My take on what is really going on with Dak's Contract

[Ken]

It dawned on me yesterday during the idiot show what is actually going on here. Nothing has made sense all offseason when it comes to Dak's contract and why it wasn't done earlier unless you simply look at the numbers.

Dak is owed 106 million dollars on his contract. That isn't just fluff...through their idiotic management of his contract they have managed to put themselves on the hook for 106 million with technically only this year left. So they have made the decision to play this season on the 55 million dollar cap hit to try and get that number down to a manageable number. If they try and extend him now...that 106 million will have to be built into the deal and you will have a bad deal all the way through the life of the contract.

They probably feel the 40 million left is something they can build into his next deal and make it a manageable deal. All of this speculation about them possibly trading him or letting him play out the deal to let him go is completely wrong.

They want Dak and value him but their ineptitude has caused this absolute S show.

 

[Sydla]

I am not following the math. How is he "owed" $106MM?

 

[blueblood70]

It dawned on me yesterday during the idiot show what is actually going on here. Nothing has made sense all offseason when it comes to Dak's contract and why it wasn't done earlier unless you simply look at the numbers.

Dak is owed 106 million dollars on his contract. That isn't just fluff...through their idiotic management of his contract they have managed to put themselves on the hook for 106 million with technically only this year left. So they have made the decision to play this season on the 55 million dollar cap hit to try and get that number down to a manageable number. If they try and extend him now...that 106 million will have to be built into the deal and you will have a bad deal all the way through the life of the contract.

They probably feel the 40 million left is something they can build into his next deal and make it a manageable deal. All of this speculation about them possibly trading him or letting him play out the deal to let him go is completely wrong.

They want Dak and value him but their ineptitude has caused this absolute S show.

You know you can rip the front office for that contract but that happens all the time with every franchise that signs a big time player that has to push some of the money down the road which by the way has already been paid to Prescott it just becomes a DEAD cap hit the next two years whether he's here or not...

You wanna know what's really mismanaged something like Russell Wilson's contract I mean they just $85,000,000 to get rid of a guy that improved at the end of the year it might be a good bridge guy but they went ahead and cut him anyway..... That sounds like literally burning money and why did they give the guy a new contract before he played a single snap much like deshaun Watson...

I call that ineptitude for sure and by the way the way they handled deshaun Watson's contract only paid him $11 million because he was suspended but guaranteed the whole $250 million and he hasn't done anything since he's been there at least Prescott has been on the field and we've been actually pretty successful the last three years...

So at least our quarterback is playing and I don't wanna say earning because it triggers people around here but he's on the field upright the last three years since his injury we've been to the playoffs all three years we won the division twice literally this is just part of how you kick the can down the road lots of teams are ohh ton of money to their players once they leave..

Hell this started way back with Major League Baseball isn't it Barry Bonds or was it another player that was making about $30 million a year the last decade that he hasn't even played literally they owed him so much money they had to pay him for 10 plus years after he was gone from baseball they don't have a hard salary cap but still this is not Jerry Jones issues why everything on this site they think that it's different with Jerry than it is anywhere else I mean the Rams tried to move Matthew Stafford after he wins them a Super Bowl because his contract was terrible they owe him a ton of money how about The Jets how much money did they pay Aaron Rodgers to play one series I mean this happens all over the place... That's just one example but there's examples for the last 1520 years of guys who have got big contracts and ended up getting cut from their teams or traded in the other team still paying them for three or four years down the road as far as dead cat money is concerned..

I'm not a cap ologist but I also know this it didn't dawn on me I still think he could still get a new contract before the season starts and we can still put together a really good team before the season starts but everyone wants to do this on a daily basis that's the front office say the off seasons in total failure predict bad things for the season and yet we still have five months before game one...

 

[Ken]

I am not following the math. How is he "owed" $106MM?

They are paying him 55 (66,915 if they cut or trade him) million dollars this year. Whether they let him play out this season or trade him.....they still owe him 40 million next year regardless bc it is an option year that has caught all of their bonus conversions etc.

They can't get out of this money.

 

[TwentyOne]

I am not following the math. How is he "owed" $106MM?

i dont get it either.

He will earn another 29 mils in base salary if he plays 2024.
His cap figures for 2024 are 55 mils, in 2025 40 mils.

 

[Aerolithe_Lion]

It’s slightly more complicated than that. The number is 95m$, and it’s not all still owed to him. 29m$ is owed to him, which they can get out of as it’s not guaranteed, and the remaining 66m$ is actually money they’ve already given him but hasn’t hit the salary cap yet because they credit carded it in previous years.

