Going all in

[Galian Beast]

So what happens when you have a few guys who get paid big money and you decide to backload all of them?

The cap increases and their percentage of the cap in future years decreases over time.

Maybe I can help you.

Would you rather have a dollar in 1900 or a dollar in 2014?

 

[Cowboy from New York]

opinions on Ro McClain? He seemed to physically fall apart at the end of the season.

 

[kevm3]

Honestly, it depends on what going all in means. If it means spending some outlandish amount of money to get that 'one missing piece', I'm absolutely against it. We've tried it and it blew up in our face just about every time. Keep making the smart decisions we've been making the past few years.

 

[Pessimist_cowboy]

opinions on Ro McClain? He seemed to physically fall apart at the end of the season.

we'll be able to re-sign him at a bargain price. He wants to be here and other teams won't take the risk. He won't get offered anything big by anyone. Im thinking 2 years 6 million.

 

[Brooksey]

Next year is the year for the Cowboys to go all in on.

I mentioned it before, but this is a good opportunity for Romo and Witten to take pay cuts. Again, not as a punishment, but as a way of pushing this team across the finish line and getting their names placed in history. They don't have to, but they should, if they want this team to win. Outside of that they should both be restructured.

You also want to restructure Smith, make Carr a June 1st cut, and don't pick up the option on Melton. You don't pick up the option on Free. Though I do think you may want to revisit both of those players in free agency.

Assuming you restructure Romo whether he takes a pay cut or not this would take us to 49 million dollars of cap space (assuming the cap is 143 million) for 2015. 8 million of that would be unavailable until after June.

You cut Dekoda Watson, Terrell McClain, Josh Brent, and you can bring that number to 52 million under the cap.

These moves aren't designed in order for us to super aggressive in free agency, rather they are designed to give us as much flexibility as we would need.

I would look at re-signing Doug Free to two years 7 million dollars.

I would offer Melton a similar deal to what he had this year, though with a smaller signing bonus, given the dead money of the failure of the first contract.

Henry Melton's cap hit for 2014 was actually only 2.359 million dollars, and the dead money we're looking at is only 750k. I think people are giving up on him too quickly, when a manageable deal can be made, especially a second year away from that ACL.

I think you have to resign Dez, which let's say for the sake of argument is 14 million per year. We give him 14 million per year, but we probably back load that so that we don't take much of a hit in 2015 and slightly more in 2016. His 2015 contract can still be pretty negligible depending on his signing bonus. I'll go more into detail on Dez's contract separately.

I don't think we'll have any trouble bringing players back who we want to bring back. It'll be about market value vs team value, I don't think the cap is much of a factor.

You basically have between 30 and 40 million (more or less depending on the cap size) dollars to maintain and upgrade the defense.

That should be good enough with guys like Lee coming back.

Thinking outside the box, I would actually approach Denver and see if they are interested in swapping 7th round draft picks to get Ware off their books. We could agree to pay some of his guaranteed money, and he would become a very nice rotational player for us. Certainly an upgrade from Spencer. Let's say between 3 and 5 million dollars.

You get Ware for super cheap and he is exclusively a 3rd down rusher, and we get one of our fan favorite players back for a super bowl run like he should have always been. You also get another defensive end in free agency and the draft.

You then have Ware, Lawrence, Free Agent DE, and Mincey.... not a bad deal in my opinion.

Romo and Witten are not taking pay cuts, Romo and Smith will restructure each year per their contract. I expect Josh Brent back for training camp. Highly unlikely we pick up Demarcus Ware who is signed with Denver and was a ghost the last six weeks.

 

[Silver N Blue]

Do we really have an accurate account of what the cap looks like right now?

 

[xwalker]

Next year is the year for the Cowboys to go all in on.

I mentioned it before, but this is a good opportunity for Romo and Witten to take pay cuts. Again, not as a punishment, but as a way of pushing this team across the finish line and getting their names placed in history. They don't have to, but they should, if they want this team to win. Outside of that they should both be restructured.

