Twitter: Good article breaking down the Cowboys 2021 cap issues

[Rockport]

trading Dak and getting some picks , taking his part of the pizza and using it on defense and draft a qb of the future and use a vet bridge with a lot less resources..

signing dak not signing dak can both fix the cap..lol

this is on dak hes the only player in DC Jones' history to not help with more tam friendly structure..

Zeke? DLaw? Deion? Just to name a few. Trading down to get more picks to fix the defense is the way to go. With Dak, we’ve had the #1 offense the last 2 years.

 

[Uncle_Hank]

Zeke? DLaw? Deion? Just to name a few. Trading down to get more picks to fix the defense is the way to go. With Dak, we’ve had the #1 offense the last 2 years.

I'm not stoked about the contract Dak will command, but gambling on another quarterback at the world's worst casino is just dumb. Resigning Dak and stockpiling draft picks by trading down is the only way to go.

 

[reddyuta]

its a shame but we cannot pay Dak and hope to be competitive in the NFC.

 

[RamziD]

We might not be able to sign our QB because of ill-advised contracts to a RB and an OLB. Think about that.

 

[CowboyoWales]

I'm not stoked about the contract Dak will command, but gambling on another quarterback at the world's worst casino is just dumb. Resigning Dak and stockpiling draft picks by trading down is the only way to go.

It's not dumb and your solution isnt the only way.

The bottom line is that we are not going to be challenging during the next 3 years at least ....just too many holes and bad contracts.

Both Dak or trade Dak scenario's will hurt in the short term.

We trade down allows us quantity, but even if they pan out how long is that going to take - look at Diggs and Gallimore, assuming they improve and learn through experience they arent going to be considered everyday players on a challenging team for at least another two full years.

I would agree on the Dak and trade down option....but the alternative certainly isnt rubbish it's acknowledging that rather than kick the can we tear down and start again.

 

[Verdict]

I heard here that the salary cap is just some fictional thingy.

 

[zekecowboy]

I know of one way to keep the cap way down.

It really is a simple solution especially if we get a top 5 draft pick.

 

[Cowboyny]

No one says they can't. The problem is that people act like restructures and backloaded contracts make cap hits just disappear. They don't. At some point, you have to pay the piper for those kinds of moves. It's why the Eagles are FUBAR'd this offseason. They banked on a few years of a run here from 2017 until now, backloaded and restructured a bunch of guys and now they are staring at maybe being anywhere from $45 to $65 million over the cap next year. The Saints? They could be as much as $95 million over the cap in 2021.

They structured a lot of their extensions in which their is a early out. For example, if Cooper is released after next season, they gain 16 million in cap space. Also, if they extend Dak, it can open up cap space in the structure of his contract.

 

[MWH1967]

There’s always room when you restructure contracts.

Restructure= future problems.

 

[JonesBoys]

This is what happens when you have a horrible GM that doesn’t know what he’s doing. A 4 win team that has cap problem.

 

[Parcells4Life]

This is what happens when you have a horrible GM that doesn’t know what he’s doing. A 4 win team that has cap problem.

The roster wasn’t built for the 3 expensive OL and QB to all be out. When 40% of your cap isn’t playing you’re going to have a 4 win season.

 

[John813]

Restructure= future problems.

Yes and no. It only really has bit the Cowboys when said player has retired abruptly/or got beat out soon after the restructure.

Cowboys restructured Frederick and then he retired the following year. His deal was still a good deal for us in the short and long term. Unfortunately, his GBS made him want to retire.

Romo was another guy they had set restructures in his deal and they honestly believed he was going to be the QB for a long time. His body had other plans and well a guy named Dak was drafted. He gets cut, shortly after restructuring and boom dead cap. However, if he was still the starter, his cap hits were fine even post restructuring.

With how much the cap jumped up per year, pre-covid, the restructured cap hits were still in line with the going rates of those players/their talent.

And with the new TV deal in 2022 set to explode the cap even higher*, the backloading from recent restructuring isn't going to hurt, as long as the player is still playing well.

