Is Bruce Carter making the case for a return?

[LatinMind]

The issue isn't so much Durant or Carter. Durant is coming off a 2-year $2M deal when no one else in the league wanted him. He is now coming off 2 straight years where he missed a bunch of games. Durant will not cost us much to retain.

The problem is Carter made so many big plays, has much athleticism and is still young. Someone is going to pay him a huge chunk of money that we can't afford because we are already paying Lee a top 10 MLB salary and will be paying McClain something similar. We cannot afford to pay a 3rd LB that money with all the other big contracts on the team.

So the real reason Carter most likely won't be back is Sean Lee, not Justin Durant.

The only other real possibility I see would be to give up on improving the DL with a big name FA and just re-sign Carter instead. Not sure if that's a good move given Carter's inconsistency.

mcclain will not bank in a big contract. 10mil for mcclain you really think that? for a statline of 81 tackles 1 sack and 2 int? Carter has 57 tackles 1 sack and 3 ints and a couple punt blocks. Neither will command alot of money. If Mcclain wants big money we will see Lee playing MLB next yr and if Carter does we will see hitchens and durant. Or drafting a LBer early.

 

[DogFace]

Yes. He should. Depth.


2-3 year

 

[Eskimo]

mcclain will not bank in a big contract. 10mil for mcclain you really think that? for a statline of 81 tackles 1 sack and 2 int? Carter has 57 tackles 1 sack and 3 ints and a couple punt blocks. Neither will command alot of money. If Mcclain wants big money we will see Lee playing MLB next yr and if Carter does we will see hitchens and durant. Or drafting a LBer early.

McClain won't get $10M/yr but he'll probably get $5-7M/yr.

I don't think the FO trusts that Sean Lee can survive the season at MLB. He only made it through about half a season last year when his neck problem started. He just isn't big and strong enough to take the pounding. McClain can and his presence changes the whole nature of the defense. So he is the big priority.

Carter is a good player and someone is going to pay him something similar to what KJ Wright just got, 4 years $28M. I don't think we can afford that at the SAM for this scheme.

 

[JBell]

With the way this team has scouted LB's lately, I say let him walk.

I trust the FO to draft a quality LB in the middle rounds. They know what to look for.

 

[Zekeats]

He had a great game today but I am still ready to move on......got Lee, McClain, Hitchens as our starters next season. Also gotta resign McClain, Murray, Dez, one of the right tackles and a defensive lineman, not enough $ to get a guy who hasn't shown he's hungry all the time.

 

[Bluefin]

mcclain will not bank in a big contract. 10mil for mcclain you really think that?

I expect Rolando McClain will be looking for money similar to Sean Lee's contract.

$7.5M average to start, $8.5M average maximum with playing time incentives.

The team may want to put in a large second year base salary with an option attached as seen with Henry Melton.

If Mcclain wants big money we will see Lee playing MLB next yr and if Carter does we will see hitchens and durant. Or drafting a LBer early.

Whatever happens, my plan involves moving Lee to WLB next year.

Ro' is the MIKE if he re-signs, Anthony Hitchens gets it if he leaves.

SAM gets figured out with whatever else we have left.

 

[Bluefin]

With the way this team has scouted LB's lately, I say let him walk.

I trust the FO to draft a quality LB in the middle rounds. They know what to look for.

Another DeVonte Holloman, minus the injury, would be nice.

Sucks he was forced to retire so early.

 

[kevm3]

Bruce Carter is a weird player. He only seems to play at his best when he's the lead LB. When Lee and McClain are off the field, it seems like he turns into a completely different guy. He made a ton of plays today.

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

Da Carter is like Paul Bear off WWE fame. He will eventually leave you down.

 

[LatinMind]

McClain won't get $10M/yr but he'll probably get $5-7M/yr.

I don't think the FO trusts that Sean Lee can survive the season at MLB. He only made it through about half a season last year when his neck problem started. He just isn't big and strong enough to take the pounding. McClain can and his presence changes the whole nature of the defense. So he is the big priority.

Carter is a good player and someone is going to pay him something similar to what KJ Wright just got, 4 years $28M. I don't think we can afford that at the SAM for this scheme.

actually Lee got a knee to the neck in the bears game he played in 11 games it was a hamstring that was the problem with lee last yr you know like the rest of the team but he played thru it. And his acl was only 20% intact when he had that partial acl injury at penn state. So it was a matter of time before that was going to give out. The team has backed Lee. And if McClain doesnt agree with Dallas theyll say goodbye and not look back and run with Lee. Its not even guaranteed that McClain will be back. In a whole season McClain has less production that Lee had in 11 games in 2013. While McClain is good lets not kid ourselves into thinking he's a better Lber then Lee. even if Carter got a contract of 4 yrs 28 mil im willing to bet you he's be making a small base salary next yr. Its amazing how much fans of the Cowboys dont know how this team operates.

 

[LatinMind]

I expect Rolando McClain will be looking for money similar to Sean Lee's contract.

