Florio makes my point about contracts/QB Salary Cap?

[Flamma]

Some players do more team friendly deals like Mahomes 10 year deal or Allen’s 6 year deal.

And they do that to help the teams manage Cap. I’d argue if their performance is still near the top of the league they should be able to renegotiate in order for their salary to be similar to their pecking order.

The only help they are offering is towards the end of the deal. If you want to renegotiate that, then you're offering any help.

 

[Flamma]

But it makes no sense. If they suck in the playoffs that means you need to get better. They did nothing to improve the team and expect different results?

This is what the Cowboys do. The expect to get better primarily through the draft.

 

[Flamma]

The owners cant unilaterally place a cap on any one position because it is not in the CBA and any agreement among the owners to implement such a thing would be considered collusion and grounds for the NFLPA to terminate the current CBA.

This article talks about the entire issue and how it literally is the dumbest idea the owners could come up with since the CBA does not allow it. If the owners want to cap QB salaries, they can bring up the issue again in 2031 when the current CBA expires.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/sport/nfl...umbest-idea-yet/ar-BB1oAMKE?ocid=BingNewsSerp

Me personally, I don't like the cap idea. The only dumb thing they can do is to collude to achieve a QB cap. They'd be caught so quickly.

But the league can introduce anything they want before the CBA has run its course. But the NFLPA would have to sign off on it after taking a vote. It's called an MOA (Memorandum of Agreement). If both sides agree, it gets added to the current CBA.

What do you think the chances are that the NFLPA agrees to this? Zero. The NFL would have to give up something massive to get the NFLPA to agree.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

This is what the Cowboys do. The expect to get better primarily through the draft.

Understood but even the drafts are looking shacky lately.

 

[Flamma]

Understood but even the drafts are looking shacky lately.

You have to draft great in order to win with just that. It can be done. Look at the 2013 Seahawks. But it takes some luck. Most super bowl teams don't acquire their talent by luck. Some of it is, but not entirely.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

You have to draft great in order to win with just that. It can be done. Look at the 2013 Seahawks. But it takes some luck. Most super bowl teams don't acquire their talent by luck. Some of it is, but not entirely.

I’d go as far and say it takes some luck to win a ring in general. That Seahawks had some luck in those drafts but they understood the to build a team. They knew what their identity was. Tough and physical team. This team and players get robbed of their identity because of the aura that is the Cowboys.

 

[blueblood70]

I simply don't agree with any of that. Hes 12th in AAV which all that means is he signed a few years ago. If the deal was longer he would drop even further down the list which is what would make it a team friendly deal. Mahomes and Allen will likely be bottom half of the league in AAV if not next year the following year unless they choose to renegotiate for new contracts.

I understand that Dak would have asked for more money had he signed later, that's just how the system works. When I say TFD I'm primarily speaking to the length of the deal. After that it's the no trade/no tag clauses. Allen/Mahomes didn't take less money, they just took longer deals which end up being bargains after a while. The longer the deal the more flexibility to not only spread the cap hit, but also lower their AAV. A combination of the short deal plus poor management of his contract from the Joneses have left Dak with the 2nd highest cap hit in the league despite the 12th AAV.

As for the 6+ year deals they absolutely would. Anyone who wont sign their qb for 6+ years who is under the age of 30 is either a fool or they don't really like their QB. Tony Romo was a 6 year deal. Troy Aikman had a 9 year deal so it's not a matter of they wont do a deal like that. I think it's pretty clear Dak didn't want a longer deal so that he could get a new deal for top money while hes still in his prime.

