Salary Cap situation; can anybody explain it to me like I'm a five-year-old.

[starfrombirth]

And it's just silly for anyone to look at the giant cap number for the upcoming season as if it's etched in stone.

Not only can Dallas restructure multiple contracts to create cap room, in some cases the contracts are purposefully written to be restructured in future years.

Right now, a quick looks shows the Cowboys with a 2014 cap commitment just north of $152M, that's the current top 51 contracts and dead money.

But Tony Romo ($21.773M), Sean Lee ($7.5M) and Orlando Scandrick ($6.6M) all have contracts that were written to be restructured this year.

The team never had any intention of these contracts counting at this amount for 2014, so there's no reason to look at them this way.

Romo ($11.737M), Lee ($3.684M) and Scandrick ($3.58525M) reduce Dallas' cap charge by $16.868M when you take the planned restructures into account.

This drops the Cowboys' team cap number to just over $135M before they start looking at ways to get under the cap and go to work.

lee and scandrick aren't going to restructure at only 3 mill a year.

 

[Bluefin]

lee and scandrick aren't going to restructure at only 3 mill a year.

They don't even have a say in the matter.

These restructures are built in, the team doesn't even have to notify a player when it happens.

The players actually love it because they aren't taking a pay cut. They're getting an advance by turning most of their base salaries into a signing bonus and getting paid immediately.

This isn't a renegotiation, Dallas isn't asking them to take less money.

All that's changing is how the money will count against the salary cap.

 

[starfrombirth]

They don't even have a say in the matter.

These restructures are built in, the team doesn't even have to notify a player when it happens.

The players actually love it because they aren't taking a pay cut. They're getting an advance by turning most of their base salaries into a signing bonus and getting paid immediately.

This isn't a renegotiation, Dallas isn't asking them to take less money.

All that's changing is how the money will count against the salary cap.

ah...thx

 

[Corso]

Dallas restructures a lot of contracts to create room. During the off-season it looks bad and the media writes about the Cowboys being in cap hell. It's just not the reality of the situation. They can create as much room as they need and now that they can roll over unused cap space, there is no reason to stop doing it this way. The cap is expected to rise a lot in the next few years and hopefully all the worrying will stop, but I doubt it.

Last year, Dallas had to deal with the second of two 5m cap penalties imposed by the league. They still found enough room to tag Spencer-10.6m, sign Durant-2.4m, sign Allen-900k, sign Sims-900k, sign Waters-1.5m, sign all their draft picks, extend Romo-108m, extend Lee-43m, extend Scandrick-6m and eat the injuries and releases/trades of Lissemore, Ratliff, Livings, Sensabaugh, Arkin, Crawford, Bass, Johnson, Connor and Cook.

This season they can create over 45m in cap space with a few restructures(Romo, Witten, Lee, Carr, Scandrick, Free)
Cutting Costa, Durant and a few near minimum guys(Irvin, Clutts, Kearse, Wilson)
Either restructuring, releasing or re-doing Ware(same with Orton)
Naming Austin a June 1st cut

That would leave Dallas around 24m under the salary cap. They don't have to do everything above, but they can roll over any excess, so there isn't a lot of risk to the restructures. They could hang onto Costa and Durant if they want to wait until after the Draft and FA. Not a big deal either way. That leaves them plenty of room to be active in Free Agency, sign all the Draft picks, extend Dez and TSmith and leave a nice reserve for injuries, late signings and roll-over.

Thank you for an actually good answer.
The brainless stuff gets tired sometimes from others.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

Short answer is we gave too much money to players who were not worth said money...............some call it bad luck, I call it incompetence.

really, we are in "bad" shape because we cut Jay Ratliff. Had we made him a june 1st cut in 2013 or waited till june 1st 2014, the situation would be noticeably different. despite the bad contract, it was us deciding we'll give him his way that set us back.

even with that, if this sites numbers are correct, we can get UNDER the cap by nearly $10 million, if we:

-Restructure Romo, Ware, Lee, Witten, and Scandrick
-Cut Costa and Durant.

