Romo restructuring? Seems like a no brainer to me.

[CyberB0b]

Ok, so actual math time on Romo's restructuring. Assuming that the Cowboys just add voidable years on his deal for spreading out the math hit, they can keep restructuring his base salary for the next 4 years and these are his approximate cap figures (all numbers in millions):

2015- 14.973
2016- 14.835
2017- 15.8
2018- 14.5

Then in 2019 there's a dead money hit of 11m.

Seems like a good plan to me.

The cap is expected to rise, as well.

 

[xwalker]

I kinda forget how the restructures work. We cut a player salary for a year to gurantee the money this year or future years???? Does the guarantee money count on our cap?

His base salary is 17M for 2015. They can convert that into a low base salary and restructure bonus. The bonus can be spread out (prorated) over the remaining years of the contract up to 5 years.

Restructure Example:
New Base Salary = 1M
Restructure Bonus = 16M

16M/5 = 3.2M

Total from the 17M in 2015 = 3.2M + 1M base for a total 0f 4.2M instead of 17M

Now there is previous prorated money that also adds to this number to get the total cap hit.

Current Cap hit =17M salary + 10.7M Previous Prorated Bonus Money for a total of 27.7M

New Cap hit = 4.2M + 10.7M previous prorated money = 14.9M

This is how his 2015 cap hit can be lower from 27.7M to 14.9M.

 

[tm1119]

Continuing to restructure Romo has a real potential to blow up in our face if things don't go as planned....but on the other hand it may be a necessary evil to get the pieces to win a Super Bowl while Romo is still around. Tough call but I think we ultimately do end up restructuring him

 

[jazzcat22]

I'll just be concerned how well Romo plays over the next 2 to 3 years, and keeping him upright.
All that salary cap stuff will be worked out. I am not concerned nor worry myself over that.

I trust they know what they are doing and have learned from past issues.

 

[big dog cowboy]

I trust they know what they are doing and have learned from past issues.

Recent history suggests they have.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

I agree with this. The team is building a solid core of talent and expanding that core expoentially. By the time Romo retires, this team should be at a point where a young budding star can step in and adjust on the fly under less than average pressure. There's lots to be said about our coaches too. They will have plenty to do with the continuity of the team's success post Romo era.

Exactly. No, i'm not just gonna concede this team once Romo is gone. Maybe 2 or 3 years ago but not now. That's not to minimize Romo's importance to this team but i'm also not going to minimize the team around him either that contributed to a 13-5 season.

 

[noletime95]

This is strictly a procedural move and an absolute no brainer. Tony's salary will be guaranteed once the season starts anyway, so he's going to get his money. By converting to a signing bonus, Dallas opens up cap room it can utilize for a myriad of needs. But Dallas does not HAVE to utilize the cap space. There is nothing stopping Jerry from rolling an extra $10 Million from 2015 to 2016, thereby offsetting the potential dead money hit Romo could cause if his career is cut short in 2015.

BUT Dallas needs the cap space as leverage for Dez. You can't threaten a franchise tag without sufficient cap space that leaves the team flexibility after the tag. And if Dez is signed, perhaps a tag on Murray could be threatened as well. Maybe this means Dallas spends big in the off season, maybe not. Certainly restructuring Romo's deal provides the flexibility to improve the team. But this move by itself does not mean the Cowboys are mortgaging the future.

 

[xwalker]

I'm not too sure if restructuring is the most practical route to resolve our personnel problems but it's exactly what Stephen has been doing all along, so it surely wouldn't come as a surprise. Pushing more money down the line is why we're in this dilemma to survive the cap restrictions to begin with but perhaps it's unavoidable at this stage of the game. At some point, we'll be obliged to pay the piper, though. It should be interesting to see what the FO decides to do. I'm quite sure they're fairly torn between maintaining the salary structure and getting the most out of retaining the personnel they'll require to be playoff contenders. Some tough decisions are definitely pending.

Dead money is overrated as a problem.

If the dead money is less than his annual salary then they get more cap space when the player is gone because the salary is gone. You just need to replace the player with a young inexpensive player for the year after the expensive player is gone.

Veteran QBs are rarely replaced by another expensive veteran so dead money is rarely a problem.

 

[lostar2009]

His base salary is 17M for 2015. They can convert that into a low base salary and restructure bonus. The bonus can be spread out (prorated) over the remaining years of the contract up to 5 years.

Restructure Example:
New Base Salary = 1M
Restructure Bonus = 16M

16M/5 = 3.2M

Total from the 17M in 2015 = 3.2M + 1M base for a total 0f 4.2M instead of 17M

Now there is previous prorated money that also adds to this number to get the total cap hit.

Current Cap hit =17M salary + 10.7M Previous Prorated Bonus Money for a total of 27.7M

New Cap hit = 4.2M + 10.7M previous prorated money = 14.9M

This is how his 2015 cap hit can be lower from 27.7M to 14.9M.

Gotcha, so they will spread the money around.

 

[Nightman]

This is strictly a procedural move and an absolute no brainer. Tony's salary will be guaranteed once the season starts anyway, so he's going to get his money. By converting to a signing bonus, Dallas opens up cap room it can utilize for a myriad of needs. But Dallas does not HAVE to utilize the cap space. There is nothing stopping Jerry from rolling an extra $10 Million from 2015 to 2016, thereby offsetting the potential dead money hit Romo could cause if his career is cut short in 2015.

