Doug Free refuses pay cut **Unofficial**

[Reverend Conehead]

This just in: We've traded Free to the Detroit Lions for their ugliest cheerleader. We got the better end of the deal.

 

[TheSport78]

Is Torrin Tucker or Rob Petitti available?

 

[Angus]

Free has zero guaranteed money left.

That's different.

 

[erod]

That's different.

Free is a cap hit, but he's owed no actual money if they cut him.

 

[Cowboy Brian]

This guy has to be an idiot.

He will get less on the open market..

Well, maybe he will be able to get a nice chunk of guaranteed money and then mail it in. That's probably what he's looking at, a large, $20m, guarantee. He might he right if that's what he is looking for as in two or three years he wouldn't be able to get that, heck even next year.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

This guy has to be an idiot.

He will get less on the open market..

Well, maybe he will be able to get a nice chunk of guaranteed money and then mail it in. That's probably what he's looking at, a large, $20m, guarantee. He might he right if that's what he is looking for as in two or three years he wouldn't be able to get that, heck even next year.

I question whether another team would even sign him. If they look at the tapes of his performance last season, I can't imagine their being impressed. He played poorly in nearly every game.

 

[ElGatoGrande]

I'm just glad he's gone, period. Several years of horrible results ought to convince anybody that he's not worth having on the team. Even in his best year he was barely average, Jerry just got overly excited because he drafted a lineman that could apparently hold his own, so excited that he moved Free to left tackle and paid him a bazillion dollars. If I were a fan of another team I'd still be LMAO at that one.

 

[Zordon]

Lol. I don't really have anything invested in defending any of those guys except, probably, Phil Costa. I like Spears a lot from what I've seen of him as a person, but wasn't attached to his play on the field.

These guys are just what they are, common variety borderline NFL starters that exist on every roster in the NFL. I'm happy to see each of their positions upgraded. I just don't happen to go in for calling people bums when I believe they're working hard, but just aren't good enough to be great at what they're trying to do.

A bum in my book is a player like Brodney Poole or Alex Barron, who came in and just wasn't willing to put in the work.

Ok then if I take that standpoint then I have to blame Jerry Jones and if I do that then...well you know.:laugh2:

Fact of the matter is three of these players have had significant roles on this team without producing for far too long. Spears is a media warrior, he's always great with them and I appreciate that but he is the definition of a JAG. Free was never as good as some claim he was in 09. He only stood out because the rest of our oline projects were complete busts. Sensabaugh...lets not get started on this guy. Sensabaugh and Bradie James are the two players I dislike the most in Cowboys history. Once James left, all of his defenders were silenced once they saw his replacement. Same thing will happen this year once Sensabaugh's replacement starts making interceptions and big hits, something Sensy never did but once every blue moon.

Idgit don't pick a fight with me. For once of the "negative nancys" is happy with this organization. They are finally taking big steps to clean out so many of the old stale faces I've gotten so tired of the last 5+ years. It's going to be so refreshing this training camp to look at our roster and see some fresh faces in every position group. I think we are one 2014 draft (emphasized on the oline/dline) away from completely flipping this roster.

 

[NorthwestDallas40]

This.

I hate Free as much as the next guy, but I dont think we should be rejoicing that much right now. However flawed, I still do not think Jerry's plan is to sign a starting RT like Clabo or Winston. I think he wants to roll with Parnell as the starter and sign a $2 million swing tackle, who likely will be worse, not better, than Free (if that's possible).

I posted this two days ago. Today it was confirmed. Even at 1 year, $3.5 million, Jerry was not going to sign Clabo and make him a starter. That would be a "progress stopper" for Parnell. Rather, Jerry will try to sign Free or someone else to be a $2 million swing tackle backup.

 

[Flinger]

I posted this two days ago. Today it was confirmed. Even at 1 year, $3.5 million, Jerry was not going to sign Clabo and make him a starter. That would be a "progress stopper" for Parnell. Rather, Jerry will try to sign Free or someone else to be a $2 million swing tackle backup.

You may be right, although it could have been that Clabo simply didn't want to play for the Cowboys and wanted to stay closer to home in Florida.

As for someone being a progress stopper - it would be nice if we knew the Cowboy's thinking on Parnell.

 

[NorthwestDallas40]

You may be right, although it could have been that Clabo simply didn't want to play for the Cowboys and wanted to stay closer to home in Florida.

As for someone being a progress stopper - it would be nice if we knew the Cowboy's thinking on Parnell.

Maybe Clabo chose Miami over Dallas, but I doubt it. I heard him interview on Sirius before the draft and he said his priorities were to 1) play for a super bowl contender 2) sign a long term deal, not a 1 year, because he didn't want to keep moving his family. If Dallas really wanted him, they could have given him a 2-3 year deal for less than $3.5 million per and he likely would have jumped at it...

 

[Bleu Star]

We are officially in the RT market, boys and girls.

http://www.ajc.com/feed/sports/football/report-doug-free-will-not-return-to-cowboys-in/fKC4z/

Posted: 9:14 a.m. Friday, May 3, 2013

Report: Doug Free Will Not Return To Cowboys In 2013

By KD Drummond
www.sbnation.com

It's something that we've all been discussing, pondering, wishing for... Depending on your point of view, one of these probably describes your take on the situation. According to Mike Fisher, Cowboys Insider, Doug Free has decided that he will not take a pay cut to play for the Dallas Cowboys in 2013. Via 105.3 The Fan's twitter account:

According to THE FAN's @fishsports .. Doug Free will not accept a pay cut and will not return to @dallascowboys as of June 1st
— 105.3 The FAN (@1053thefan) May 3, 2013​

Dallas is now officially in the right tackle market.

