guy has the same faux power that we've seen with many and that was shown this summer when Jerry neutered him and they both came out with different quotes regarding different happenings...like who was O-Coordinator. You can't say Garrett has had solid drafts all around when we gave up a pick to move up in the 1st to get Claiborne and he hasn't produced. The point of the article is that the talent might be there but at what cost. 2011 you get Smith and Carter but then Murray who has been hurt and was hurt in college. In 2012 you get Dez but as much as I love Lee he has had similar issues until this year. This year is barely going so I refuse to grade a draft 7 games in. As for the cap stuff. You are looking at what those cap figures are NOW. When the restructures have to be done AGAIN, than those numbers will change again.

Using anything Jerry/Jason say in a press interview as a way to discredit Jasons influence is silly. Jerry blabs and says stupid contradictory things CONSTANTLY. "We wont bench Felix" - Benched that weekend. "Dez is too important to return punts" - Dez returning punts that weekend. Jason on the other hand says absolutely nothing in press conferences. "Are you the OC" --"We arent saying anything - status quo for now" <= Thats all he said, even though the decision had been made for months.

You may think that Jason doesn't have power - but everything going on within the organization would state otherwise. I think too many people have their head in the sand because they hate Jerry. Hate him all you want, but at least do it based on facts. Facts like under Garrett, we have cut the overpaid, aging vets. We have dedicated to rebuilding and developing youth. We have spent resources on the trenches. We have a core team that plays with intensity and direction.

Also - I find your criticisms of the players to be a little far fetched. Murray has done very well for a 3rd round RB. Morris had a solid rookie year. He had a terrible start to this year **AFTER he missed all of training camp and was adjusting to a new scheme (while injured)**. The last couple weeks he has looked better.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As for the cap - we could beat it to death, but I will leave it at this. Every year a lot of people on the internet and media make a huge deal about the cap. A lot of them dont really understand it and often times they parrot an article "Restructure bad" "Armageddon" "Sacrificing future, cap hell impending".

Every year we manage to be fine. Every year we end up under the cap. And under Garrett, weve been getting under the cap, while cutting aging veterans and replacing them with youth and better depth.

Up to you if you want to get riled up *every year* about a problem that gets solved *every year*

 

[Doomsay]

I tend to disagree with the doom and gloom aspect of restructuring contracts. Either you lose money now, or lose money later, either way if you’re not ‘hitting’ on a player, you’re losing money.

You are systemically increasing the cost of players over the duration of there playing time at the expense of others by perpetually extending them to eek it out under the cap. It's not doom and gloom, it's just reality and resource inefficient.

Not that you said this, but the whole running back discussion is kind of a meaningless sideshow in comparison.

 

[lurkercowboy]

Probably an overstatement, but he's been terrible and lost his starting spot to Scandrick (he doesn't play in the base 3-4 anymore, but does take over his old spot in the Nickel/Dime when Scandrick plays the slot).

He played on 96% of the defensive snaps versus the Eagles according to this article. That is not exactly riding the pine. I've seen terrible corners before, but we have three good corners this year. http://www.bloggingtheboys.com/2013...defense-monte-kiffin-not-your-fathers-tampa-2

 

[lurkercowboy]

90th ranked cornerback is a disaster when you gave up a 2nd for him.

It depends on who is doing the ranking.

 

[dart]

I also think the guy totally whiffs on the RB situation, completely dismissing factors surrounding the situation and embellishing the ‘resources’ we’ve poured into the position and lost. We didn’t simply get tired of our RBs, they stopped producing.

Since 2004, we’ve had 5 starters at RB… Julius, Felix, Marion, DeMarco (and Eddie George if you want to count him like the author has). I would think that’s pretty normal for that span.

In fact, my go-to comparison, New England in that same span?

Correy Dillion, Laurence Maroney, Sammy Morris, Benjarvus Green-Ellis, Stevan Ridley.

And in a lot of those years, they were running back by committee with guys like Fred Taylor and Kevin Faulk being on the team.

the only difference is that NE had a O Line to run behind

 

[perrykemp]

Because it's impossible to precisely control how money lost gets stacked on top of each other in later seasons. I don't think the team intended to eat all of Ratliff's contract next year, for example, which means that something else will unintentionally get pushed back into the future, and who's to say that money doesn't have another unintended consequence, and so on? 2015 or 2016 may be the year that it all finally adds up, but it has to happen at some point.

