Can we afford Dak?

[Ranched]

Dallas may be able to afford a 2nd franchise tag without jettisoning any of their high value contracts. They could potentially rid themselves of Jaylon, Zeke or even Coops contract if they needed to create cap space.

 

[CATCH17]

You're just another Prescott hater that wants to blame only him for the Cowboys not getting further. No acknowledgement of any bad defenses or having as his #1 receiver the receiver that led the league in drops, or a RB who's production keeps dropping every year since his rookie year, or like having their starting LT out and his replacements give up EIGHT sacks in one game. Last time ANYONE checked this is still a team game and EVERY player has to do his job on EVERY play or negative things can happen.
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No I like Dak.. He’s a above average QB that has elite intangibles.

I’m just realistic and you aren’t. You don’t know how to separate from being a fan.. That’s normal. Nothing wrong with that.

I don’t believe in this football utopia you think we can reach in the salary cap era and I guess I don’t ignore the rest of the leagues evidence of what happens when these guys take up a ton of your cap.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

IMO, that's the same thing as saying we can't afford him. It's all about the ability to win championships. If the price for Dak is so high that we can't afford a quality line to protect him and a quality defense to keep the other team's points down, then that price is too high.

To be clear, this is NOT Dak bashing. I love the guy. I think he's talented and has a great attitude. It's just that this is a team sport. He can't win a championship all by himself. No quarterback in history has ever been able to do that. If his price gets so high that the rest of the team can't be strong enough, then we would be better off moving on and taking our chances drafting a quarterback.

I want him to sign! But at an affordable price and then have him play on a team with a good, solid defense. Those championships we won with Staubach and Aikman were all with excellent defenses. Those guys were great, but even they had to be backed up with great defenses. And being well protected by the O-line and having a good running game goes without saying.

why can't we afford a quality line. Smith, Collins, Martin are three of the highest paid OL men in the league. before fredbeard retired, he was among the tops too. and this year we had Dak at 32M on the books, which is top 5 salary in the league for QBs and still had smith, collins, martin (all of whom got injured) and would have had fredbeard if he didn't retire... so this notion of not being able to afford is just a notion. myth.

and the defensive issues are due to years and I mean years of bad defensive drafts...you can not, BUILD a defense through FA. you can sign a key mid level FA if available (and if we can evaluate them properly as we keep missing on these mid level signings) and we can sign a key FA in a position that would help put the defense over the top, but if we draft defensively as we have in the past 15 years. I don't care how much cap space you have, you aint' building a defense through FA.

 

[CATCH17]

If you’re going to put average production as part of your argument, be prepared to back it up. Give use who you base your average baseline QB is and then give us Daks stats compared to that QB. We’ll wait.

Such a simple way to look at it..

Yeah let’s go look at Dak crushing 3 of the 5 worst teams in football in 2019 and look at him having heavy volume against trash pass defenses in 2020 and lets just ignore how we absolutely suck when we play a team with a pulse.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

Is Lawrence a 21M DL? Elliott a 15M RB? Cooper a 20M WR? Smith a 11M LB?

Any team that is going to hand out top 5 contracts to any players is going to have to have some players overperforming on their contracts. Do the Cowboys have that? Maybe Gallup and Lamb.

This isn't about Prescott or even paying the QB, it is about how this franchise distributes the cap money and the evaluation of player value. It is the sum of the parts that creates this whole mess.

you just pointed to a great problem

its not about the money. it defintley shows we have the money and ability to fit that level of contracts under the cap. its evaluating those players and them performing at that level. we handed Smith an 11M contract and he sucks....we handed elliott 15M and he is 10-15 range RB. Lawrence maybe a great run stopping DE, but you don't pay DEs 21M to stop the run. you pay them 8-10M.

the problem as you just listed is we are handing out large contracts to players that don't perform to any level close to their contracts.

with that said, you are going to overpay for FAs. that's the NFL. at least cooper is the best WR on the team and he performs....yeah 20M is a lot, but by what? 2-3M....again, at least he performs.