Thats why if you traded him now it only costs 66m$, because you get out of the only 29m$ you still owe him. And then when a new deal is negotiated, Dak won’t care that Dallas takes the extra cap hits from the 66m$ because that’s not money still owed to him, so he’ll want a full deal on top of those cap hits.

It’ll be kind of like Dak is on the salary cap for 2 different contracts: prorated credit card bills you already paid long ago, and his full, new top of the market deal.

 

[TwentyOne]

They are paying him 55 (65 if they cut or trade him) million dollars this year. Whether they let him play out this season or trade him.....they still owe him 40 million next year regardless bc it is an option year that has caught all of their bonus conversions etc.

They can't get out of this money.

nobody is paying him 55 mils this year. the cap figure is that high. he gets payed 29 mils if he plays this year.

 

[John813]

They are paying him 55 (66,915 if they cut or trade him) million dollars this year. Whether they let him play out this season or trade him.....they still owe him 40 million next year regardless bc it is an option year that has caught all of their bonus conversions etc.

They can't get out of this money.

They only owe him 29mil in actual cash as the 5 mil option bonus was converted to a signing bonus and paid a month ago to him.

Cap hits do not equal salary.
Dallas will have a huge dead cap hit, but that money was already paid out under a smaller cap hit.

 

[Ken]

nobody is paying him 55 mils this year. the cap figure is that high. he gets payed 29 mils if he plays this year.

I think ya'll are reading into the terminology a little too much. Yes, he is only getting 29 million in actual dollars...the cowboys credit card bill is 96 or 106 million.

 

[Ken]

They only owe him 29mil in actual cash as the 5 mil option bonus was converted to a signing bonus and paid a month ago to him.

Cap hits do not equal salary.
Dallas will have a huge dead cap hit, but that money was already paid out under a smaller cap hit.

I should have said Cap charge. Doesn't change the point.

 

[John813]

I think ya'll are reading into the terminology a little too much. Yes, he is only getting 29 million in actual dollars...the cowboys credit card bill is 96 or 106 million.

If Dallas re-signs him prior to next February/March the cap hits in the void years stay the same in each respective year. If the contract voids, then it all accelerates in 25. Even if they re-sign him week 1 of free agency.

To me, Dallas is just letting players and coaches play out the year. If Dak shines in the regular season and postseason, he'll get the deal he wants.

I doubt Dallas didn't expect this day would come in terms of the huge cap hits. What they probably didn't expect was still to have question marks about this team in the postseason and if Dak is unquestionably the guy to continue to lead the team with another big deal.

 

[Sydla]

They are paying him 55 (66,915 if they cut or trade him) million dollars this year. Whether they let him play out this season or trade him.....they still owe him 40 million next year regardless bc it is an option year that has caught all of their bonus conversions etc.

They can't get out of this money.

This is not really accurate.

If they cut or trade him now, they do not have to take a $40MM hit in cap space next year. It all gets advanced into this year.

The math is this, here are his remaining cap charges:

$29MM base
$26.4MM in prorated signing bonus
$40.5MM in roster/restructures

If they cut/trade him now, the $29MM disappears. All that's left in cap charges is the $26.4MM in prorated signing bonus money and $40.5MM in roster bonus/restructure cap charges. Hence, all they would have to account for is $66.9MM this year and that's it. There is no $40MM for next year.

So no, they don't have 106MM left to account for on his contract. It's 95MM and that's only if they allow him to play out the season on this contract. If they cut him/trade him tomorrow, they only have to account for around $66-67MM.

 

[TwentyOne]

I think ya'll are reading into the terminology a little too much. Yes, he is only getting 29 million in actual dollars...the cowboys credit card bill is 96 or 106 million.

Well you wrote they "own" him. Thats not correct.

And i really dont know how you come up with 106 mils.

We dont know what you really mean, if you dont write it down correctly ;-)
With cap stuff you have to be a little bit more precise.

 

[MountaineerCowboy]

He’s gone, Ken.

You’ll get to the acceptance stage eventually.

 

[blueblood70]

They only owe him 29mil in actual cash as the 5 mil option bonus was converted to a signing bonus and paid a month ago to him.

Cap hits do not equal salary.
Dallas will have a huge dead cap hit, but that money was already paid out under a smaller cap hit.