You also want to restructure Smith, make Carr a June 1st cut, and don't pick up the option on Melton. You don't pick up the option on Free. Though I do think you may want to revisit both of those players in free agency.

Assuming you restructure Romo whether he takes a pay cut or not this would take us to 49 million dollars of cap space (assuming the cap is 143 million) for 2015. 8 million of that would be unavailable until after June.

You cut Dekoda Watson, Terrell McClain, Josh Brent, and you can bring that number to 52 million under the cap.

These moves aren't designed in order for us to super aggressive in free agency, rather they are designed to give us as much flexibility as we would need.

I would look at re-signing Doug Free to two years 7 million dollars.

I would offer Melton a similar deal to what he had this year, though with a smaller signing bonus, given the dead money of the failure of the first contract.

Henry Melton's cap hit for 2014 was actually only 2.359 million dollars, and the dead money we're looking at is only 750k. I think people are giving up on him too quickly, when a manageable deal can be made, especially a second year away from that ACL.

I think you have to resign Dez, which let's say for the sake of argument is 14 million per year. We give him 14 million per year, but we probably back load that so that we don't take much of a hit in 2015 and slightly more in 2016. His 2015 contract can still be pretty negligible depending on his signing bonus. I'll go more into detail on Dez's contract separately.

I don't think we'll have any trouble bringing players back who we want to bring back. It'll be about market value vs team value, I don't think the cap is much of a factor.

You basically have between 30 and 40 million (more or less depending on the cap size) dollars to maintain and upgrade the defense.

That should be good enough with guys like Lee coming back.

Thinking outside the box, I would actually approach Denver and see if they are interested in swapping 7th round draft picks to get Ware off their books. We could agree to pay some of his guaranteed money, and he would become a very nice rotational player for us. Certainly an upgrade from Spencer. Let's say between 3 and 5 million dollars.

You get Ware for super cheap and he is exclusively a 3rd down rusher, and we get one of our fan favorite players back for a super bowl run like he should have always been. You also get another defensive end in free agency and the draft.

You then have Ware, Lawrence, Free Agent DE, and Mincey.... not a bad deal in my opinion.

Again, there is no reason to cut low paid players like T. McClain and Brent prior to training camp.

I'm not certain they even want Melton back. All of the Cowboys insiders said that Melton was on the verge of being inactive in several of the last few games but injuries to other players prevented it. There was something going on between him and the coaching staff.

If you trade for a player like Ware, you get his total salary.

 

[Nightman]

Do we really have an accurate account of what the cap looks like right now?

Dallas is somewhere around 13m under the cap if it's at 140m for next year. They have 3.2m in rollover from this year putting the cap at 143.2. They only have around 42 players under contract and have a lot of FAs and RFAs to sign.

If history is a guide, the cap could be even higher than 140m based on the TV deals that are already signed and ready to kick in this season

Romo, TSmith and Witten have deals that can be restructured to add a ton of space, upwards of 23m

Decisions on cutting Carr and Melton can save another 17m

Various smaller moves can be made leaving Dallas up to 50-55m under the cap

Signing Dez, Murray, a top DT/DE, Free/Parnell and our LBers should be no problem

 

[Setackin]

If Romo took a pay cut, we are going after BIG FA players...

 

[Nightman]

If Romo took a pay cut, we are going after BIG FA players...

Romo doesn't need to take a pay cut. he can do a simple restructure and save 12m against the cap. Romo's salary is almost fully guaranteed for 2015 so the money is already spent.

 

[StarBoyz83]

Its for sure time to go all in. If they cant get it done in the next 2 years it wont be for a long time. I think dallas will be stagnant for a while after romo is done. Now is the time.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I'm not in favor of going all in this upcoming season. We did that in the late 90s and we didn't win. We paid for it for a long, long time after the fact. I hope we really don't try to shortcut and go all in. I hope we do it smarter. I'm OK with spending money for guys who will continue to help us in years out because Football doesn't stop after Tony retires or what have you.

