Recommended Free Agent DLinemen

[BigStar]

Starters at DL, LB, or safety would definitely help the defense right away. A stud guard or tackle on the o-line would also improve the offense.

Oh I feel in love with the Cowboys because of that 90's line...I hear that 100% and would be okay with a Tackle early and rid of Free's erratic season by season play. A top tackle would easily take precedent over a DL and especially a Safety. I just don't see JJ going high with the improved OL play this past season and the two 1st rounders recently spent on the position. I would draft OL high every year until dominant, but that is a whole other thread...

 

[xwalker]

Interested in a GM job with a local team? Good benefits, seat in the owner's suite, exciting travel opportunities.

Must be willing to eat a steady diet of poop sandwiches -- but, the more bread there is, the less you can taste the poop.

Only if I can remain anonymous. I would never want the whiny media and fans to know my name. If I were in Jerry's position some of the local media members would mysteriously start disappearing.

 

[Zimmy Lives]

Oh I feel in love with the Cowboys because of that 90's line...I hear that 100% and would be okay with a Tackle early and rid of Free's erratic season by season play. A top tackle would easily take precedent over a DL and especially a Safety. I just don't see JJ going high with the improved OL play this past season and the two 1st rounders recently spent on the position. I would draft OL high every year until dominant, but that is a whole other thread...

Yup! What I loved over the weekend was how the Niners and Saints o-lines paved the way to another week of playoff contention.

An OT would not be a bad pick in the 1st round but I would hope for a DE/DT or LB (the Alabama kid) with guard or safety in the 2nd and guard/tackle in the 3rd.

 

[BigStar]

The Dallas D if given to Marinelli must transform to man defense that relies on blitzing for pressure seeing as the DL will probably take a few years to rebuild. The old Eagles D (Bobby Taylor, Troy Vincent, etc.) that allowed for "exotic" blitzes. The only minimal strength of this D are that they have man corners with some ability (not marquee). Pressure, cheap cover lbs, and a secondary that has already been invested in (Scan/Carr) is what this team is presented with. That is why zone was the worst possible defense for this team and why other Offenses were able to control the clock in closing drives, or drives were it was essential for the offense to receive a final chance, etc. All or nothing is better than a slow, methodical, gameplanned way of allowing opposing offenses to dictate the pace of the game while keeping your strength (offense) off the field. Kiffen's D played right into the hands of opposing Os.

 

[jterrell]

Wrong. In December of 2012, people claimed that the Cowboys were somewhere around 30M over the cap. I said that they could get under the cap and have money for free agents.

The cap cost for 3 free agents (Durant, Waters and Spencer) was 12.1M.

They went from the claims of 30M over the cap to getting more than 12.1M under the cap. It appears that they ended the season with 2.38M available to roll over to 2014.

You are simply insane if you believe what you post is logically applied.
We had the same discussions last year with you saying nonsensical things.
The spreadsheet apparently has a flaw between screen and the part of your logical processor.

Everyone knew Dallas would get under the cap.
In fact the moves to do so were well documented; lead by a Romo extension that held the team hostage in the meantime.
So they re-structured EVERYONE else including a quite sweet to the team pay decrease for Doug Free.
Including restructures were guys like Miles/Ratliff who would have been far wiser as releases.

Justin Durant cost us 750k in base, and under 1 million in total cap hit. He is owed all of 400k in dead money.
Waters cost us 1.5million dollars and came after the season started.
Those two signings mean absolutely nothing.

Spencer was the only guy who cost us money. And we owe him 0 dollars for 2014.

So yes we spent 12.1 M in cap space. And extended Ratliff/Miles to do so.
It was bad GMing.

You didn't have them signing Justin Durant types last off-season , you had them signing top 5 FA at OC and OG.
Yet sit here and try to talk about being right?
ROFL!!!

My post from basically this time last year:

I wish fans would quit ignoring reality. It makes them look stupid when they are clearly not.

We absolutely will not be making big splashes in free agency because of our cap situation. I am quoting Stephen Jones. You are quoting wishful thinking.

Stephen Jones "We are tight up against it. I mean real tight." Stephen Jones has acknowledged there will be cap issues in 2013 -- and he's usually the most optimistic about having enough money to improve in free agency.