This doesn't even include the nearly $5 million we'll get after June 2nd for cutting Miles Austin. This would leave us with $14.3 million in cap space and leave us $3.04 million over next years cap, assuming it stays at $132 million. Currently we are about 600k under next years cap, assuming it doesn't go up.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

What would the plan be for 2015 ? I have the answer. Pray for another cap increase and make it big.

2015 really isn't looking that bad. There's no point comparing us to teams with $60+ million of cap space. You realistically can't spend that much in an offseason, attempting to do so, will put you in a bad situation down the road as well.

 

[theSHOW]

2015 really isn't looking that bad. There's no point comparing us to teams with $60+ million of cap space. You realistically can't spend that much in an offseason, attempting to do so, will put you in a bad situation down the road as well.

Q. Do you wish if you could be granted a cap wish, that we are already under the cap before any restructures and Dallas is a player in free agency? And do you feel we should keep overpaying vets that are on the decline? thanks

 

[Section446]

2015 really isn't looking that bad. There's no point comparing us to teams with $60+ million of cap space. You realistically can't spend that much in an offseason, attempting to do so, will put you in a bad situation down the road as well.

I don't know, recently, we've seen the Buccaneers and Panthers have historic off-seasons (from a spending stand point). Wasn't it 2010 when the Panthers basically resigned what seemed like a quarter of their roster?

 

[Manwiththeplan]

I don't know, recently, we've seen the Buccaneers and Panthers have historic off-seasons (from a spending stand point). Wasn't it 2010 when the Panthers basically resigned what seemed like a quarter of their roster?

realistically didn't help the Bucs. as far as the panthers go, I honestly can't think of any free agents that were major contributors on their team. The FB from SD is one, Olsen the TE was traded for, so he doesn't really count. Off the top off my head, that's it, but I may be wrong.

 

[Section446]

realistically didn't help the Bucs. as far as the panthers go, I honestly can't think of any free agents that were major contributors on their team. The FB from SD is one, Olsen the TE was traded for, so he doesn't really count. Off the top off my head, that's it, but I may be wrong.

They weren't FA's, it was them resigning all their own players (Gross, Williams, Stewart, Smith, Beason, Davis). They spent a stupid amount of money one off-season, I'll see if I can find it.

 

[Common Sense]

The interesting thing about Dallas' salary cap situation is that when you cut Ware, the problems go away. It kinds of puts all of these Jones comments into perspective. I remember there being a brief discussion during the season about how Jerry always starts the PR campaign against someone he's looking to let go well before the issue gets play in the media. Slowly but surely, things start to leak out. Take Rob Ryan, for example. Some random Jerry quotes, then op-eds by Mickey, the ESPN bloggers, etc. Jerry started questioning Ware before the season was over. He's either due for an enormous pay cut or an outright release, but I doubt we see another restructure of Ware's salary.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

Q. Do you wish if you could be granted a cap wish, that we are already under the cap before any restructures and Dallas is a player in free agency?

As far as being under the cap prior to restructures, it's completely irrelevant to me. All that cap space that some teams have, looks good on paper, but that's all it is. With $10 million in cap space, we could literally who ever we wanted. It may not be wise to sign Jarius Byrd or TJ Ward, but we could offer the same amount of money as any team would reasonable offer, i.e, no team is going to offer $11 million for a first year salary.

And do you feel we should keep overpaying vets that are on the decline? thanks

Everything to me is a case by case situation. Is Witten in decline? Well, he didn't catch 100 balls or get 1000 yards this year, but his TDs almost tripled and his ypc went up. Are Lee and Scandrick aging? I'd say no. Clearly Romo and Ware are, but Romo's contract is going to be restructured. He just signed it last offseason, if we weren't going to restructure, then we shouldn't have resigned him and should've just blew the team up. As far as play goes, more TDs than last year, almost half the INTs, and a 64% passing speaks for itself.