 

[xwalker]

Do we really have an accurate account of what the cap looks like right now?

Yes, but it get complicated to explain all of it. Basically, the 2015 cap itself is not a significant limitation. They can do just about whatever they want and fit it into the 2015 cap. The issue is how much they want to push onto the futures years cap. There is not finite answer to that question. Most likely they call sign all of their own free agents and sign 1 top free agent from another team or a couple of mid-level free agents from other teams. They might not re-sign Murray, but it's not because they can't but because it's not a good risk/reward.

 

[Setackin]

Romo doesn't need to take a pay cut. he can do a simple restructure and save 12m against the cap. Romo's salary is almost fully guaranteed for 2015 so the money is already spent.

I didn't say he was going to or that I thought he should... I just said IF he did we are going big

 

[Nightman]

I'm not in favor of going all in this upcoming season. We did that in the late 90s and we didn't win. We paid for it for a long, long time after the fact. I hope we really don't try to shortcut and go all in. I hope we do it smarter. I'm OK with spending money for guys who will continue to help us in years out because Football doesn't stop after Tony retires or what have you.

I'm not in favor of saving salary cap space just for the sake of being prudent. Any unused space is a waste when there are multiple positions that can be upgraded. Dallas' struggles had more to do with poor drafts and bad choices in FA and contract extensions than any cap mismanagement. Romo doesn't have many more years, the time is now to make a move. More than half the team is on rookie contracts so they can afford a few big ones.

 

[Longboysfan]

Using restructures and large cash signing bonuses is in fact beneficial to the team and gives Dallas a huge advantage over cash poor or cheap teams. Dallas can consistently spend well above the Salary Cap by using these accounting techniques, which is all they are.

Restructures and dead money are basically interest free loans against the future cap. With the TV deals signed and sealed the cap will continue to rise in the short and long term, so the problems of the late 2000s won't be repeated.

Dallas can be aggressive with resigning their own guys and can even add some top FAs. Recent history has shown that FA is not usually the most effective use of resources, but it can't be eliminated as an option. Keep drafting well and don't overpay out of loyalty or past performance and there shouldn't be any major problems.

The money saved from restructures - Get Dez signed last.
This way when everyone else is in you could really set the structure of his CAP hit as you like it.
Maybe have the first year guranteeded like 18 million. Then with signing bonus it's 30 million to him in the first year.
Then scale it down or exactly the same for the remaining years.
You will get savings from restructures and your set to go the next year.
Save enough for rookie CAP and maybe a mid season signing.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I'm not in favor of saving salary cap space just for the sake of being prudent. Any unused space is a waste when there are multiple positions that can be upgraded. Dallas' struggles had more to do with poor drafts and bad choices in FA and contract extensions than any cap mismanagement. Romo doesn't have many more years, the time is now to make a move. More than half the team is on rookie contracts so they can afford a few big ones.

I think there is a difference between saving cap (not spending it) and using it wisely on the right players. For example: If the team decides that spending cap to sign certain players, above and beyond what their market value is or should be, that's a recipe for disaster. You end up paying for players who have long outlived their value to the team. It straps you in future years. However, spending cap for players who can help you in out years is obviously desired. In the past, we have spent big money on players who were probably past their primes and we paid for it because we felt like it might get us over the top. I think that can work but usually it doesn't.

 

[Galian Beast]

Again, there is no reason to cut low paid players like T. McClain and Brent prior to training camp.

I'm not certain they even want Melton back. All of the Cowboys insiders said that Melton was on the verge of being inactive in several of the last few games but injuries to other players prevented it. There was something going on between him and the coaching staff.

If you trade for a player like Ware, you get his total salary.

That isn't the case when it comes to guaranteed money.

 

[xwalker]

That isn't the case when it comes to guaranteed money.

Yes, it is when it's the base salary that is guaranteed.

 

[Sportsbabe]

We continue to do what got us to this point. Be free agent smart and draft solid guys.

Don't forget who are young that love football.