People who have done the exercise have certainly shown we CAN get under the cap. But getting under the cap by large amounts means wholesale cap juggling and this team has been unwilling to do so. They are likely even more unwilling to do so coming off of an 8-8 season. You mortgage the cap future for one last run with an elite team. Not in an effort to improve a mediocre but aging one.

This team will obviously climb out of the cap hole and create some wiggle room. But they aren't creating loads of space to go sign other players.

The Cowboys may well own the most coveted free agent of all in Anthony Spencer. Pro Bowl pass rusher who can play the run coming off his best year and still on the right side of 30.

He is the best talent Dallas can hope to get from the free agent pool.
And if they do we are right back at the Nate Livings and Dan Connor's of the word for additional help.

If we don't re-sign Spencer we can add 1 sure-fire starting player.

But people with these lists of 5 and 6 big-name free agents are living in lalaland.

 

[BigStar]

Yup! What I loved over the weekend was how the Niners and Saints o-lines paved the way to another week of playoff contention.

An OT would not be a bad pick in the 1st round but I would hope for a DE/DT or LB (the Alabama kid) with guard or safety in the 2nd and guard/tackle in the 3rd.

It seems the only OL we have hit on recently have been picked high (Flo, Gurode, Fred, Smith) with obvious bust like Rogers, Al Johnson being the negatives as well. No late round G's outside of Leary have been able to come in and produce consistently but like his skill set (not the knees obv)

 

[jterrell]

Great post, but isn't the number from those 6 a lot higher? If Romo's salary is 13.5MM and the cap hit for his bonuses are 8.5MM, would converting salary to a bonus create 10MM all by itself?

Yes, Romo creates 10m himself. But that move alone leaves us still 10.8m OVER the cap. That's 13m once we tender Baliey which is presumably a must do.
So the other moves will get us under again but less than last season when we tagged Spencer.

It is possible there are nuances in these contracts we are not privy to and other small details so being exact without being shown the actual contracts is pointless.
Round numbers and conservative guesses will be likely the most accurate laymen can get.

XW does a great overall job of this but his numbers are always the rosiest you will find. Err on side of a bit of caution with his but they are a great starting point.
Or use overthecap or spotrac who does this thing for every team and appears to have zero bias.

 

[xwalker]

Dallas Total cap for 51 is 148 mil add in 11 mil in dead money thats 159 mil total for 2014
Cap is supposed to be 126 mil
Its easy math to go by.

You take over the 2+mil rollover to 2014 and you have roughly 31 mil over the cap. Then you work restructures and cuts from there.

You seem to put Austin at 2 mil so i assume ur saying he's a june 1 cut. So take that 13.3 mil you have there and subtract 5.5 mil. thats basically 7.8 what i said they will have come FA starts. What about that dont you understand? Just cause you designate somebody for a june 1 cut doesnt mean you get that money before June1.

All of the numbers are in my last post include the dead-money.
I had stated in previous posts that it was based on:
Restructures for Romo, Carr, Witten and Lee with an immediate cut for Ware and a June 1st cut for Austin.

Obviously, I know that the money from making Austin a June 1st cut is not available until June 1st. They don't sign draft picks until after June 1st and they need to keep some space available.

The 7.4M from cutting Ware is plenty for signing free agents. As I stated before, the first year cap hit for Carr's 50M contract was 3.2M; therefore, they can fit two 50M contracts into the 7.4M of space (3.2M x 2 = 6.4M) or four 25M contracts (3.2/2 x 4 = 6.4M).

As I stated before, the draft picks only increase the cap by about 1.5M because they replace 7 other players on the top 51 contracts. This is based on 17th pick in each round of the 2013 draft.

Free Agents: 6.4M (this is the pre June 1st costs)
Draft Picks: 1.5M
Total: 7.9M

Final Cap space 13.7M - 7.9M = 5.8M They will need some of this for the practice squad and the final 2 roster spots. They can roll any remaining amount to 2015.

They will need to re-sign some players, but they can keep their 2014 cap hit the same if they want to structure it that way.