 

[cowboyec]

Can we afford to chase after QBs season after season when we have one in our hands?

exactly right...at some point we're gonna have to pay.
doesn't matter if its Dak,stafford,goff,or a rookie.....and these folks won't like paying them anymore than Dak.
and im sure someone will say...we like the savings....but its not like this team will use that money they save on top tier f/a's any way...because this f/o DOES NOT SPEND MONEY CHASING AFTER F/A'S.
so why cripple this team with a lesser,cheaper QB?
we have a good'n....NOW.
pay him.
and get on to team building thru the draft.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

Such a simple way to look at it..

Yeah let’s go look at Dak crushing 3 of the 5 worst teams in football in 2019 and look at him having heavy volume against trash pass defenses in 2020 and lets just ignore how we absolutely suck when we play a team with a pulse.

2018? or did NFL big bang only happened in 2019? and we saw how your hand picked QB that was going to produce at the highest level, Mr. triple D (dink and dunk dalton) perform....you said it, he was going to produce at the highest level similar to Dak....your statement.....

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

Why is that the only alternative? Why can't the proposition be that we sign a good vet and draft a kid that we can develop over 2 or 3 years?

Hmm, okay, if we are to do that, who would we sign that isn't going to "break the bank" like supposedly Dak will? Cuz most of the veteran QBs that are going to be available are going to likely want at least what Dak is wanting, and they don't know the system like Dak does.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

I don’t blame Dak for anything.. Football is a team sport.

The dont sign Dak crowd and the sign Dak crowd all agree on this 1 thing..


The difference is the sign Dak crowd believes in football utopia and that we can sign Dak and still build the juggernaut team he requires.. That is just laughable. Especially believing that the Jones’s will do it.

we have 7 of the largest position contracts on the team. so its not like we can't afford the contracts....we clearly can. its signing the right players...that's a player evaluation issue, not a contract issue.

 

[Ranching]

It’ll get done.

Dak wanted 4 years, Jerry wanted 5. Both likely balked on it. They’ll get it done.

He wanted 4 last year. Wonder if he'll want 3 this year to keep his timeline. A four year deal now, would essentially be five years when you add last year.......hmm?

 

[gjkoeppen]

Not only that, but with the TV deals expiring at the end of this season, there should be a significant boost to the salary cap next season with new TV deals coming in. Also, if the COVID vaccine proves successful, I think it is possible that we may see more fans being able to attend games. So, the cap should increase from that as well. Also, if the NFL is smart, they'll use methods such as VR Chat to allow users to attend a game virtually and have their avatars shown on TV. That sort of deal would help increase the cap as well while also giving the league more money (which we all know they want) and a fun way to attend a game without actually having to book a flight, a hotel, and gas on top of a game ticket. If they can work a deal out with VR Chat, they can say, if you want to attend a game, you have to pay x dollars that we'd charge in this spot at the game (cuz if they charge less, nobody would attend a game lol). I think fans might go for that. I would! And I having a chat option could allow fans the ability to trash talk each other that way. Plus, you can actually talk with each other verbally on VR Chat.

Only ESPN contract expires after the 2021 season, the other 3, FOX, CBS and NBC don't expire until after the 2022 season. Next I seriously doubt that the NFL will allow the screens cluttered up with avatars while broadcasting games. I agree that with a vaccine we'll see more fans in attendance which will increase profits. There may not be enough money with fans to travel to games yet, but all seats allocated for fans of the visiting team that aren't sold by 3 days prior to the game can be bought by the local fans that don't have to travel.
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[RustyBourneHorse]

at some point we're gonna have to pay.
doesn't matter if its Dak,stafford,goff,or a rookie.....and these folks won't like paying them anymore than Dak.
and im sure someone will say...we like the savings....but its not like this team will use that money they save on top tier f/a's any way...because this f/o DOES NOT SPEND MONEY CHASING AFTER F/A'S.
so why cripple this team with a lesser,cheaper QB?
we have a good'n....NOW.
pay him.
and get on to team building thru the draft.

