Cowboy Salary Cap thoughts

[JoeyBoy718]

By the time the OL is ready for more money. Romo will be just about ready to retire, So that's about 20 mil a year.... A young QB with a small cap number will enjoy the Great Wall of Dallas..

Good point. We just have to find a way to stay competitive for the next 3-4 years without mortgaging the future. And, like you said, once that 3-4 years comes up, we'll free up a lot of money to keep a lot of our talented players because Romo will be gone. Now, the issue is, will we find a QB who can continue to lead us to Super Bowl aspirations on a rookie contract?

 

[mwj473]

They have about 11.5M in cap space this year.

You sure about that? The Dez deal gave us back almost $6M back on this years cap. Overthecap says we now have over $17M in space, so even with Hardy's $7.5M left, we would still be at $10m under this year.

 

[Szczepanik]

Not to mention by the time we need to extend any of the OL, the cap will have increased on it's own by 15-20 if it keeps at the rate of 5 mil per year. Just saying.

 

[Nightman]

Hardy's current cap hit is only 3.2M which indicates that his contract has not been fully accounted for under the cap. If he plays 12 games, his total pay will be between 10M and 11M. Let's say it's 10.5M which would leave 10.5M - 3.2M = 7.3M that has not been accounted for under the cap as of right now.

That includes 1.8m in sack incentives that don't have to be accounted for until after the season.

If it stays at 4 games his number will be 8.8m before the sack incentives. Subtracting the 3.2m that is already counted would mean another 5.6m needed.

We are at 17.5m under after the Dez deal so subtracting the 5.6m would leave us around 11.9m under.

They might even get more back from McClain's second suspension since his game played incentives were already added in to his cap number(14 games).

 

[xwalker]

That includes 1.8m in sack incentives that don't have to be accounted for until after the season.

If it stays at 4 games his number will be 8.8m before the sack incentives. Subtracting the 3.2m that is already counted would mean another 5.6m needed.

We are at 17.5m under after the Dez deal so subtracting the 5.6m would leave us around 11.9m under.

They might even get more back from McClain's second suspension since his game played incentives were already added in to his cap number(14 games).

I agree with those numbers. I thought you were saying that all of Hardy's cap hit was already accounted for in the current cap estimates.

For anybody that wants a breakdown on how it ended up at 8.8M, here it is:

1.8M sack incentives - Will be on 2016 cap
9.25M in per game bonuses (each game missed should be 9.25/16)
750K base (each game missed should be 750K/17)
1.3M workout bonus (not tied to games played)

With 4 games missed, that's 12 of 16 games played bonuses and 13 weeks paid In terms of base salary.
(9.25/16) x 12 = 6.9375M
(750K/17) x 13 = 573K
1.3M workout bonus
Total = 8.8105M

As you indicated, 8.8M - 3.2M = 5.6M of additional cap space required if he only missed 4 games.

 

[Bluefin]

By the time the OL is ready for more money. Romo will be just about ready to retire, So that's about 20 mil a year.... A young QB with a small cap number will enjoy the Great Wall of Dallas.

When the time comes to start handing out OL extensions, none of them should be anywhere near as expensive as LT Tyron Smith.

And the team will often design large contracts to be restructured in years two and sometimes three in order to keep the cap hits low. So the deals don't become cap eaters until year three or four.

There will be a lot of roster churn by that time.

Out of the current top cap numbers on the team, Tony Romo (#1), Brandon Carr (#2), Jason Witten (#3), Doug Free (#5 if you include active dead money), Sean Lee (#6), Morris Claiborne (#7) may all be gone.

 

[Nightman]

When the time comes to start handing out OL extensions, none of them should be anywhere near as expensive as LT Tyron Smith.

And the team will often design large contracts to be restructured in years two and sometimes three in order to keep the cap hits low. So the deals don't become cap eaters until year three or four.

There will be a lot of roster churn by that time.

Out of the current top cap numbers on the team, Tony Romo (#1), Brandon Carr (#2), Jason Witten (#3), Doug Free (#5 if you include active dead money), Sean Lee (#6), Morris Claiborne (#7) may all be gone.

The only problem is that they don't have different tags for OT, OG and C. Just OL and everyone gets paid LT money.

Just means that the Franchise Tag will be off the table, but the 5th year option will be in full effect.

 

[ifixoldhouses]

Yahoo article list Cowboys as top 5 in salary cap trouble next year

http://www.cheatsheet.com/sports/nfl-5-teams-facing-serious-salary-cap-issues-in-2016.html/?ref=YF

Thought we were good?