In 2015 they would be almost out of the dead-money cycle that they've been on the entire time that Garrett has been the HC. The only dead-money on 2015 under my plan would be the 2nd portion of the dead-money from making Austin a June 1st cut.

 

[xwalker]

You didn't have them signing Justin Durant types last off-season , you had them signing top 5 FA at OC and OG.
Yet sit here and try to talk about being right?

Now you're just making things up.

I said that they wouldn't have any problems signing free agents if they did not franchise Spencer. I said they could franchise Spencer and still have some space but that the franchise tag would severely limit their options.

I didn't have them signing 5 free agents for 3 positions. I don't even think there were any free agent Centers available last year.

Do you realize that I'm posting about what they COULD do under the salary cap, not what they WILL do?

 

[jterrell]

All of the numbers are in my last post include the dead-money.
I had stated in previous posts that it was based on:
Restructures for Romo, Carr, Witten and Lee with an immediate cut for Ware and a June 1st cut for Austin.

Obviously, I know that the money from making Austin a June 1st cut is not available until June 1st. They don't sign draft picks until after June 1st and they need to keep some space available.

The 7.4M from cutting Ware is plenty for signing free agents. As I stated before, the first year cap hit for Carr's 50M contract was 3.2M; therefore, they can fit two 50M contracts into the 7.4M of space (3.2M x 2 = 6.4M) or four 25M contracts (3.2/2 x 4 = 6.4M).

As I stated before, the draft picks only increase the cap by about 1.5M because they replace 7 other players on the top 51 contracts. This is based on 17th pick in each round of the 2013 draft.

Free Agents: 6.4M (this is the pre June 1st costs)
Draft Picks: 1.5M
Total: 7.9M

Final Cap space 13.7M - 7.9M = 5.8M They will need some of this for the practice squad and the final 2 roster spots. They can roll any remaining amount to 2015.

They will need to re-sign some players, but they can keep their 2014 cap hit the same if they want to structure it that way.

In 2015 they would be almost out of the dead-money cycle that they've been on the entire time that Garrett has been the HC. The only dead-money on 2015 under my plan would be the 2nd portion of the dead-money from making Austin a June 1st cut.

The fact you are using Carr as example invalidates everything you type.
It's like a "realistic" movie that has an M. Night Shyalaman(sp?) ending.

Carr is a terrible contract and one the team is very UNlikely to repeat.
You also posit they'll be out of dead money but again that is just a goofy statement.
The team WILL undoubtedly create more dead money.
You allow for Miles but there will be more via injury or performance.
And that doesn't include dealing with Carr who likely has to be cut at some point unless he agrees to a pay cut soon.
Witten/Ware/et al, will probably create dead money at some point.
Very few guys with large contracts just play them out and leave.

The Cowboys cap situation in 2015 prevents them signing two Carr deals if they even wanted to be crazy.
The 6.5m total for 2014 might well be doab le but the 11m for 2015 isn't very tenable.--and that 11m would be after max restructure....

 

[xwalker]

You are simply insane if you believe what you post is logically applied.
We had the same discussions last year with you saying nonsensical things.
The spreadsheet apparently has a flaw between screen and the part of your logical processor.

I have attached the spreadsheet that I post last year. You can see that I had them at 18.7M available without keeping Spencer.

I was only 200k off in my guess on Romo's cap hit before way before he signed the new contract.

I had Free as a cut with a 4.8M cap hit and he turned out to be a 6.5M cap hit.

Adjustments (expenditures) :
Spencer 10.6M
Waters 1.5M
Will Allen 1M
Justin Durant 950k
Carry-over to 2014 ~2M
Difference between off-season top 51 and regular season with 53 + Practice Squad: ~2M

Total Adjustments: ~18M

I was within 0.7M of being exactly correct.

 

[jterrell]

Now you're just making things up.

I said that they wouldn't have any problems signing free agents if they did not franchise Spencer. I said they could franchise Spencer and still have some space but that the franchise tag would severely limit their options.

I didn't have them signing 5 free agents for 3 positions. I don't even think there were any free agent Centers available last year.

Do you realize that I'm posting about what they COULD do under the salary cap, not what they WILL do?