Then I'm not even sure where the void years came into the conversation. Maybe a different poster brought up that topic, but I don't believe I mentioned void years once.

i have to disagree with you...now we are in stalemate and stop living in the past. Its over, deals up, move on like move on from the 28 year blah blah blah narratives. his contract quickly went from top fi....hey were doing when they looked ahead that means logically it was the correct dal for both sides..schit what have the FO done as Daks salary's slipped down the board or other teams , as i stated this already NOT MUCH!! when i see what Watson and Wilson got in both draft comp and money , plus these new deals its says all i need to know that Dak got what he deserved.. at least we didn't go out and Trade draft picks by the wheel barrel, then stupidly hand out ridicules contracts.. both sides got a fair deal from my view. Literally we can see its debatable but Dak got better, had one of his best years in 21/23 so wasnt like a giant drop off like Zeke and made the contract look like bad one..

i see a whole lot of teams out there that gave up draft picks and huge deals it didn't get crap back from it.. Daks been part of several #1 offenses and the last 3 years 36 wind 2 division titles, and hes been to the payoffs 5 of 8 years id say it was fair deal. Sure we want more but many highly paid QBs haven't done squat in playoffs either.

 

[blueblood70]

Dak was never gonna sign early. France’s clients don’t sign early. They take the two tags so they can get power. Look at Burns at Carolina and the Denver safety. Dak is Todd’s bread winner.

correct, most of our fan base don't understand that reality. same with CD and Parsons they aren't going to be duped into sighing early to make it team friendly. they are the ones holding up deals not the jones family, Literally, they were waiting for other deals to get done before even listening to an offer.

the jones family trying to stand hard and negotiate the best deal and these guys want new market setting highest paid ever dals and the FO has right to drag it out for the best deal regardless of if it cost bit more later.

course the fan base is quick to blame the jones family for dragging their feet and being cheap but that not the case in most of these deals.. 3 parties all holding it up Team, agent, and player.

 

[Flamma]

I’d go as far and say it takes some luck to win a ring in general. That Seahawks had some luck in those drafts but they understood the to build a team. They knew what their identity was. Tough and physical team. This team and players get robbed of their identity because of the aura that is the Cowboys.

Kam Chancellor was a 5th round pick. Richard Sherman was a 5th round pick. Russel Wilson was what, a 2nd or 3rd rounder? That along with your premium picks, of course you're going to have a stacked team. But how often does that happen? Almost never.

 

[thunderpimp91]

i have to disagree with you...now we are in stalemate and stop living in the past. Its over, deals up, move on like move on from the 28 year blah blah blah narratives. his contract quickly went from top fi....hey were doing when they looked ahead that means logically it was the correct dal for both sides..schit what have the FO done as Daks salary's slipped down the board or other teams , as i stated this already NOT MUCH!! when i see what Watson and Wilson got in both draft comp and money , plus these new deals its says all i need to know that Dak got what he deserved.. at least we didn't go out and Trade draft picks by the wheel barrel, then stupidly hand out ridicules contracts.. both sides got a fair deal from my view. Literally we can see its debatable but Dak got better, had one of his best years in 21/23 so wasnt like a giant drop off like Zeke and made the contract look like bad one..

i see a whole lot of teams out there that gave up draft picks and huge deals it didn't get crap back from it.. Daks been part of several #1 offenses and the last 3 years 36 wind 2 division titles, and hes been to the payoffs 5 of 8 years id say it was fair deal. Sure we want more but many highly paid QBs haven't done squat in playoffs either.

That's all fine and I mostly agree with this post, but you're putting words in my mouth to change the conversation. I never said Dak didn't deserve the money, and I wasn't critical of his on field play. All I'm saying is nothing about Daks first deal was team friendly, and the way things are setting up I believe nothing about the next contract will be team friendly. It was a short deal, he got market value, plus a no trade/no tag gave Dak complete control over the next contract negotiations. Dak received everything he deserved and if the Cowboys didn't give him that deal he would have gotten the same in free agency, I'm not debating that at all....A fair contract just isn't always a team friendly contract. Dak won everything he wanted in the first round of negotiations and Jerry lost hard.

From a team perspective it would be really nice to have Dak locked up a few more years at that $40M number. Since he isn't all options are on the table so you have Jerry spending 4th round picks on Trey Lance. If they resign him now his AAV is going to jump 50%. That's still fair for Dak to ask for based on the market, but that's not the best result for the team. Dak and Josh Allen signed the same here and here is how their deals have played out so far...