BUT Dallas needs the cap space as leverage for Dez. You can't threaten a franchise tag without sufficient cap space that leaves the team flexibility after the tag. And if Dez is signed, perhaps a tag on Murray could be threatened as well. Maybe this means Dallas spends big in the off season, maybe not. Certainly restructuring Romo's deal provides the flexibility to improve the team. But this move by itself does not mean the Cowboys are mortgaging the future.

That is why they should be aggressive in creating as much space as possible, because it can be rolled over.

It is better to have the space and not need it than to need it and not have it. Once FA, the draft and the season starts. things change dramatically.

There is no harm in doing all those restructures. The cap keeps rising and any dead money is off set by creating a ton of cap space. If you can create 30m in cap space and it costs you an extra 6m in dead money a year, you are way ahead, especially if you can roll some of it over.

 

[perrykemp]

I wonder how it feels to get a lump sum of a 17 million dollars in the bank.

Romo would probably get hit with a bigger tax percentage as well. It's not necessarily smart financially from his perspective I would think. It would be a Sacrifice.

Good point.

 

[Beast_from_East]

AS many resources as this team has put into putting pieces around Romo....this team better not suck without him. And they shouldn't it. For them to suck they must've lost all of their offensive line and Dez among other players.

We lost every game where Romo was hurt.........SF, Washington, Arizona, and Philly.................yes, we are gong to suck when Romo is done.

 

[Setackin]

Question... if Romo retires are we still on the hook for the guaranteed money?

Yes

 

[Nightman]

Yes

He only has 15m in guaranteed money left and it will be paid this year.

If he retired he would have to pay it back and Dallas would get salary cap credit for it.

If he got injured and couldn't play, Dallas would be on the hook for it, but since it is already guaranteed there is no risk in restructuring it before camp.

 

[big dog cowboy]

We lost every game where Romo was hurt.........SF, Washington, Arizona, and Philly.................yes, we are gong to suck when Romo is done.

Translation: it's still a QB driven league.

 

[AdamJT13]

This is strictly a procedural move and an absolute no brainer. Tony's salary will be guaranteed once the season starts anyway, so he's going to get his money. By converting to a signing bonus, Dallas opens up cap room it can utilize for a myriad of needs. But Dallas does not HAVE to utilize the cap space. There is nothing stopping Jerry from rolling an extra $10 Million from 2015 to 2016, thereby offsetting the potential dead money hit Romo could cause if his career is cut short in 2015.

That's what the anti-restructuring crowd never seems to understand. There is absolutely nothing wrong with restructuring by turning most of a core player's current base salary into a signing bonus to spread out the cap hit. All that does is give you the ability to use that cap room now instead of in the future -- if that's what you want to do or need to do. If you don't use it, the cap room gets pushed forward. AND the cap inevitably grows, so the cap charges you pushed forward actually become a smaller and smaller percentage of your cap. You're basically earning salary-cap interest on money you've already paid.

When you restructure to open up cap room, the key is to spend the cap room wisely, if you spend it at all. THAT is what decides whether you get into cap trouble in the future, not the act of restructuring.

 

[Nightman]

That's what the anti-restructuring crowd never seems to understand. There is absolutely nothing wrong with restructuring by turning most of a core player's current base salary into a signing bonus to spread out the cap hit. All that does is give you the ability to use that cap room now instead of in the future -- if that's what you want to do or need to do. If you don't use it, the cap room gets pushed forward. AND the cap inevitably grows, so the cap charges you pushed forward actually become a smaller and smaller percentage of your cap. You're basically earning salary-cap interest on money you've already paid.

When you restructure to open up cap room, the key is to spend the cap room wisely, if you spend it at all. THAT is what decides whether you get into cap trouble in the future, not the act of restructuring.

Church!!!!!!

I am so glad you said it. A few of us have been fighting the anti-restructuring mob for years.

It's really just simple math and accounting tricks, but Cowboys fans have been brainwashed into believing we will always be in cap hell(whatever that is)

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

We lost every game where Romo was hurt.........SF, Washington, Arizona, and Philly.................yes, we are gong to suck when Romo is done.

We lost those games because of Brandon Weeden lol. I didn't say you could just plug any QB back there. Unless you're assuming that Weeden is the future QB of this franchise?

 

[endersdragon]

Honestly I think it just depends on what happens with Bryant. If we are forced to franchise him, his cap hit this year will be huge, and we will need to restructure Romo to make room if we want to sign anyone. If we can sign him, we will probably make his cap hit this year $1,000,000 and then we will still have probably around $25,000,000+ easily to sign free agents just by doing things with Carr, Melton, Free, Smith (obviously Smith will be slightly different), and the like. No matter what we do we will likely have enough money to sign a few big name free agents, or a lot of smaller ones. Don't worry so much about it.

 

[Bleu Star]

Continuing to restructure Romo has a real potential to blow up in our face if things don't go as planned....but on the other hand it may be a necessary evil to get the pieces to win a Super Bowl while Romo is still around. Tough call but I think we ultimately do end up restructuring him

It's not a tough call in my mind. Then again, who am I?..lol

It just makes smart sense to clear more room to keep this core together. Get some guys back healthy on D, sign Dez and Demarco, draft and fill needs on D, and roll this train right into the Super Bowl.

We are talking about Tony's legacy here. I bet if anyone were to ask him his take on restructuring it would be a no brainer response.