I never suggested you said 5 FA, I said top 5 FA at two interior OL positions.
You posited tons of things over the off-season like all frequent posters; myself included.

And again I am merely arguing the common sense and logic of your assertions.
I have fully allowed what you type is at least remotely possible(once the corrections were made) if the forces all come together in some specific way.

Last year you were a couple million off your cap estimates by your own accord, this year you were about 7m off of your (corrected) own accord.
You do a good job of this but are always erring on the side of more rather than less.
That leads a desperate fan base down foxholes.
I have just never been a fan of tea parties.

I want to discuss what can realistically happen, not what is the best possible scenario if everything goes our way.
Because when we re-sign Spencer and add a 2nd tier DT like Marcus Spears I want to be able to then fool myself into believing all will be well.
I reserve my crazy to the 'on any given sunday' variety.

If you are honest you realize people read your posts then take that as reasons to create insane off-season expectations.
Those threads DO have us signing 5 big-name FA and are absurd yet never-ending.

Already the top DT signed last year was Henry Melton. He was given 8.5m.
He is again available, is only 27 and yet he is our top target?? A guy who was recently arrested and will ALMOST CERTAINLY cost MORE than Hatcher? That's absurd if we are being honest.

 

[Rockport]

The F indicates they were franchised last year.

Defensive Ends:

Name Team Status
Frostee Rucker ARI
Ronald Talley ARI R
Matt Shaughnessy ARI
Arthur Jones BAL
Greg Hardy CAR
Corey Wootton CHI
Michael Johnson CIN F
Jason Hatcher DAL
Jarius Wynn DAL
Robert Ayers DEN
Shaun Phillips DEN
Willie Young DET
Israel Idonije DET
Ryan Pickett GB
Mike Neal GB
CJ Wilson GB
Johnny Jolly GB
Antonio Smith HOU
Ricardo Mathews IND
Fili Moala IND
Tyson Jackson KC
Jared Allen MIN
Everson Griffen MIN
Justin Tuck NYG
Lamarr Houston OAK
Jason Hunter OAK
Brett Keisel PIT
Ziggy Hood PIT
Michael Bennett SEA
Clinton McDonald SEA
Daniel Te’o-Nesheim TB
Defensive Tackles:

Name Team Status
Jonathan Babineaux ATL
Peria Jerry ATL
Corey Peters ATL
Terrence Cody BAL
Alex Carrington BUF
Colin Cole CAR
Landon Cohen CHI
Nate Collins CHI R
Henry Melton CHI F
Mitch Unrein DEN R
Andre Fluellen DET
Earl Mitchell HOU
Terrell McClain HOU R
Aubrayo Franklin IND
Brandon Deaderick JAX
Leger Douzable Jets
Anthony Toribio KC R
Randy Starks MIA F
Paul Soliai MIA
Kevin Williams MIN
Fred Evans MIN
Keyunta Dawson NO
Tom Johnson NO R
Linval Joseph NYG
Shaun Rogers NYG
Mike Patterson NYG
Martin Parker NYG R
Vance Walker OAK
Pat Sims OAK
Daniel Muir OAK
Cedric Thornton PHI R
Al Woods PIT
Cam Thomas SD
Tony McDaniel SEA
Gary Gibson TB
Ropati Pitoitua TEN
Antonio Johnson TEN
Chris Baker WAS
Doug Worthington WAS R

With our salary cap situation, we'll be unable to get any of the first tier players and maybe not even the 2nd tier players.

 

[xwalker]

The fact you are using Carr as example invalidates everything you type.
It's like a "realistic" movie that has an M. Night Shyalaman(sp?) ending.

Carr is a terrible contract and one the team is very UNlikely to repeat.
You also posit they'll be out of dead money but again that is just a goofy statement.
The team WILL undoubtedly create more dead money.
You allow for Miles but there will be more via injury or performance.
And that doesn't include dealing with Carr who likely has to be cut at some point unless he agrees to a pay cut soon.
Witten/Ware/et al, will probably create dead money at some point.
Very few guys with large contracts just play them out and leave.

The Cowboys cap situation in 2015 prevents them signing two Carr deals if they even wanted to be crazy.
The 6.5m total for 2014 might well be doab le but the 11m for 2015 isn't very tenable.--and that 11m would be after max restructure....

