Twitter: Cowboys create cap room with Zeke's contract

[fivetwos]

They converted $8.6MM of his 2021 $9.6MM base salary to a bonus. That $8.6MM is now spread over the next 5 seasons. If you cut him after the 2022 season, he would still have 3 years of that prorated bonus to account for ($1.72M per year) which they would have to advance into the 2023 cap year. Now they could June 1 cut him then which would spread the cap hit out over 2 years but they also couldn't use those cap savings until after June 1 (which might be OK if they are looking at extending a player before a season starts and need that extra cap space). They have now spread $8.6MM into future years and will have to account for it at some point.

FWIW, Spotrac and Over the Cap have already made the adjustments from this restructure.

I think I see where I'm missing you.

Semantics.

It will be 5.8m in 23 and 6m in 24 if cut after 22.

Those are the numbers after the restructure, but were not zero beforehand.

I thought you were saying those figures are in addition to what the dead money would have been anyway.

I'd estimate the delta to be around 3m.

Not a big deal to borrow against a year when the cap projects to be much higher than it is now.

 

[Denim Chicken]

I'll forgive them if they're doing this to help adsorb cutting Jaylon

 

[TwoCentPlain]

I predicted nothing of the kind, I did say that the NFL with the new TV contract would double the money the NFL brings in off those contracts and nothing has changed. With the extra revenue from TV contract and streaming service that money will go into the salary cap and the players pocket. Contracts will not be going down anytime soon. You want a stock market tip? sure invest in gold and silver as inflation continues to rise. Glad to be of service

Everything looks good on paper but there are a lot of red flags.
1) Any fan can easily stream any game for free. All it takes is minimal effort to find a link. I do it every week.
2) There are only so many fans to watch and the average age of the NFL viewer is pretty old, maybe in the 50s. If I stream at the official NFL site, then I am not watching the tv. Are they double counting the same viewer? Young kids are opting for other things to watch.
3) Preseason tickets for the Vikings were going for $3 on the secondary markets. Preseason tickets for the Jags/Saints we’re going for $0 + $1 handling fee on the secondary market. The stands were pretty empty.
4) Some stadiums are requiring certain ‘proofs’ as a condition for entry. We aren’t allowed to discuss those ‘proofs’ here so can’t say much.
5) Ponzi schemes always fall apart in time.
6) The NFL’s free farm system is not a sure thing to continue which would hit NFL teams’ profit for sure.

 

[Jarntt]

Where are you seeing that?

On my calculator? They just restructured $8.6M of salary correct? This will be split over 5 years or $1.72M per year.
In the "cutting him after 2022 scenario", two years worth of the restructure bonus will hit the cap (2021 and 2022). This leaves 3 years as dead money (2023, 2024, 2025). $1.72M *3 = $5.16M

 

[Sydla]

I think I see where I'm missing you.

Semantics.

It will be 5.8m in 23 and 6m in 24 if cut after 22.

Those are the numbers after the restructure, but were not zero beforehand.

I thought you were saying those figures are in addition to what the dead money would have been anyway.

I'd estimate the delta to be around 3m.

Not a big deal to borrow against a year when the cap projects to be much higher than it is now.

It is in addition to what the numbers would have been before the restructure.

If they had not touched his base salary this year, that $8.6MM cap hit would have been taken THIS YEAR. His dead money hit in 2023 would have been less than it is now. But by converting $8.6MM of his base salary to a bonus, they spread that over 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 league years. If they cut him after 2022, they still have to account for the annual remaining $1.72MM added cap hits for 2023, 2024, and 2025. Hence, they increased their dead money hit in 2023 by restructuring now. If they cut him that league year his dead money hit is now larger by $5.1MM compared to what it would have been if they cut him 2023 before the restructure.

Yes, they can designate him a June 1 cut in 2023 which would spread the overall cap hit over the 2023 and 2024 season. But that doesn't change the fact that if they cut him in 2023 after this restructure, they now would have to account for $5.1MM in extra dead money.

 

[Doomsday101]

Everything looks good on paper but there are a lot of red flags.
1) Any fan can easily stream any game for free. All it takes is minimal effort to find a link. I do it every week.
2) There are only so many fans to watch and the average age of the NFL viewer is pretty old, maybe in the 50s. If I stream at the official NFL site, then I am not watching the tv. Are they double counting the same viewer? Young kids are opting for other things to watch.
3) Preseason tickets for the Vikings were going for $3 on the secondary markets. Preseason tickets for the Jags/Saints we’re going for $0 + $1 handling fee on the secondary market. The stands were pretty empty.
4) Some stadiums are requiring certain ‘proofs’ as a condition for entry. We aren’t allowed to discuss those ‘proofs’ here so can’t say much.
5) Ponzi schemes always fall apart in time.
6) The NFL’s free farm system is not a sure thing to continue which would hit NFL teams’ profit for sure.