BINGO. You've highlighted the danger of the 'Restructuring so many contracts as a Strategy' philosophy to managing the cap. It's not orderly. If one of those big contracts you are constantly restructuring involves a player who hits the wall at once (ie Ratliff or in a worst case scenario D. Ware) the game of musical chairs ends and the WHOLE bill or nearly all of it comes immediately due.

 

[Nova]

Because it's impossible to precisely control how money lost gets stacked on top of each other in later seasons. I don't think the team intended to eat all of Ratliff's contract next year, for example, which means that something else will unintentionally get pushed back into the future, and who's to say that money doesn't have another unintended consequence, and so on? 2015 or 2016 may be the year that it all finally adds up, but it has to happen at some point.

Also, consider this:

The team created about $28 million in cap space this year by "borrowing" $7 million from 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 each. They still have to account for the missing $7 million next season on top of about $24 million in either dead money or commitments. They'll cut some players, for sure, but they'll still likely have to "borrow" another $30-40 million just to field a competitive team and stay cap compliant. So they'll borrow it from 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Let's say that adds an extra $9 million per season to the cap for those years.

Now we're looking at $16 million a season for 2015, 2016, and 2017, and that's not counting dead money from releases or trades. 2015 looks like another cap nightmare, especially with new contracts for Dez and Tyron. They will probably need to "borrow" more money from future caps that year as well (2016-2019). Let's split the difference between the previous two loan amounts and just say $8 million per season. Now you're dealing with $24 million in added commitments for 2016 and 2017 ($7 + $9 + $8 million), $17 million in 2018 ($9 + $8 million), and that last $8 million for 2018. Somewhere in these years you're also going to have to deal with the dead money that will come from all of the back-end bonuses in the contracts of players like Romo, Ware, and Carr. This could easily turn into an Aikman-like situation.

I know that there are plenty of factors that could come into play here -- a big boost to the cap in 2015 could give the team some breathing room, but the point is there doesn't seem to be an end in sight to these restructures until the team pays the piper in regards to the current core of highly paid players. And it's going to be really, really ugly.

I’m no cap wiz so thank you for the explanation but I’m still not really seeing the difference. Actually, that’s not true. I understand the difference, but I just don’t see how that doesn’t fall under the principle “It’s not when you pay, it’s who you pay.”

In either scenario, you don’t have the cap space to get what you want. So you’re either borrowing from the future and will be limited then, or you’re limiting yourself now and not spending.

If you’re restructuring, you may not have the resources to secure a player later on.

And if you’re not, you may be missing out on a player now.

I mean (and this is if I understand correctly, which I may not) if you restructure a contract to spread out the cap hit, or just delay the bulk of it, it’s not like you’ll have to pay interest on it, like borrowing money in the real world. Player X just doesn’t suddenly become more expensive, you just have to account for him at a different time when you have less commitments and therefore more cap space, or just an ungoverned time.

In fact, isn’t it quite the opposite of paying interest? The contract actually becomes less valuable because the league wide cap generally increases year by year. Doesn’t prolonging paying player X actually help you pay for the player with more ease? The only trade off is that you can’t make as clean of a break, and you’ll end up with dead money on the books. However, if you picked the RIGHT player, that last part won’t matter because he’s worth the contract.

To me it’s more about picking the right player and not overpaying the wrong player and the illusion of control.

 

[Matts4313]

You are right and that is exactly the point that people miss. Are there risk to restructuring? Yes. But there are benefits too. Here is an example:

Lets say you go to Best Buy. You have two options:

Option 1: Pay cash $2,000 for a HDTV
Option 2: Pay $200 cash and finance the rest at 0% interest for 5 years. But wait, it gets better. Not only do you get 0% interest, but your job Guarantees you a raise every year.So your future payments are actually a smaller percentage of your total budget.

So option 1 you end up spending $2k. In option 2 you end up spending $1750, when indexed to your salary raises. (Call it inflation, purchasing power, whatever).

The Risk, of course, is that your new TV breaks and you have to purchase another one before the first one is paid off fully.

 

[The Quest for Six]

Great article and he's 100% correct....

 

[mldardy]

I guess Parcells has a lifetime pass for his failures with this organization.

Failed draft classes, millions wasted on subpar free agents doesn't matter to the masses. He won 2 SB w/ Giants!

He doesn't with me. I've always been critical of Parcells while he was here.