Most GMs are in fear of losing their jobs and don't get a decade plus to build their legacy like they used to.
Only a front office with lifetime guaranteed jobs could accomplish what we accomplish. Oh wait...
Great post man, so very true, and most definitely the root of this franchise's woes.
The other thing is that while the NFL cap is a hard cap, it is not totally static.
You can restructure contracts (which we do at times), and create space.
The escpae valve is that the cap grows over time.
That's my issue with the team this year. We have been in Covid impacted cap the last 2 years, which sort of froze things, but that is now past, and with the new TV deals the league is crushing it, and the cap is set to expand very rapidly.
They are predicting an increase of up to 40 mil for next year, and by 2026 the cap is projected at over 300 mil.
That's why I don't like losing a good player in their prime (like Coop or Collins), for nothing.
If you have issues with them, build their value and get an asset (solid draft picks) for them, but the Cowboys aired their dirty laundry, driving their value down to justify the move to the fan base, then trade or release and get nothing.
Just horrible asset management.
Everyone complained about Coops salary. He was the 4th highest paid WR last year (and his production was no wheere near that), so I get the frustration. But look at the WR deals signed this year, already like 3 have surpassed Coop, and other "good" WRs like Williams and Kirk are right there too. Wait until next year, when more deals are up and the cap explodes, good WRs will get 20-24 and great ones will approach 30, and Coops number won't look so bad.
I'm also not convinced our OC wonder boy is not part of the problem, as Coop was the 86th most tartgeted receiver in the league last year. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if he explodes this season with Watson and getting his number called more.
One of the most powerful things I've seen in a long time was the Kurt Warner video about our offensive game plan in the Niners playoff loss. It was like *** are we doing? No adjustments, just keep running the same crap and expecting different results.
There was one play he pointed out towards the end of the game. The Niners were in 4 deep coverage, and we ran a receiver deep into each zone. Warner was like ***? You won't get past DBs deep when they are 15 yards off the LOS. Overload a zone and throw underneath, get the ball in your playmakers hands. But we kept running the same crap that wasn't working.