Twitter: Cowboys create cap room with Zeke's contract

[buybuydandavis]

May have their eyes on a QB2.
What concerns me about Zeke's contract tweak is deferring money into an already loaded future payout schedule, Jerry's potential to do it again and Zeke's final year becoming a huge dead cap hit with no upside in parting ways.

I don't worry about pushing already guaranteed money back and forth between years. That's just accounting. I worry if we're using that pushing to spend beyond our means today.

If it's used to make room to take the hit on Jaylon's gtd money sooner rather than later, it's good news. Makes the team better and has no downside that I see.

Zeke's final year should be next year. He's totally cuttable in 2023. Same before and after the restructure.

If Jerry does it *again*, then it's a problem. But doing it this year changed nothing.

 

[Bullflop]

Maybe the extra cap space allows the FO to target and sign some good backups for the QB and OL spots! Is this too much to ask?

 

[Flamma]

I don't worry about pushing already guaranteed money back and forth between years. That's just accounting. I worry if we're using that pushing to spend beyond our means today.

If it's used to make room to take the hit on Jaylon's gtd money sooner rather than later, it's good news. Makes the team better and has no downside that I see.

Zeke's final year should be next year. He's totally cuttable in 2023. Same before and after the restructure.

If Jerry does it *again*, then it's a problem. But doing it this year changed nothing.

Exactly. Nothing has changed as far as I'm concerned. He can be out after 2022. That will also be the year he has the biggest cap hit while on this team. Because if by some chance they decide to keep him, his cap hit only gets lower.

 

[Flamma]

Maybe the extra cap space allows the FO to target and sign some good backups for the QB and OL spots! Is this too much to ask?

Not as far as I can tell. That restructure allowed them to come up for air. That's about it.

 

[Bullflop]

Not as far as I can tell. That restructure allowed them to come up for air. That's about it.

Ouch -- if that's the case, it seems we're stuck with Nsekhe and Rush, then!

 

[Qcard]

I don’t get it…they cleared 6 million effortlessly. I think y’all picked the wrong time to say they are in salary hell lol.

Village Idiots....

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

huzzah for the fat chap.

 

[PAPPYDOG]

Because Cooper is playing his last year in Dallas.

Can you say OVERPAID!!!!
Add to that the 1st we gave OMG total wash on this player!
Then again Dak couldn't find the endzone till he arrived oh well another Dak 666 move for our Boys!

 

[Jarntt]

It’s not 12 mil more than it would have been
Post June cut is 6 now

Understood and $6M more the next year. Like I said. No chance I see them doing this unless the wheels fall off. If they were considering cutting him I don't think they would have restructured him. There wasn't a need. They will likely just roll the cap space forward and not even use it this year IMO

 

[conner01]

Understood and $6M more the next year. Like I said. No chance I see them doing this unless the wheels fall off. If they were considering cutting him I don't think they would have restructured him. There wasn't a need. They will likely just roll the cap space forward and not even use it this year IMO

I think they seen no down side
They can still move on in 23

 

[Jarntt]

I think they seen no down side
They can still move on in 23

Right, that is exactly what I was saying. After 2023 is when he really becomes cuttable now from a contract perspective (IF from a performance level we are better moving on of course). Before the sweet spot was anytime after 2022.

 

[jnday]

Then we've done a horrific job at S, DT, and backup OLine.

They have done a horrific job managing the salary cap as a whole. Handing out elite level contracts to slightly above average players is just bad cap management. Martin is the only player that has lived up to his contract. The rest of them stopped playing at an above average level as soon as they started getting elite level paychecks. Lawrence, Zeke, Cooper, etc has offered little value once they started getting those big paydays. It seems like Lawrence has a surgery every offseason that prevents him from being ready for training camp. Why doesn’t he have the surgeries immediately following the season so that he will be recovered? He has become a run stopping DE that is similar to Anthony Spencer’s level of play. He definitely is not an elite talent. He is just one example.

 

[conner01]

Right, that is exactly what I was saying. After 2023 is when he really becomes cuttable now from a contract perspective (IF from a performance level we are better moving on of course). Before the sweet spot was anytime after 2022.

And I think the owners know where the cap is going and have a good idea of dang acute numbers
There could always be something unpredictable happen like last year, but the teams know the numbers and know the cap is about to soar in the near future
Some teams risk tomorrow for a shot today, the rams certainly do
But Jerry and most teams structure deals so the cap isn’t really a big problem
That doesn’t mean you can keep everyone or sign just anyone but most teams do a solid job

 

[Ranched]

Not only was his entire 2021 salary guaranteed, but so is his 2022 base salary of $12.4 million. However, it does create $6.88 million of additional space this year.

 

[Joe Realist]

Foles?

 

[buybuydandavis]

They have done a horrific job managing the salary cap as a whole.

To be fair, if Covid had not come along, the cap would be hire, and the contracts wouldn't look as bad.

Jerry did what a lot of people scream for: Pay Da Man. He paid lots of them. It looked like he was trying to get out ahead of the cap increases coming from the new contracts. But last year knocked the cap back, and with it Jerry's strategy to lock players in to the old wage scale.

 

[clff15701]

More kicking bad contract money down the road as usual by this dumb organization.

New Zeke contract with cap hit and dead money:


2021: $6.82M cap hit $36.9M dead money

2022: $18.2M cap hit $30M dead money

2023: $16.7M cap hit $11.8M dead money

2024: $14.3M cap hit $6M dead money

2025: $17.1M cap hit $1.7M dead money

2026: $16.6M cap hit $0 dead money


So Zeke not going anywhere for at least the next 3 seasons when he turns 29 years old.

Don’t see what the problem is. He’s never hurt and still young. Keep pushing it down the line.
It’s not like he’s jaylon or a hurt Todd Gurley.

 

[Bullflop]

Foles?

Not to get anyone overly excited but there are whisperings that this cap space was created to acquire Nick Foles. Nothing concrete, of course but it bears watching. The final cuts await, in any case and if not him, there might possibly be others under consideration. The staff is also considering several DTs at this time, so there's that to consider, as well. The Cowboys just might be waiting to see who's cut before deciding on who to bring in, if anyone. I've heard they've got a total of $12 mil total in cap space, so if true, it's not exactly chump change.

 

[Cowpolk]

They should have extended his contract by 3 years while at it. That would have fired these forums up.

 

[Bullflop]

They should have extended his contract by 3 years while at it. That would have fired these forums up.

It definitely would have but probably not in a good way. Yikes!