$7.5M average to start, $8.5M average maximum with playing time incentives.

The team may want to put in a large second year base salary with an option attached as seen with Henry Melton.



Whatever happens, my plan involves moving Lee to WLB next year.

Ro' is the MIKE if he re-signs, Anthony Hitchens gets it if he leaves.

SAM gets figured out with whatever else we have left.

If mcclain asked for 7.5mil a yr i would hope this team would escort him out of VR immediatley If Hitchens was playing MIKE i would not cry one bit

 

[ConstantReboot]

We've all been up and down on Bruce Carter, but this guy has just made big plays when we needed them. I wish he could be more consistent, but given time in the same system, maybe he could be a key guy for us.

Thoughts?

He is our best zone defender against the pass. Somehow he has a knack in finding where the QB is going with the ball.

 

[ConstantReboot]

actually Lee got a knee to the neck in the bears game he played in 11 games it was a hamstring that was the problem with lee last yr you know like the rest of the team but he played thru it. And his acl was only 20% intact when he had that partial acl injury at penn state. So it was a matter of time before that was going to give out. The team has backed Lee. And if McClain doesnt agree with Dallas theyll say goodbye and not look back and run with Lee. Its not even guaranteed that McClain will be back. In a whole season McClain has less production that Lee had in 11 games in 2013. While McClain is good lets not kid ourselves into thinking he's a better Lber then Lee. even if Carter got a contract of 4 yrs 28 mil im willing to bet you he's be making a small base salary next yr. Its amazing how much fans of the Cowboys dont know how this team operates.

McClain is playing right now and has been a productive part of this defense. Lee isn't playing. Thus right now McClain is the better linebacker.

 

[ConstantReboot]

The issue isn't so much whether we want him back. I think we would if we could get him for a reasonable price. The problem is we have a lot of money already sunk in Sean Lee and have to re-sign McClain to a FA deal, too. We can't afford 3 high-priced LBs and still fix the DE position.

For some reason people don't seem to believe Carter will be paid. I see him getting somewhere between $5-7M/yr over about 4-5 years in his deal. I'd happily take him back for his upside and athleticism at $4M/yr if we could get his name on the line. Although Durant outplayed him this year he is getting old and missed a lot of games the last two years. We may just have to roll that dice with Hitchens backing them up, though. If we hadn't done the Lee deal we probably bring back Carter but there is just too much dead money invested in Lee to give up on him now ($10M left and low base salary for next year).

The "trouble" is the superstar salaries. You can only afford a few at one time. Next year we'll have a minimum of 3 between Romo, Tyron and Dez and more likely a 4th for a DE in FA. Then we have next tier salaries of guys like Sean Lee, McClain, Witten, OScan to deal with. At the end of the day there just isn't going to be enough money for Murray and Carter and still fill out the roster.

Lee's contract is filled with incentives. If he doesn't play and produce he won't get paid. I hope he comes back and plays lights out.

 

[ak47kaehu]

Don't get me wrong, I love Lee's play, his smarts, his instincts, and his leadership etc......but the dude can't be trusted to play a full season. Resigning RoMc is definitely a must in order to hold down that middle.

 

[Eskimo]

Lee's contract is filled with incentives. If he doesn't play and produce he won't get paid. I hope he comes back and plays lights out.

All this talk about mitigation of the risk of Sean Lee's injury was spin by the Cowboys. He received $16M in guaranteed money. Starting with the 2015 season he has $10M in bonuses that have yet to be accounted for against the cap (i.e. $10M in dead money).

The incentives are more about salary escalators that will now not occur but his failure to reach the incentive only avoids a $500K/yr escalator. So that is grand total that this injury has saved the franchise compared to $16M in guarantees that he has received. It is the Cowboys organization who has taken most of the risk here and could be left holding an empty bag at the end of the day if he can't get back on the field.

So at this point no one really knows what Sean Lee might contribute next year. He will earn $2.5M in base salary versus $10M in dead money so there is very little to be gained by cutting him versus getting him back out there and seeing if he can perform like he did in 2013 prior to injury. He will count $5.4M against the cap and the Cowboys are not likely going to be all that interested in restructuring him.

The Cowboys are faced with the issue of how to try and keep Lee on the field which to me means taking him out of MLB where he will face a lot more pounding and putting him at WLB where his playmaking is of more value. But that leads a void in the middle which will have to be filled and cannot be filled by Bruce Carter.

The FO could decide to extend Carter and let McClain go. But the issue is that the MLB is much more important in this defense than SLB so that wouldn't be spending resources wisely. Hence the discussion on whether it makes sense to give Carter the big raise he has probably earned with his playmaking ability.

The reality is that we need McClain a lot more than we need Carter. They are probably both going to get about the same contract offer once the season is up. We can probably only afford one. The history of Marinelli suggests he puts a lot of resources into MLB and WLB and will try to get by with whatever he has on hand at SLB. We'll have to see how it all plays out in the offseason.