Fantastic Season

[dragon_mikal]

I'm happy.

I like where they're at this year better than where they were last year.

They're a team and I think they get better over the off-season - may unload an expensive burden or two, may pick up a couple more.

I hope Keith Brooking sticks around, I like the enthusiasm he brings to the team.

The NFL's "Final Eight" Rule and What It Means for Your Team by Zack Nally

Correspondent Written on January 14, 2010
The NFL and the NFLPA's collective bargaining agreement has come to an end, momentarily, and with that comes an uncapped 2010 season.

For those unfamiliar with how the salary cap works, it's essentially a limit on how much each NFL team can spend on players and coaches.

That limit is established by averaging out the collective profits of each team.

Those profits can be from a number of outlets, including discretionary funds, profits that come directly from commercial advertising, and whatever the organization earns from ticket sales and other sources.

The salary cap was set down to protect small-market teams from being eliminated from the possibility of making the playoffs and remaining competitive by having the resources to sign big contracts and attract skill players that would have otherwise disregarded them.

Now that the salary cap has been lifted for the 2010 season, there is a fear that deep-pocketed owners like Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder will have the ability to "buy" a championship. Well, that's only half true.

In anticipation of a failed CBA agreement, the NFL set down "triggers" to prevent big-market teams from taking advantage of the absence of a cap limit.

The first is forcing young players to remain with their original teams for a longer period of time. Typically, in a capped year, a rookie is signed to a four-year contract, and when that contract expires, he can opt for free agency. Now, players must remain with their teams for six years until they can be eligible for the market.

Even if a player's contract has expired, he will have to sign a temporary, two-year minimum contract to remain with that team. There are several drawbacks to this trigger.

One, this will ultimately eliminate more than half of the free agent market. Two, the young guys who are approaching the point of their careers where they sign their big-money second contracts will have to wait two more years. Some positions take a heavy toll on young bodies early, and six years is a long time to have to wait to get paid.

The second trigger is the addition of two transition tags to each team's contract arsenal. Before, each team had the option to slap either a franchise tag (average of the top five salaries at his position) or a transition tag (average of the top 10 salaries at his position) on a player they wished to retain when his contract has expired.

Now, each team will have one franchise tag and two transition tags. This will only further reduce the number of players available in the free agent market. Most teams won't be employing their tags, though, due to the limited number of players on their teams that will be available for free agency.

The third trigger will have the biggest impact. This is the "Final Eight" rule; it will extend deeper restrictions for teams that reach the final eight positions in the playoffs.

The final four teams will not be permitted to negotiate or sign any unrestricted free agent to a player contract unless he is cut from his team or originally belonged to the team that is trying to sign (or re-sign) him.

The bottom four of the final eight have it a little easier. They will be allowed to sign only one player with a salary of $4,925,000 or more and any number of players with a first-year salary of no more than $3,275,000 with an annual increase of no more than 30 percent in the following year.

There will be an additional mechanism to permit the final eight teams to sign an unrestricted free agent for each of the players they lose to free agency so long as they don't spend more than the player they lost earns from his new team.

It's unclear what exactly will happen come the offseason, but it's assured that the players available in free agency will be very slim, making draft picks that much more valuable for the 2010 season.

There is a possibility that teams boasting deep-pocketed owners, like the Washington Commanders and the Seattle Seahawks, will have an unfair advantage in an offseason without monetary limits, but these "triggers" have been set in place to prevent such an advantage.

Thanks

 

[pjjrfan]

Let's face it by half time of the Kansas game most of us and me in particular had given up on this team. Getting outplayed by a bad team no energy, in came Austin and lifted this team up off the floor and from there they continued to grow, a huge difference from the previous what 10 years where this team reached a peak and then sank into oblivion by the time the playoffs rolled around. I am not a Wade fan, never have been but this team has something, a new fire, a new hunger. I don't see this loss as a step back but rather as growing pains.
Go Cowboys!!!!!

 

[BIGDen]

Feeling crappy, but I have not forgotten what a good ride most of this season was.

• Despite a 2-2 start, we finished strong and won the division for the 2nd time in 3 years.
• We won a playoff game so we don't have to hear that crap any longer.
• We had a lot of "prove the world wrong" moments that felt great.
• Romo and a lot of young players (Austin, Spencer, Felix, Jenkins, etc.) really proved themselved this year and give us hope for the future.
• It was a very good season. Anything short of a Lombardi is never good enough, but it was a better season for us than all but 4 teams in this league.
• We've got a good group of guys and should continue to contend as long as players like Romo, Austin, Witten, Felix, Ware, Ratliff, Spencer and Jenkins are wearing the star.

Today sucked royally, but I refuse to get as down as last year or the year before.
MANY said we were soft, gutless, pretenders. Despite a bad game today, we proved on numerous occasions this year that we are not.
This team deserved a better ending, but we squandered numerous early opportunities and then it snowballed. Stuff happens. Sadly Favre gets the glory despite jerking 3 teams around - including the Vikings. Maybe karma comes knocking for him next week. Who cares about him anyway.

This team gave us a lot of great moments (KC ending, Saints game, ALL 3 Eagles games ) and I thank them.

And look on the bright side. At least this year we don't have to worry about the Steelers, Pats or Niners breaking one of our SB records. We also went further than any team in the division. You know, that division where we were supposed to finish 3rd with about a .500 record. How "unrealistic" those predictions were!

I'm keeping my head up. The foundation for the future is here and I'm proud to be a fan of this team.