Free was set to count a little over $10 million against the Cowboys salary cap in 2013. If he is designated as a June 1st cut as the report states, the Cowboys will chop his entire base salary ($7 million) off of the 2013 cap charge. As OCC pointed out earlier, that amount was set to be the highest base salary given to a right tackle in 2013.

That will result in Free taking up around $7 million in dead money on the Cowboys 2014 salary cap, based on the acceleration of his remaining signing bonus. Depending on how you look at it, that could be a bad thing, or it could be taken that it also "frees" up an additional $4 million of cap space next year.

that . Good riddance. This is coming from an original Doug Free fan. A serious pay cut is the only avenue to remaining a Cowboy. Bye!!!

 

[Bleu Star]

Parnell will step right in and elevate the play at RT.

 

[jobberone]

Clabo is signing with the Fins. And my guess is Free and the Cowboys will settle for around 5M per for two years for him to play. That's what they are on the hook for whether he plays or not. If not then they pay the 5M and then pay for another tackle unless Weems yada can be depended on and I know not who that mysterious FA would be nor how Weems plays.

If Free thinks he can make more than 5M per and get to compete for a starters job then he should do so. Good luck with that. There is no reason for him to take less though IMO but you never know. Maybe Stephen has pictures and tapes. Maybe Free will feel the heat enough to take a little less. If he takes 3-4M per year then great but I'll be very surprised.

 

[Eskimo]

Clabo is signing with the Fins. And my guess is Free and the Cowboys will settle for around 5M per for two years for him to play. That's what they are on the hook for whether he plays or not. If not then they pay the 5M and then pay for another tackle unless Weems yada can be depended on and I know not who that mysterious FA would be nor how Weems plays.

If Free thinks he can make more than 5M per and get to compete for a starters job then he should do so. Good luck with that. There is no reason for him to take less though IMO but you never know. Maybe Stephen has pictures and tapes. Maybe Free will feel the heat enough to take a little less. If he takes 3-4M per year then great but I'll be very surprised.

I don't think that's the right way to think of it.

The yet to be amortized portion of his signing bonus is sunk money. It will count against the cap the next two years whether we keep him or not. Since he is a June 1st cut then half comes this year and half comes next year. This part is history.

What is to be negotiated is how much money we pay Free the next two years. My understanding is it is somewhere around $7M this season and $8M next season.

IMO, Free was a far lesser player than Clabo who we were evidently not willing to pay $3.5M for this year. Since Clabo has been a better player than Free the last two years I think it stands to reason that we are probably not willing to pay Free that to be Parnell's backup. My guess is we are offering more in the neighbourhood of $1.5-2M range. Let's argue it is $2M. That would result in savings against the cap of $5M this year. If we decide to release Free then it would be savings of $7M this year compared to keeping him on the roster.

There is just no way that we are willing to pay Free $5M this season.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

What is the deal with Weems. Is he just a replacement type?

Clabo taking $3.5m sets the market blatantly. It is very doubtful given Free's performance the last two years that he would get the same much less more than Clabo.

I'd offer Free a reduction to $4m for next year and we can reevaluate the following year.

He gets better than market value and the adjustment is for only one year. Financially it would seem to be beneficial for both parties over the alternative.

If we can make him a June 1 cut next year allows us to spread out the $7m cap proration into 2015 that would otherwise kick in for 2014. He doesn't have to take even less money on the open market.

It's not ideal but I can live with a competition between he and Parnell.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I don't think that's the right way to think of it.

The yet to be amortized portion of his signing bonus is sunk money. It will count against the cap the next two years whether we keep him or not. Since he is a June 1st cut then half comes this year and half comes next year. This part is history.

What is to be negotiated is how much money we pay Free the next two years. My understanding is it is somewhere around $7M this season and $8M next season.

IMO, Free was a far lesser player than Clabo who we were evidently not willing to pay $3.5M for this year. Since Clabo has been a better player than Free the last two years I think it stands to reason that we are probably not willing to pay Free that to be Parnell's backup. My guess is we are offering more in the neighbourhood of $1.5-2M range. Let's argue it is $2M. That would result in savings against the cap of $5M this year. If we decide to release Free then it would be savings of $7M this year compared to keeping him on the roster.

There is just no way that we are willing to pay Free $5M this season.

The remaining proration is for more than a single year. If I am not mistake it is for two years. If we were to cut him June 1 it's $3.5m for 2013 and the 2014 and 2015 prorations would accelerate all into 2014.

 

[Echo9]

I don't think that's the right way to think of it.

The yet to be amortized portion of his signing bonus is sunk money. It will count against the cap the next two years whether we keep him or not. Since he is a June 1st cut then half comes this year and half comes next year. This part is history.

That's not quite right in that there are still more than 2 years left on his current contract. If he's NOT cut, but instead takes a pay cut, his cap hit from the signing bonus continues to be spread across the contract.

It's the accelerated cap hit on the bonus we hope to avoid in addition to lowering his base salary.