Yes most of us understand this that's not the issue here it's still counts against the cap which also hinders them from signing other players to bigger contracts because it's always gonna be there you have to pay for kicking the can down the road which all teams do eventually you have to pay the piper... I still don't agree with Ken that's why we haven't signed him to a new deal that's coming it could be before this season starts nobody knows but we can continually come in on a daily basis to complain about the offseason complain about the contracts but other teams are going through the same thing... I choose to have a wait and see attitude five months away game one we'll find out what this roster looks like and all these contract negotiations and how they went...

 

[Forneymike]

It dawned on me yesterday during the idiot show what is actually going on here. Nothing has made sense all offseason when it comes to Dak's contract and why it wasn't done earlier unless you simply look at the numbers.

Dak is owed 106 million dollars on his contract. That isn't just fluff...through their idiotic management of his contract they have managed to put themselves on the hook for 106 million with technically only this year left. So they have made the decision to play this season on the 55 million dollar cap hit to try and get that number down to a manageable number. If they try and extend him now...that 106 million will have to be built into the deal and you will have a bad deal all the way through the life of the contract.

They probably feel the 40 million left is something they can build into his next deal and make it a manageable deal. All of this speculation about them possibly trading him or letting him play out the deal to let him go is completely wrong.

They want Dak and value him but their ineptitude has caused this absolute S show.

I don't believe he is "owed" 106 million dollars. I believe he is on the books for that amount. He has his money already. The credit card has come due on money already given to him. He is "owed" some money this year as part of a base salary but most of these dollars are bonuses and restructures that have already been paid

 

[Ken]

This is not really accurate.

If they cut or trade him now, they do not have to take a $40MM hit in cap space next year. It all gets advanced into this year.

The math is this, here are his remaining cap charges:

$29MM base
$26.4MM in prorated signing bonus
$40.5MM in roster/restructures

If they cut/trade him now, the $29MM disappears. All that's left in cap charges is the $26.4MM in prorated signing bonus money and $40.5MM in roster bonus/restructure cap charges. Hence, all they would have to account for is $66.9MM this year and that's it. There is no $40MM for next year.

So no, they don't have 106MM left to account for on his contract. It's 95MM and that's only if they allow him to play out the season on this contract. If they cut him/trade him tomorrow, they only have to account for around $66-67MM.

This is very confusing for me, the void stuff. Stephen did say they owe him the 40 mill next year whether they sign him or not.

Did I misunderstand?

 

[Sydla]

This is very confusing for me, the void stuff. Stephen did say they owe him the 40 mill next year whether they sign him or not.

Did I misunderstand?

Yes, if he plays out this year on this existing contract, they'd still have to account for $40MM or so due to the prorations of various bonuses/restructures that they shoved into void years they created.

However, if they cut him/trade him before June 1, they'd actually save the $29MM in base salary cap charge and the remaining signing bonus and restructures is only $66MM (hence the dead money charge of $66MM you referenced).

 

[Sydla]

Here I will do the math for you. And I should clarify with the June 1 option in there as well.

If Dak plays out this year here are his cap hits:

2024 - $55MM = $29MM base salary + $13MM signing bonus proration + $13MM in restructures
2025 - $40MM = $13MM signing bonus proration + 27MM in restructures

They have to take the 2025 cap charges because they are prorated monies already paid to him.

If they cut/trade him now, the base salary of $29MM goes away and then they have to account for all remaining cap charges listed above this year. That's around $66MM. Now, if they cut him or trade him post June 1, the charges are different in that a June 1 allows you to spread the cap charges over two seasons.

So if they traded/cut Dak after June 1, the base salary of $29MM still goes away and they are left with $66MM in cap charges they have to account for. But the June 1 designation allows them to split the $66MM over 2024 and 2025, meaning they could take the slotted proration of $26MM ($13MM signing bonus + $13MM in restructures) this year and then the remaining $40MM hits the cap next year.

So I apologize when I said the only way they'd have to take $40MM in cap charges next year would be if Dak played out his contract. If they trade or cut him post June 1, they would also take $40MM in cap charges next year (although remember, they'd only be taking $26MM in cap charges this year as opposed to $55MM - the base salary of $29MM disappears).

 

[fivetwos]

I have no problem with pushing dead money down the road when you’re within a window to win, and they were.

My problem is they didn’t do enough of it. They were cheap in FA because they didn’t want cap problems later on. Left us short on the field in several seasons. Yet, we now supposedly have cap problems.