Dak's Deal - 4/$160M (40AAV)
2021 - $17M cap hit
2022 - $19M cap hit
2023 - $26M cap hit
2024 - $55M cap hit

Josh Allen Deal - 6/$258M (43AAV)
2021 - $10M cap hit
2022 - $16M cap hit
2023 - $28M cap hit
2024 - $30M cap hit

Now Josh Allen will get more expensive the next couple of years, but they still have through 2028 to spread those numbers out and his contract does not have any void years added yet either. Despite a higher AAV on the extension Allen has a much lower cap hit through the first four years. Josh Allen also signed early which means he has an extension and not a new contract making his deal essentially an 8 year deal for $284M. That's team friendly.

 

[fivetwos]

Me personally, I don't like the cap idea. The only dumb thing they can do is to collude to achieve a QB cap. They'd be caught so quickly.

But the league can introduce anything they want before the CBA has run its course. But the NFLPA would have to sign off on it after taking a vote. It's called an MOA (Memorandum of Agreement). If both sides agree, it gets added to the current CBA.

What do you think the chances are that the NFLPA agrees to this? Zero. The NFL would have to give up something massive to get the NFLPA to agree.

Yes, I wanted to reply the same….as long as the players Union signs off, it can happen.

I’m not so sure it an impossibility though, because you aren’t taking money out of players hands and moving it elsewhere, it would simply go from one union member to another. The cap wouldn’t drop and the revenue split would be the same.

But I don’t suppose they can favor certain members (non QBs) over others, unless it becomes problematic among themselves….

Thing is, as QB and WR salaries climb, that of other positions drops, and it’ll be interesting to see if it creates some sort of resentment within locker rooms and/or the union.

I’m sure the running backs aren’t very happy as is. Let’s see when it gets worse.

Let’s see when a 60 million dollar meh QB is blowing games and making three times what that same teams’ stud edge rusher makes…..etc.

Either way, realistic or not, I hope the league at least privately recognizes this problem.

 

[blueblood70]

That's all fine and I mostly agree with this post, but you're putting words in my mouth to change the conversation. I never said Dak didn't deserve the money, and I wasn't critical of his on field play. All I'm saying is nothing about Daks first deal was team friendly, and the way things are setting up I believe nothing about the next contract will be team friendly. It was a short deal, he got market value, plus a no trade/no tag gave Dak complete control over the next contract negotiations. Dak received everything he deserved and if the Cowboys didn't give him that deal he would have gotten the same in free agency, I'm not debating that at all....A fair contract just isn't always a team friendly contract. Dak won everything he wanted in the first round of negotiations and Jerry lost hard.

From a team perspective it would be really nice to have Dak locked up a few more years at that $40M number. Since he isn't all options are on the table so you have Jerry spending 4th round picks on Trey Lance. If they resign him now his AAV is going to jump 50%. That's still fair for Dak to ask for based on the market, but that's not the best result for the team. Dak and Josh Allen signed the same here and here is how their deals have played out so far...

Dak's Deal - 4/$160M (40AAV)
2021 - $17M cap hit
2022 - $19M cap hit
2023 - $26M cap hit
2024 - $55M cap hit

Josh Allen Deal - 6/$258M (43AAV)
2021 - $10M cap hit
2022 - $16M cap hit
2023 - $28M cap hit
2024 - $30M cap hit

Now Josh Allen will get more expensive the next couple of years, but they still have through 2028 to spread those numbers out and his contract does not have any void years added yet either. Despite a higher AAV on the extension Allen has a much lower cap hit through the first four years. Josh Allen also signed early which means he has an extension and not a new contract making his deal essentially an 8 year deal for $284M. That's team friendly.

You do realize none of that matters in the end you will pay the piper the can when it's kicked down the road you eventually will have to pay one day you will have a yellow balloon payment coming up for all these guys they're trying to tell me how this is supposed to work for the team now show me what Josh Allen's team has done the last two seasons with those cap numbers being so low we're all these big names that are bringing in show me I mean show me how exactly that helped the team? You mean like getting rid of some of his favorite players I mean show me the big giant free agent deals and all these Super Bowls they're going to you keep bringing this up and I don't care what the cap hit is eventually they will have to pay they all have to pay the contract was bigger than that that means it was not that team friendly and they already added some of those years to Prescott go look there are void years in there as well they can add them later and they already did I'm tired of hearing about it Josh only makes more money and down the road it's gonna come due...