Ware is the only risky one imo, but I just don't think he's done yet. Is he worth $12 million a year, no. But I think the two sides can come together and agree to a pay cut+restructure.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

They weren't FA's, it was them resigning all their own players (Gross, Williams, Stewart, Smith, Beason, Davis). They spent a stupid amount of money one off-season, I'll see if I can find it.

I believe you, but I bet they still had a ton of room. afterwards, only so much you can spend without purposely over spending.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

Q. Do you wish if you could be granted a cap wish, that we are already under the cap before any restructures and Dallas is a player in free agency? And do you feel we should keep overpaying vets that are on the decline? thanks

I have a question for you, if you had infinite cap space, which two high priced free agents would you sign or which? Or which one high priced free agent would you sign, plus 2 lower level signees.

 

[dcstands4]

Restructuring is what got us into this mess why should we do it again? We should just take our medicine and don't go to the party in March

 

[Manwiththeplan]

Restructuring is what got us into this mess why should we do it again? We should just take our medicine and don't go to the party in March

If that's the case, we shouldn't have extended Romo. That was the decision that effects everything. Resign him and we go all in, take are medicine and not extend him and we could literally clear almost all the bad contracts by the end of next year and we too could have as much cap space as the Oakland Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars.

 

[theSHOW]

The word infinite means we have no salary cap. Sign em all. Jerry has deeper pockets by 100 times than he did in 1990

Who do I like that could help the Cowboys? bring in Jimmy Graham. Take Greg hardy at DE and keep Ware for 3rd downs. I want Michael Bennett for our 3 tech. I would sign Jarius Byrd as our starting FS. Some more Seahawk defensive presence Clinton McDaniel. Suh would look good on our line. Ill spend money on Branden Albert and move him to RT Then get a cheap guard who is young in Jon Asamoah to add depth. Add Eric Decker to add flanker depth. And finally bring in Josh McCown just in case.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

The word infinite means we have no salary cap. Sign em all. Jerry has deeper pockets by 100 times than he did in 1990

Who do I like that could help the Cowboys? bring in Jimmy Graham. Take Greg hardy at DE and keep Ware for 3rd downs. I want Michael Bennett for our 3 tech. I would sign Jarius Byrd as our starting FS. Some more Seahawk defensive presence Clinton McDaniel. Suh would look good on our line. Ill spend money on Branden Albert and move him to RT Then get a cheap guard who is young in Jon Asamoah to add depth. Add Eric Decker to add flanker depth. And finally bring in Josh McCown just in case.

Well, I gave you a serious answer, so thanks for giving me one

 

[theSHOW]

If that's the case, we shouldn't have extended Romo. That was the decision that effects everything. Resign him and we go all in, take are medicine and not extend him and we could literally clear almost all the bad contracts by the end of next year and we too could have as much cap space as the Oakland Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Romo in many ways had a very smart season. I don't understand how because we signed him for semi longterm that you just want to go full restructure. I don't buy your excuse. Smart money still trumps the restructures that are not planned restructures when the contracts were signed.

 

[coult44]

really, we are in "bad" shape because we cut Jay Ratliff. Had we made him a june 1st cut in 2013 or waited till june 1st 2014, the situation would be noticeably different. despite the bad contract, it was us deciding we'll give him his way that set us back.

even with that, if this sites numbers are correct, we can get UNDER the cap by nearly $10 million, if we:

-Restructure Romo, Ware, Lee, Witten, and Scandrick
-Cut Costa and Durant.

This doesn't even include the nearly $5 million we'll get after June 2nd for cutting Miles Austin. This would leave us with $14.3 million in cap space and leave us $3.04 million over next years cap, assuming it stays at $132 million. Currently we are about 600k under next years cap, assuming it doesn't go up.

Who is JJ talking about when he says we paid players we shouldn't have?