I said minimal dead-money in 2015 compared to previous years. I have Ware as a cut with all of his dead-money on the 2014 cap. Carr and the other issues you're referring to would be in later years.

Dead-money history:
2013: 28M
2014: 11.8M
2015: ~5M

Here is the multiple year projection of my plan prior to signing free agents and re-signing existing players:
Year Cap Room
2014 $13,726,693
2015 $20,014,618 (another 20M can be gained from another restructure of Romo and Carr)
2016 $50,492,874
2017 $71,130,250
2018 $100,194,000
2019 $109,652,000

 

[jterrell]

Oh I feel in love with the Cowboys because of that 90's line...I hear that 100% and would be okay with a Tackle early and rid of Free's erratic season by season play. A top tackle would easily take precedent over a DL and especially a Safety. I just don't see JJ going high with the improved OL play this past season and the two 1st rounders recently spent on the position. I would draft OL high every year until dominant, but that is a whole other thread...

Free costs us almost as much to release as he does to keep now for 2014. (we'd save 480k)
It would actually cost us money to cut him and plug in an R1 RT. (who'd cost us about 1M) --and that R1 RT would probably struggle to measure up to Free in year 1--

That's why OL is really not a target in R1.
Combine our cap situation, with our roster situation and OL is not really in the mix in R1 IMHO.
We'd be far more likely to trade up or down to get a DL/LB/S.

Free is FAR more likely to be restructured than cut.
Lower his base again to minimum and his cap hit drops to ~4.8m

 

[xwalker]

Last year you were a couple million off your cap estimates by your own accord, this year you were about 7m off of your (corrected) own accord.

What 7M are you referring to?

 

[Kaiser]

The main issue I have with XW is people are largely not smart enough to take what he says and process it.
They read it as OMG we are signing 2 new Pro Bowl DL under 30!!! We will win the Super Bowl!!!!

I don't see him saying that at all. I see a blizzard of posts saying "Cap Hell!! We won't sign anyone and will have to cut players!!!". I see XWalker showing the basic numbers that prove that is false, not touting a return to the early 90's teams.

And not to nitpick, but Waters and Spencer are All Pro players and Carr wasn't that far off it when he signed. Waters wasn't cheap either at 3MM, it was just split between salary and incentives - which is why the team finished the year with more than 2MM in cap space set aside for the 1.5MM in incentives he had.

Like I mentioned before, the team has has 5MM each of the last two years on an NFL penalty that was complete nonsense and paid Anthony Spencer 10MM each year. Every year there are million posts about us going backwards because of "Cap Hell" and every year we have the money for significant signings.

 

[BoysFan4ever]

Sorry I logged onto this thread. It gave me a headache.

 

[jterrell]

I said minimal dead-money in 2015 compared to previous years. I have Ware as a cut with all of his dead-money on the 2014 cap. Carr and the other issues you're referring to would be in later years.

Dead-money history:
2013: 28M
2014: 11.8M
2015: ~5M

Here is the multiple year projection of my plan prior to signing free agents and re-signing existing players:
Year Cap Room
2014 $13,726,693
2015 $20,014,618 (another 20M can be gained from another restructure of Romo and Carr)
2016 $50,492,874
2017 $71,130,250
2018 $100,194,000
2019 $109,652,000

no offense but are really saying nothing.
dead money is always zero 2 years out.

your plan has 5m because you've only made 1 June 1st cut for 2014.
but their will VERY likely be more via through injury or performance which is exactly what I stated previously.

And what we do with Carr/Witten/Romo/Free is where large post 2014 dead money comes into play.
Those players could all be gone by 2015. And all 4 being here in 2015 is unlikely at best.
Which means the 2015 season wouldn't have a mere 5m in dead money now would it?

 

[Kaiser]

With restructures and possible cuts you can expect dallas to be anywhere between 6mil to 8mil in cap space before FA.

You can get a lot more than that in restructures if you want to do it. You can get 10MM from Romo, 5MM from Brandon Carr, 3MM from Witten, etc. Ware is a special case obviously but I think they will get at least 5MM in cap space there, but likely give some of it back in incentives.