So you can keep harping on it it would have never happened no matter what Prescott would have done in the structure the team would not have utilized the extra money just like most teams what has Patrick mahomes teams done show me the Kansas City Chiefs spending all this money in free agency giving up all these big contracts no they're getting rid of guys like tyree kill and they've moved on from many players and replaced them with draft picks and cheap free agents just like the Dallas Cowboys So what does it matter how it's structured they are literally not utilizing it the way it is in your mind..

I mean the Kansas City Chiefs had all this money but yet they didn't keep hill then they went running back by committee they went wide receiver by committee they're drafting just like us trying to fill big voids and then they allowed their best defensive player which is debatable Chris Jones wait till a week before the damn season start to pay him during his holdout why did I need to hold out or patching my home structure so team friendly?

These teams know eventually the money's coming due it's a balloon payment it will hurt your team eventually so who cares how it's structured you could pay it up front you could pay it later but go look and press cuts actually has voided years and 25 and 26 where this money is being spread out... So again you're not bringing me to your side I'm watching most of these teams who are getting these better structures from their quarterbacks not put together championship teams I mean what it show me the rest of them you can't just show me Josh Allen show me the rest of them show me kyler Murray Justin Herbert Joe Burrows you know how about that nine or ten guys that are making technically more money than Prescott at quarterback show me what their teams have done I'll show you one team that's winning Super Bowls and the rest of them nothing they're not doing better than the Cowboys most of our finishing lower than the Cowboys but at least you have the bills and Cowboys probably on the same level....

 

[Flamma]

Yes, I wanted to reply the same….as long as the players Union signs off, it can happen.

I’m not so sure it an impossibility though, because you aren’t taking money out of players hands and moving it elsewhere, it would simply go from one union member to another. The cap wouldn’t drop and the revenue split would be the same.

But I don’t suppose they can favor certain members (non QBs) over others, unless it becomes problematic among themselves….

Thing is, as QB and WR salaries climb, that of other positions drops, and it’ll be interesting to see if it creates some sort of resentment within locker rooms and/or the union.

I’m sure the running backs aren’t very happy as is. Let’s see when it gets worse.

Let’s see when a 60 million dollar meh QB is blowing games and making three times what that same teams’ stud edge rusher makes…..etc.

Either way, realistic or not, I hope the league at least privately recognizes this problem.

They can recognize the problem all they want. Bu they're not getting any change until 2031. There is no chance anything happens until then. There's just no way to implement it.

 

[blueblood70]

That's all fine and I mostly agree with this post, but you're putting words in my mouth to change the conversation. I never said Dak didn't deserve the money, and I wasn't critical of his on field play. All I'm saying is nothing about Daks first deal was team friendly, and the way things are setting up I believe nothing about the next contract will be team friendly. It was a short deal, he got market value, plus a no trade/no tag gave Dak complete control over the next contract negotiations. Dak received everything he deserved and if the Cowboys didn't give him that deal he would have gotten the same in free agency, I'm not debating that at all....A fair contract just isn't always a team friendly contract. Dak won everything he wanted in the first round of negotiations and Jerry lost hard.

From a team perspective it would be really nice to have Dak locked up a few more years at that $40M number. Since he isn't all options are on the table so you have Jerry spending 4th round picks on Trey Lance. If they resign him now his AAV is going to jump 50%. That's still fair for Dak to ask for based on the market, but that's not the best result for the team. Dak and Josh Allen signed the same here and here is how their deals have played out so far...