• Active Contracts: $140,362,357
• Dead Money: $1,000
• Total 2016 Salary Cap Figure: $140,363,357

The Cowboys’ have long been flirting with salary cap disaster, and 2016 may be the year where thing implode for America’s team. Their No. 1 priority will be locking up wide receiver Dez Bryant, and his extension will eat up most of the team’s available cap space. They will also have to make decisions on defensive end Greg Hardy and cornerbacks Brandon Carr and Orlando Scandrick. Furthermore, the team simply cannot continue to restructure Tony Romo’s contract. The one player the Cowboys could restructure is offensive tackle Tyron Smith, who is scheduled to have a cap hit of $14 million in 2016.



Read more: http://www.cheatsheet.com/sports/nf...-issues-in-2016.html/?a=viewall#ixzz3hYxncvZy

 

[Eskimo]

Yahoo article list Cowboys as top 5 in salary cap trouble next year

http://www.cheatsheet.com/sports/nfl-5-teams-facing-serious-salary-cap-issues-in-2016.html/?ref=YF

Thought we were good?

• Active Contracts: $140,362,357
• Dead Money: $1,000
• Total 2016 Salary Cap Figure: $140,363,357

The Cowboys’ have long been flirting with salary cap disaster, and 2016 may be the year where thing implode for America’s team. Their No. 1 priority will be locking up wide receiver Dez Bryant, and his extension will eat up most of the team’s available cap space. They will also have to make decisions on defensive end Greg Hardy and cornerbacks Brandon Carr and Orlando Scandrick. Furthermore, the team simply cannot continue to restructure Tony Romo’s contract. The one player the Cowboys could restructure is offensive tackle Tyron Smith, who is scheduled to have a cap hit of $14 million in 2016.



Read more: http://www.cheatsheet.com/sports/nf...-issues-in-2016.html/?a=viewall#ixzz3hYxncvZy

That article is terrible as they made several mistakes.

They talked about extending Dez Bryant - deal was done 2 weeks ago and the article is dated July 31.

They talked about Carr who can be cut after this year with minimal effect on the salary cap as he'll be in the last year of his contract.

They talked about OScan who just signed an extension.

They talked about not extending Romo to free up space. Well what do we have to worry about when Romo is gone. Now is the time to push money down the road to keep the team strong while we have a franchise QB. Once Romo is gone we won't be paying franchise QB money and can afford the cap hit.

 

[waving monkey]

It will be interesting to see how we go about this. Tyron Smith was a must sign since he is a LT. And Frederick likely is as well since he is a center. But in a few years, do we resign Zach Martin? And if so, do we resign Collins? What if Collins is just as good (assuming he plays guard), is he a priority, since we retain his rights for longer?

It may not make financial sense to resign all 4, and to instead try to replace them in a few years.

I think Martin is a no brainer now Collins may be trade bait

 

[TwoDeep3]

I think managing the cap as the Cowboys have been doing will go a long way in keeping the so called window open. I have so many times teams going for broke only to end up not winning a SB and paying the price in the following years. Cowboys have a good strategy going and if they continue down this path they can be competitive for a good long time

The "so-called window" is open as long as Romo can perform at a high standard. Cap space or no cap space, this team without Romo goes back to 7-9.

 

[dallasdave]

That is the key distinction. Everyone thinks DAL has completely changed the way they deal with the cap, but it's just not the case. They still use large signing bonuses and restructures to create a ton of cap room, see Romo, TSmith and Dez.

What they have done better is drafting and choosing which vets to re-sign. They got burned in the past by personnel decisions not by the accounting methods used for the cap. Smart deals that limit risk like Lee, Melton, McClain and Hardy are the new norm.

They are going with shorter deals and higher turnover, but if they keep drafting well there will be plenty of cap space for Dez, Hardy, Crawford and another DB.

Good points, Hope the Cowboys can sign Hardy next year. I think Dallas wins the Super Bowl this year and the DE's are a big part(Hardy, Gregory, and Lawrence). Then sign Hardy to a longer term deal.

 

[dallasdave]

If they want to keep him, Hardy will be a big contract next year

Win the Super Bowl and Steve and Jerry have the check book out and ready to write. !!!

 

[gmoney112]

So we have space to resign Crawford/Hardy and make Carr a June 1 cut?

That would help immensely in further developing our defense into a dominant unit. Especially with the unknown futures of Lee and McClain.

 

[JoeBoBBY]

Although I hate the idea of handing over what could be an otherwise solid playoff team to a rookie QB or someones cast off.... I think thats what will end up happening.

It will be interesting to see how all that plays out. Who might be available at that dreaded time when Romo cant play anymore?

 

[Garrettop]

It's pretty obvious the offense is being built to accommodate a rookie 3-4 years from now.

 

[Amy50632]

The thought of Tony retiring soon makes me sad . Wish we gave him the weapons he needed sooner.

 

[Garrettop]

He's had weapons. Just no line or no defense or HC Wade Phillips for most of the time.