These TV contracts are paid out. How people circumvent the system has nothing to do with it. Fact is NFL and the networks along with Amazon have agreed to and signed a contract of 110 Billion dollars that goes into effect in 2023, except for FOX whose current contract expires this year so they will be paying out more next season.

 

[TwoCentPlain]

These TV contracts are paid out. How people circumvent the system has nothing to do with it. Fact is NFL and the networks along with Amazon have agreed to and signed a contract of 110 Billion dollars that goes into effect in 2023, except for FOX whose current contract expires this year so they will be paying out more next season.

Assuming the tv contracts are guaranteed and are not tied to the number of actual viewers over the ten years. Probably some clauses to protect the networks, I would imagine. Unless the networks are stupid and didn’t get any clauses written in.

 

[Cowpolk]

Are there playoffs for cap restructures?

Yes people here get to whine about it.

 

[Creeper]

Anyone else wondering why they chose to restructure Zeke before Amari, when Amari's contract is just begging to be restructured?

 

[fivetwos]

It is in addition to what the numbers would have been before the restructure.

If they had not touched his base salary this year, that $8.6MM cap hit would have been taken THIS YEAR. His dead money hit in 2023 would have been less than it is now. But by converting $8.6MM of his base salary to a bonus, they spread that over 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 league years. If they cut him after 2022, they still have to account for the annual remaining $1.72MM added cap hits for 2023, 2024, and 2025. Hence, they increased their dead money hit in 2023 by restructuring now. If they cut him that league year his dead money hit is now larger by $5.1MM compared to what it would have been if they cut him 2023 before the restructure.

Yes, they can designate him a June 1 cut in 2023 which would spread the overall cap hit over the 2023 and 2024 season. But that doesn't change the fact that if they cut him in 2023 after this restructure, they now would have to account for $5.1MM in extra dead money.

Ok. I see that now.

Since they are likely to rollover most of the new space to next season, they essentially borrowed 6.8m now, in exchange for 5.1m two years from now.

It's not ideal, but considering future values and the extreme likelihood that the cap will increase between now and then it cant be dismissed as a terrible move.

The terrible move was the contract in the first place.

We are going to want that cap space come March, and Elliott was going to be here through 2022 anyway.

I would say all teams figure to have a certain amount of dead money each season when the length of contracts exceed how long the player will realistically be with the club.

In the end, the choices were....

Don't do anything, but have 6.8 million less to work with now and this offseason....or restructure Cooper or Lawrence instead....whose 2022 salaries are not already guaranteed like Elliott.

I don't think this restructure changes how long Elliott remains here. With the other two it may have. Not sure.

 

[Stash]

Anyone else wondering why they chose to restructure Zeke before Amari, when Amari's contract is just begging to be restructured?

I'm not. Unlike most fans here, I think there's an extremely high chance that Cooper is playing elsewhere next year - either traded or released. I think Ceedee Lamb is about to become our clear-cut #1 receiver in 202.

 

[Doomsday101]

Assuming the tv contracts are guaranteed and are not tied to the number of actual viewers over the ten years. Probably some clauses to protect the networks, I would imagine. Unless the networks are stupid and didn’t get any clauses written in.

Contract has never been tied to viewership. The last TV contract was not predicated on viewership nor is this one. Network do look to concessions such as the additional game and likely a restructuring of post season and in the case of ESPN they will be added to the SB rotation which is a big cash cow for the networks.

 

[gimmesix]

But but but we have tons of cap space?????????

Yes, we do ... because of built-in restructures. This is how the salary cap game is played.

 

[gimmesix]

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.

Two years. 2023 is an out with almost $5 million in cap savings. If we draft a replacement, that's $5 million to go elsewhere. He never was leaving before then.

 

[Creeper]

I'm not. Unlike most fans here, I think there's an extremely high chance that Cooper is playing elsewhere next year - either traded or released. I think Ceedee Lamb is about to become our clear-cut #1 receiver in 202.

I was kind of hinting at this with my question.

 

[Beaker42]

Wish we’d create cap room by cutting him.

 

[conner01]

I believe OTC already has the restructure done.

His 2022 cap hit is now 18.22mil. Up ~1.72 mil from before.
And 2022 is the last of his guaranteed base.

I don’t think that’s after the restructure but I could be wrong
I don’t see anything noting the restructure

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

 

[fivetwos]

I'm not. Unlike most fans here, I think there's an extremely high chance that Cooper is playing elsewhere next year - either traded or released. I think Ceedee Lamb is about to become our clear-cut #1 receiver in 202.

I believe Elliott, Lawrence and Cooper were the only candidates who didn't already do this.

Of those, Elliott is the only one whose 2022 salary is already guaranteed.

I figure that to be a big factor.

It probably would have changed the teams options much more greatly to do the same with the other two.

 

[conner01]

Based on what you posted….2023 they can still get out of it.

They can
The only thing that changes is the cost
I haven’t seen how much that changes yet