Dak's Deal - 4/$160M (40AAV)
2021 - $17M cap hit
2022 - $19M cap hit
2023 - $26M cap hit
2024 - $55M cap hit

Josh Allen Deal - 6/$258M (43AAV)
2021 - $10M cap hit
2022 - $16M cap hit
2023 - $28M cap hit
2024 - $30M cap hit

Now Josh Allen will get more expensive the next couple of years, but they still have through 2028 to spread those numbers out and his contract does not have any void years added yet either. Despite a higher AAV on the extension Allen has a much lower cap hit through the first four years. Josh Allen also signed early which means he has an extension and not a new contract making his deal essentially an 8 year deal for $284M. That's team friendly.

this clearly shows what never fans think it don't matter it's clearly a quarterback market and Prescott is as good or better than most of those guys on the list deserved his last contract and should get a bigger one he should be around 56 million that's the way I'm seeing it sign in now or pay later because if you think you're gonna find a quarterback really easy find out why Daniel Jones is not far down that list and people are being overpaid or you do stupid things like San Francisco did in the draft and give three first round picks for a guy like Trey Lance that's how hard it is to find a quarterback that's my point he was paid exactly when he should have been paid it doesn't matter team friendly or not or your view the man has gotten better since he's been paid I mean his ankle got broke off and he's had two really above average years even for standards from that list... So my opinion he got what he was worth and it was not taking Jerry to the cleaners and he would not have signed a deal cheaper earlier like everyone keeps saying because if he did three years after he'd had his hand out because of that list says he should be in the top five in money.... When guys like Trevor Lawrence and Herbert and Murray and others have done absolutely nothing to earn it got their money and you get it fully guaranteed money from a guy like Watson at 250 million that shows Prescott and his age is exactly why he deserves to be one of the top paid in the league regardless of playoff success because most of the people on that list have no playoff success not that they carried the team kind...

T-1	Joe Burrow	Cincinnati Bengals	$55 million NO SB wins
T-1	Trevor Lawrence	Jacksonville Jaguars	$55 million Nothing at all dumb deal
3	Jared Goff	Detroit Lions	$53 million HUH TBD but no SB wins 2 gnat deals
4	Justin Herbert	Los Angeles Chargers	$52.5 million another head scratcher paid for market due potential
5	Lamar Jackson	Baltimore Ravens	$52 million not better than Dak inthe payoffs 2 wins
6	Jalen Hurts	Philadelphia Eagles	$51 million his team actuall spending money so deal doesn hurt but no SB wins
7	Kyler Murray	Arizona Cardinals	$46.1 million nada zip ouch overpaid
8	Deshaun Watson	Cleveland Browns	$46 million worst deal ever!!
T-9	Patrick Mahomes	Kansas City Chiefs	$45 million YUP Only one paying dividends but teams not spending ALL IN money
T-9	Kirk Cousins	Atlanta Falcons	$45 million laugher 2nd highest al time qb earning ever nothig to show for it.
11	Josh Allen	Buffalo Bills	$43 million already talked about it..

 

[baltcowboy]

correct, most of our fan base don't understand that reality. same with CD and Parsons they aren't going to be duped into sighing early to make it team friendly. they are the ones holding up deals not the jones family, Literally, they were waiting for other deals to get done before even listening to an offer.

the jones family trying to stand hard and negotiate the best deal and these guys want new market setting highest paid ever dals and the FO has right to drag it out for the best deal regardless of if it cost bit more later.

course the fan base is quick to blame the jones family for dragging their feet and being cheap but that not the case in most of these deals.. 3 parties all holding it up Team, agent, and player.

I see that nobody brings up that Cowboys almost signed Dak after Goff and Wentz got their extensions. Dak started that season 3-0 and was on fire, then France decided to pull the rug. The Cowboys were being fair but Dak thought he was in the top quarterback in the league range, so he bet on himself. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[blueblood70]

I see that nobody brings up that Cowboys almost signed Dak after Goff and Wentz got their extensions. Dak started that season 3-0 and was on fire, then France decided to pull the rug. The Cowboys were being fair but Dak thought he was in the top quarterback in the league range, so he bet on himself. Nothing wrong with that.