Tyron Smith has restructured his deal countless times. Even with all the restructuring, his cap hit moving forward is way under the going rate of LTs with his talent. With guys creeping up to the 20mil mark, his deal next year is at 14.6mil. Of course it stings when he can't stay healthy. But in the past it would be 2-3 games at most. Not an entire year. He was another guy they just restructured this year and his cap hit dropped to 6mil(for more rollover cap). Even with that, his dead cap next year is reasonable even if he decided to retire out of the blue.

 

[ArtClink]

https://thedraftnetwork.com/articles/dallas-cowboys-cap-space-issues-2021-dak

LACK OF CAP FLEXIBILITY A MAJOR DILEMMA FOR COWBOYS
BY: KYLE CRABBS DECEMBER 8TH, 2020 THE DRAFT NETWORK

Interesting read about how the Jones boys have painted the roster in a corner with their emotional "feel good" long term signings of various players that will continue to result in dead cap money. BTW, every team does NOT operate this way and you can go back and look at the dead money from Deon S, Romo, etc. Stephen and his sour puss pappy love to "kick the can" down the road on our salary cap. Stephen & the fuhrer are experts when it comes to understanding the salary cap rules, but know nothing when it comes to salary cap management.

"DeMarcus Lawrence is due a $17M base salary (fully guaranteed) in 2021, which would make him a logical trade candidate until you realize he still has $27M in prorated signing bonuses on his contract that needs to be accounted for. You could trade him post-June 1 and save $17M against the cap, but you're losing your best pass-rusher and probably your best defensive player and taking on $19M in dead cap in 2022—you're effectively robbing Peter to pay Paul in this kind of scenario.

If Dallas wanted to play this game with a lower value position, they may want to revisit their monster contract given to running back Ezekiel Elliott. His six-year, $90M contract was, uhm, rather ambitious given the positional value in question and the team's need to re-sign players like Prescott and cornerback Byron Jones—who could have gone a long way in preventing the Cowboys from rolling out Swiss cheese on the back end. Elliott is another player with $25M-plus in guarantees that need to be sorted through. He's another post-June 1 candidate; Elliott's 2021 salary of $9.6M is already guaranteed and would be a helpful figure to offload if the team is willing to take on nearly $11M in dead cap in 2022. Oh, right... and find a trade partner for a high-priced running back who has plenty of talent but a monster price tag.

This is the challenge for Dallas. They gave out a bunch of high guarantee contracts and left themselves no wiggle room or outs for if things went sideways—and the Cowboys didn't just go sideways in 2020, they went damn near upside down. Restructures and trades are a must, but the Cowboys must find the right players to execute these moves with or else run the risk of watering down the talent on the roster and simultaneously boxing themselves in for even more years ahead with minimal cap flexibility, prolonging the rebound window. And if the team does franchise Prescott again this offseason, we're likely looking at conducting this same song and dance once again as the Cowboys try to dance through the deferred guarantees from the 2021 offseason while trying to work an even pricier contract for Prescott onto the books.

Good luck, Dallas. You're going to need it."

Sigh, at least we have continuity at the GM position like the fuhrer wanted.

 

[tm1119]

There is word that the cap will not be $175, but in the $200 million range. The cap has not been set and it is likely that is will be much more than the rumored $175.
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/12/06/optimism-emerges-regarding-2021-salary-cap/

Along with what everyone else is pointing out with restructuring, I was going to post this as well. 175 million cap is absolutely worst case scenario that is unlikely. Add another $20 mil of cap space into this guy’s article and there are no issues at all, $47 million in free cap space before any cuts/restructures is pretty great and won’t kept us from doing anything

 

[HungryLion]

a hungry aggie entered a pizza shop and ordered pizza. the owner asked if he would it like it cut into 6 pieces or 8. 6 said the aggie. i don't think i could eat eight. the cap is the pie. there are just so many pieces to the pie. and as history has taught us, it's always about the slice of the pie. stephen will have to be at his most creative contract negotiating this coming off season.

So our hopes are on Stephen jones? The rich boy who had everything handed to him and has gotten bent over by guys like Zeke and Jaylon?


Awesome