Exactly, and we have immediate needs on defence that we MUST pump resources into. And, like I said, the cap is going to increase next offseason, we can probably work a deal where the money this year isn't great but goes up next year as the cap goes up. I think that could work. Especially if Dak agrees to a 5 year deal.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

why can't we afford a quality line. Smith, Collins, Martin are three of the highest paid OL men in the league. before fredbeard retired, he was among the tops too. and this year we had Dak at 32M on the books, which is top 5 salary in the league for QBs and still had smith, collins, martin (all of whom got injured) and would have had fredbeard if he didn't retire... so this notion of not being able to afford is just a notion. myth.

and the defensive issues are due to years and I mean years of bad defensive drafts...you can not, BUILD a defense through FA. you can sign a key mid level FA if available (and if we can evaluate them properly as we keep missing on these mid level signings) and we can sign a key FA in a position that would help put the defense over the top, but if we draft defensively as we have in the past 15 years. I don't care how much cap space you have, you aint' building a defense through FA.

Those are great points. It's not about money only. You must be able to draft well. I've been frustrated because we had a great thing going with our O-line, starting in about 2014. There was a lot of injury, so we might be able to bounce back and do well there. We also need good coaching. I think the best O-line coach we had was Bill Callahan, and look what he's done with the Browns now. But you're right. A team could throw money at problem areas, but still not fix them. That can happen because of bad drafting or bad coaching or both.

I was thrilled when this team's O-line was kicking butt and we could pig up time of possession, keeping other team's offenses off the field. I would love to see us do that again. If we could do that but then also have a great defense, that would be a championship level team.

 

[TexasBacon]

I hope Dak will do a deal that will make his cap hit proportionally smaller this next year when the cap is much lower. That would help tremendously. If he's the competitor I think he is hopefully he will realize that may give Dallas a significant edge to contend in 2021 while he still gets his $ and long term security.

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

Only ESPN contract expires after the 2021 season, the other 3, FOX, CBS and NBC don't expire until after the 2022 season. Next I seriously doubt that the NFL will allow the screens cluttered up with avatars while broadcasting games. I agree that with a vaccine we'll see more fans in attendance which will increase profits. There may not be enough money with fans to travel to games yet, but all seats allocated for fans of the visiting team that aren't sold by 3 days prior to the game can be bought by the local fans that don't have to travel.
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Well, that's even better then imo. That just means that the salary cap will go up after both of those deals get reworked in those two seasons. Which makes signing Dak even better imo. And okay, maybe not allowing screens to be taken up with avatars, but, at the very least, allowing fans the option of watching a game virtually through VR Chat would certainly help them, even if the TV viewers can't see the avatars.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

If your plan is to let Dak go and use the money to improve the team through veteran fa you need to check your head.

 

[TwoCentPlain]

I think it is already done and may have been since the deadline ran out last season. Booger is not going to make an announcement with all this Rodgers, Stafford and Watson stuff swirling around. He prefers to be the big story.

A done deal for a long term contract for a QB still on crutches 15 weeks after a horrific leg injury and can’t pass a physical? Tell me Jerry didn’t sign A QB who can’t pass a physical to the largest ever contract. Because that would be insane.

Right now no one can even guarantee Dak will be ready by camp. When is he going to run and cut? When is he going to throw? All we have is one reporter saying Dak’s rehab is going good. He is rehabbing in a pool so as not to put weight on the foot.

One setback in Dak’s rehab will kill the season if Dak is getting $40M per year.

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

I hope Dak will do a deal that will make his cap hit proportionally smaller this next year when the cap is much lower. That would help tremendously. If he's the competitor I think he is hopefully he will realize that may give Dallas a significant edge to contend in 2021 while he still gets his $ and long term security.

Exactly, and essentially a built-in restructured deal to ride with the cap increase as the new TV Deals get reworked.

 

[JoeKing]

Dude, quit acting like we’re any good even with Dak. It doesn’t work without him? It doesn’t work with him either. I’m not against bringing Dak back, but his production is replaceable.

Did you not read the part of my post about Dak haters? Shut up! Stop talking to me! I don't hear your ignorance. I'll have no part in entertaining it, dummy! Dak IS the Cowboys starting QB now and into the future. Get over it!

 

[JoeKing]

I think it is already done and may have been since the deadline ran out last season. Booger is not going to make an announcement with all this Rodgers, Stafford and Watson stuff swirling around. He prefers to be the big story.

Exactly right!