Exactly everybody and sometimes rightfully so hate on the Cowboys front office and do whatever they can to mock them and their memories are bent to their narratives these players and agents have been more to do with the hold up on these contracts than anyone else nobody knows what's really going on behind the scenes everything that's in the public it's posturing from both sides but the real stuff that's going on behind closed doors nobody knows what's really going on...

But if you want it proof and some eye opening information it's players like CD layer purposely waiting to not even start negotiations until either jamar chase or Justin Jefferson got paid because they could care less about Saint brown or A.J. Brown or any of those other players because they knew that those three were the ones gonna be setting the market and they purposely were waiting... And now they're gonna come at the Jones family and say now here's my starting point look what Jefferson got that's where we're starting discussions... It's all posturing it's all business there's no real blame to go around but everyone likes to blame the Jones family for not signing Prescott earlier and people's memories are skewed he was not gonna sign some cheap deal over an 8 to 10 year. Without three or four years in having his hand back out absolutely he was not going to and I do remember that and the reason they didn't sign and that the agent pulled out was because the Cowboys wanted a long term deal like five or six years and the agent knowing what the market was doing didn't wanna sign anything over four years I think some rumors said they really wanted the three-year deal so they can come back and then redo it again which is what makes most sense to me... So you are either gonna get back at like 30 to 32,000,000 / 3 years but then be right back at it and he's gonna have his hand out so in the end it would all even out anyway all this nonsense about contracts you're not getting one over on the players and agents you're the front office is gonna posture in public trying to hold out for a better deal in in the end the money's pretty similar that all teams give these top five players and it's gonna get done eventually...​

 

[fivetwos]

They can recognize the problem all they want. Bu they're not getting any change until 2031. There is no chance anything happens until then. There's just no way to implement it.

How is there no way to implement it if both sides recognize it as problematic and agree to discuss amending the current agreement?

I understand it’s a big if but it’s not an impossibility.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Kam Chancellor was a 5th round pick. Richard Sherman was a 5th round pick. Russel Wilson was what, a 2nd or 3rd rounder? That along with your premium picks, of course you're going to have a stacked team. But how often does that happen? Almost never.

But they had to have the right culture and staff too.

 

[thunderpimp91]

You do realize none of that matters in the end you will pay the piper the can when it's kicked down the road you eventually will have to pay one day you will have a yellow balloon payment coming up for all these guys they're trying to tell me how this is supposed to work for the team now show me what Josh Allen's team has done the last two seasons with those cap numbers being so low we're all these big names that are bringing in show me I mean show me how exactly that helped the team? You mean like getting rid of some of his favorite players I mean show me the big giant free agent deals and all these Super Bowls they're going to you keep bringing this up and I don't care what the cap hit is eventually they will have to pay they all have to pay the contract was bigger than that that means it was not that team friendly and they already added some of those years to Prescott go look there are void years in there as well they can add them later and they already did I'm tired of hearing about it Josh only makes more money and down the road it's gonna come due...

So you can keep harping on it it would have never happened no matter what Prescott would have done in the structure the team would not have utilized the extra money just like most teams what has Patrick mahomes teams done show me the Kansas City Chiefs spending all this money in free agency giving up all these big contracts no they're getting rid of guys like tyree kill and they've moved on from many players and replaced them with draft picks and cheap free agents just like the Dallas Cowboys So what does it matter how it's structured they are literally not utilizing it the way it is in your mind..

I mean the Kansas City Chiefs had all this money but yet they didn't keep hill then they went running back by committee they went wide receiver by committee they're drafting just like us trying to fill big voids and then they allowed their best defensive player which is debatable Chris Jones wait till a week before the damn season start to pay him during his holdout why did I need to hold out or patching my home structure so team friendly?

These teams know eventually the money's coming due it's a balloon payment it will hurt your team eventually so who cares how it's structured you could pay it up front you could pay it later but go look and press cuts actually has voided years and 25 and 26 where this money is being spread out... So again you're not bringing me to your side I'm watching most of these teams who are getting these better structures from their quarterbacks not put together championship teams I mean what it show me the rest of them you can't just show me Josh Allen show me the rest of them show me kyler Murray Justin Herbert Joe Burrows you know how about that nine or ten guys that are making technically more money than Prescott at quarterback show me what their teams have done I'll show you one team that's winning Super Bowls and the rest of them nothing they're not doing better than the Cowboys most of our finishing lower than the Cowboys but at least you have the bills and Cowboys probably on the same level....

