Their combined cap hit is around 18m. If two are labeled June 1st cuts the 10m is very do-able. If Leary, Webb and other young guys don't step up and they need to keep them, then they can restructure instead of cut. Dallas' drafting has been pretty good lately and they don't need to get to 30m under the cap to sign a couple upgrades. I was merely pointing out that it is very easy to create enough cap room to sign Lee and any FAs they may want.
Doubtful that would happen. I think Free is pretty much slotted to be a June 1st cut unless he makes some miraculous turnaround.
A team can create room at any moment so long as they are willing to take space gained from the following years.
Dallas has like 30 players under contract for 2015 and almost 130M in cap money spent. Adding money onto 2015 is not smart. Counting just Ware, Romo, Witten, Austin and Ratliff Dallas has $71M in cap space spent for 2015. Some of those under contract may not be there, some may be June 1st guys.....point is you can't look at the cap just for 1 single year.
If you restructure them you're adding about $10M to that number and to 2016 . $81M on just 5 players. Any player designated as a June 1st cut adds to the hits for 2015.
Sean Lee
Tyron Smith
Dez Bryant
Bruce Carter
DeMarco Murray
None of those guys are under contract for 2015.
Restructuring also extends the length of the contract by increasing the dead money if a player were to be cut. Dallas should not be doing that with Austin and Ratliff.
That's part of the fundamental problem I have with restructuring. You delay the time it takes to make cutting a guy cap neutral. Instead of a move being cap neutral after 3 years, you have to get to that 4th year before cutting a guy costs the same as keeping him (just an example). The more you restructure, the more you delay the point at which it becomes neutral to part ways with a guy. Ultimately you are forced to either take a larger cap hit for cutting him and for keeping him. If that player doesn't live up to expectations, it hurts worse.
Take Austin. If Dallas cuts him next year before 2014 they'll have $7.8M in dead space.
If they restructure for 2014 and cut him before 2015, the dead money will be about $8.2M An entire year has passed and the cap liability for cutting the guy has INCREASED. Football is a young mans game and longer you take to getting to that neutral point the more risk you are taking that the player doesn't live up to his contract. If they didn't restructure and had him play 2014 as it currently is and then cut him, the cap consequence is like $5.1M. $3.1M less than what it would be by going the restructuring route. Had they not restructured him this year and had him play through 2014, the cap hit for cutting him is $1.5M.
Ratliff, same thing. As is they would take about $7M in cap hit's to cut him next year. If they restructure him and try to cut him after 2014, his cap hit would be $7.5M
Restructuring Romo next year would almost require another restructure in 2015.
Currently, Romo's cap number is at $21M for 2014 and $25M in 2015. If they restructure, his cap number in 2015 jumps to about $28M which is very difficult to imagine the team being okay with having on the books. So that means they have to restructure again in 2015.
The result of both of those means that Romo could play 4 years of the current contract and they'd still take a massive cap hit if he was cut. If they restructured both years, they'd have about $19M in dead money for 2017 if he started to decline. Without restructuring, it would be $5M. If he played 5 years, Dallas is still on the hook for $9M if he's cut after those restructures as opposed to NOTHING if they don't touch his contract.
There's a reason why not every team follows the same plan of restructuring on an annual basis. It delays the point at which it becomes cap neutral to cut a guy and ties your hands in the long run. Some people like to say that it gives Dallas flexibility but I disagree. When you sign a guy, odds are you can project what you will be getting for the next 2 to 3 years. There's no way to know what you will get 4, 5 or 6 years down the line (6th year coming from restructuring). Restructuring makes the cap hits for those last years bigger than it would have been without restructuring and all the while that player has aged and the likelihood of living up to his original contract cap number has decreased, and the team has only inflated that number since.
The reality is, high dollar players cost money and you can't fidget with the numbers to free up space because you're only hurting yourself down the line. If restructured, Romo's cap numbers beyond 2015 would be:
2016: 20M
2017: 24M
2018: 25M
2019: 24M
Compare that to how the Packers have structured Rodgers contract: It's similar to Romo's this year but then it jumps up to 18M and slowly rises over the next 6 years to 21M for the final year. They take a decent bump next year and then gradually increase from there. $6M increase next year but only because they opted for a little more room right now. $6M isn't all that hard to account for. If Dallas restructures Romo next year, his cap number increases by $15M when going from 2014 to 2015 because they opted for a little room now and would be opting for room next year. Coming up with $15M isn't some simple task.
Dallas is in a perpetual cycle of pushing money down the road and they have huge contracts on the horizon. Freeing up more space next year just builds up the risk of older players not living up to their inflated contracts and forces additional restructuring down the line.
Can Dallas make room and should they are two different questions.
