Cap impact of cutting players reviewed

[Verdict]

If you saw my car and my salary you wouldn’t be happy with me.
Purchased it 6 months before impending marriage.
I knew it was my last chance at car happiness !

I hope you also enjoyed a few other things that will also likely disappear.

 

[Zman5]

Even if you only look at the base salary, then you also have to factor in the cost of their replacement. So can we adequately replace Scandrick for 3M or less? I don’t think so. Obviously we won’t get a starting caliber CB for 3M, but I would say we don’t need one. Awuzie, Lewis and Brown will be a good trio, but we would want a veteran on the roster to fill in, in case of an injury, and I think that player won’t be cheaper than 3M. Similar arguments can be made for some of those guys, I think Mayowa *could* be replaced by a mid round pick, so that makes sense. We may only keep 3 TEs depending on Rico, so Hanna makes sense. Witten is worth 6.5M imo, Crawford isn’t, so i think he doesn’t return at that salary. Dez isn’t, but 14 TDs in our last 29 games is a lot to walk away from without a replacement

You sound like a man with a plan.

 

[CCBoy]

I just wanted to review the decision criteria of cutting or keeping a player relative to the salary cap.

For players like Scandrick, Crawford, Witten, Dez etc., only the amount of the base salary is important when deciding to keep or cut them. Dead-money is irrelevant to the decision.

I see many posts where the dead-money is referenced when discussing cutting players but it just confuses the issue and is irrelevant for the Cowboys.

Dead-money is called (unrealized) prorated bonus money when the player is on the team. That money hits the cap with or without the player on the team. It just changes names and the dates when it hits the cap but it's the same total amount either way.

The Cowboys don't manage the cap based on just the current or upcoming year. They manage it based on a multi-year strategy. Back when they were maxed out against the cap in 2013 and previous years, the immediate year was the primary decision criteria; however, those days are long gone.

If you add the next 3 year's cap totals together, that number is reduced by the amount of salary that will not be paid to the player.

This all assumes the player does not have a guaranteed salary or other guarantees which is almost always true if the player played at least 2 years on his current contract. Often the first two years of a contract will be guaranteed.

Scandrick - 3M saved if cut before the start of the 2018 season. It does not matter that there is 3.8M of dead-money. If he stays that 3.8M in dead-money hits the cap as 2.2M of prorated money in 2018 and 1.6M of prorated money in 2019. It's the same total either way.

As long as the team can move money from other contracts into the future, then dead-money from cutting a player is irrelevant to the decision to keep or cut the player.

If they sign a free agent or re-sign their own players, the first year cap hit is normally small. Back when they signed Brandon Carr to a 5-year, 50M contract (10M average) his 1st year cap hit was about 3.8M. That means they likely don't even need to restructure other contracts to sign or re-sign some players.

Savings from cutting players:
Scandrick 3M
Witten 6.5M
Crawford 6M
Dez 12.5M
Mayowa 2.75M
Hanna 2.75M

A great post that would allow a fan to understand the past five seasons for the Cowboys. The team has followed Stephen's walk through cap management, and has arrived through that dark tunnel. The team can now continue with it's drafted/grown players that bend towards top shelf and deep...thanks for the post.

 

[DogFace]

I hope you also enjoyed a few other things that will also likely disappear.

Some may say too much.

Not me!

And yeah, they disappeared.

 

[stilltheguru88]

Alshon Jeffrey just got 14m and he is a Dez clone

Keep Dez and draft a WR in the 1st or 2nd................no FAs
Jarvis Landry is about to get 5/60m
Terrelle Pryor was a huge bust but he only took a one year 10m deal
Tavon Austin got 4/42m and he stinks
Allen Hurns got 4/40m......who??

Every FA wr isn’t getting paid big money.