I agree that the bill will come due for all these players eventually, but simple logic tells us that the bill will be cheaper if its at $40M AAV over 8 years instead of $40M over 4 years then $60M over the next 4. The final year of Allens deal is set for $45M against the cap. That final year is 2028 and by that time $45M is probably 10-12% of the cap. I'm not to sure I understand your argument about the void years either. Josh Allen has zero void years in his deal right now and counts less against the cap than Dak. Dak counts $55M against the cap this year despite having another $55M set up in void years. That's just dead money that shows Jerry mishandled the contract.

Are you really telling me that if you could go back to 2021 you'd sign Dak to the deal he signed instead of giving him Josh Allens deal instead?

The rest of your post is a completely different topic. I can't tell you that Jerry would have spent money saved from a better Dak deal, and I certainly cant tell you he would have spent it wisely, that's not what's being argued at all. The Chiefs are a horrible example to make your argument just because they traded Tyreek Hill. They traded him for massive draft capital that's helped turn around their defense, including the pick for McDuffie who is one of the top CBs in the league. I wish the Cowboys would not be afraid to make a similar move with a top player. They also freed up cap room to spend in free agency by year:

2022: $115M
2023: $171M
2024: $101M

The Cowboys over that same time period have spent

2022: $96M
2023 $85M
2024: $47M

The Cowboys pay their top guys, let their mid tier guys walk, and depend on hitting the rookie jackpot each year to contend. We've seen the results that brings.

As for the others you listed....

Kyler Murray - Horrible contract, Arizona made a bad decision.
Herbert - Don't love it, I would have moved on and cashed in on a draft day trade. That team is too thin on talent. The one good part for the Chargers is they did sign him early so that 5 year deal is really a year deal.
Burrow - Good decision by Cincinnati. Burrow is one of the few guys I would pay top QB money to. He's also another guy that signed early so that 5/275M is really 7/328M. Assuming they don't restructure his deal too much they should be able to move on if they need to after 2027 with a minimal penalty.

 

[baltcowboy]

Exactly everybody and sometimes rightfully so hate on the Cowboys front office and do whatever they can to mock them and their memories are bent to their narratives these players and agents have been more to do with the hold up on these contracts than anyone else nobody knows what's really going on behind the scenes everything that's in the public it's posturing from both sides but the real stuff that's going on behind closed doors nobody knows what's really going on...

But if you want it proof and some eye opening information it's players like CD layer purposely waiting to not even start negotiations until either jamar chase or Justin Jefferson got paid because they could care less about Saint brown or A.J. Brown or any of those other players because they knew that those three were the ones gonna be setting the market and they purposely were waiting... And now they're gonna come at the Jones family and say now here's my starting point look what Jefferson got that's where we're starting discussions... It's all posturing it's all business there's no real blame to go around but everyone likes to blame the Jones family for not signing Prescott earlier and people's memories are skewed he was not gonna sign some cheap deal over an 8 to 10 year. Without three or four years in having his hand back out absolutely he was not going to and I do remember that and the reason they didn't sign and that the agent pulled out was because the Cowboys wanted a long term deal like five or six years and the agent knowing what the market was doing didn't wanna sign anything over four years I think some rumors said they really wanted the three-year deal so they can come back and then redo it again which is what makes most sense to me... So you are either gonna get back at like 30 to 32,000,000 / 3 years but then be right back at it and he's gonna have his hand out so in the end it would all even out anyway all this nonsense about contracts you're not getting one over on the players and agents you're the front office is gonna posture in public trying to hold out for a better deal in in the end the money's pretty similar that all teams give these top five players and it's gonna get done eventually...​

Dak, CeeDee, and Parsons are 3 of the top 20 players in the league. Their agents would be fired if they don’t get their guys top dollar.