Twitter: Stephen Jones: "The cap is a real thing."

[Buzzbait]

Remember all the times here on the Zone we heard repeatedly from many sources "Pay the man! Pay the man! The cap is no big deal!"
That sounds great till it comes time to pay the fiddler, then all of a sudden they're upset when good players start getting cut to pay for "paying the man!" (or men in this case)
Brings to mind an old saying, "There's no free lunch", but there's always a few who think there is anyway.

 

[MountaineerCowboy]

I believe the NFL should require you to meet certain qualifications to hold positions in an organization.

You should have to pass a GM test or something.

 

[Cowboysheelsreds053]

Not many teams are going to throw big money at Gallup coming off his injury history this year.

 

[Hadenough]

It appears there are cap casualties coming. Who might they be?

The problem is they need to restructure Dak just to stop the bleeding.

 

[Doomsday101]

I saw nothing in his statement that was incorrect, fact is damn near every team is going to have turnover in FA, you are not going to keep every player you may want. I think Cowboys will be able to retain some but we will lose some players and it falls to mid level FA and the draft especially on how we address the loss of some of these players.

 

[nobody]

We're doomed. Stephen is just as bad if not worse than his dad. Ah well. It was a nice Franchise for a while at least.

 

[JW82]

The more Stephen talks, the more I realize there is no hope. He's gonna be worse than Jerry.

probably. Its always the extremes with Jones boys. Because Jerry wanted to sign b and c level free agents and pay them like A+ free agents, Stephen has concluded that free agency is bad and they should ignore it until week 3 of free agency. Free agency should be used to add 2-3 upgrades at starting positions IMO. The. Add 2-4 more starters in the draft.

 

[birdwells1]

It appears there are cap casualties coming. Who might they be?

He's trying to get us ready for getting rid of Amari and not signing our own fa. The Amari thing is baffling due to the fact that his targets are terribly low for a number 1 wr yet they still want him to put up numbers like higher targeted 1s.

 

[Stash]

.......and Zeke released? Send him to KC or Ravens
Heading to a 9-8 season, brace yourselves.

They can’t do anything with Zeke until 2023. Something else we have to ‘thank’ Stephen Jones for.

 

[Big_D]

Be nice if they had the foresight to know how to actually manage it.

 

[birdwells1]

People hate on SJ but have you seen the seen the cap problems the Saints have this season.

He's been doing well with the cap for some time now, how's that working out for him? Still no NFCCG in 26 years but he's won the Cap Bowl! Just tell the Rams how silly it is to go all in, "but but but in a few years they'll rue the dat that.....blah blah blah".

 

[buybuydandavis]

When Lawrence got his contract, he was considered one of the top DEs in the league coming off back-to-back 10-plus-sack seasons, .

Lawrence was not considered a top DE by everyone. Modesty forbids, of course, but some pointed out that his sack numbers were likely a mirage, and were already trending down precipitously.

 

[Stash]

A few years back he said he could do whatever needed to create cap room.

He's just lazy. Worse than that, he's bad at football.

I'm still convinced he believes any unused cap room goes directly to his inheritance.

How about just winning Stephen? Can we focus on that?

He ‘helps’ by waiting until the market at a position jumps up dramatically before signing Cowboys players. And then paying our guys at the top for their respective positions. Did it with Lawrence, did it with Zeke, did it with Dak.

Any other contract negotiator would be fired for that kind of track record. But when you’re family, accountability doesn’t exist.

 

[John813]

1. We are going to lose a receiver or 2 or 3 lol. Either Gallup stays and Cooper goes or vice versa. Wilson may get a good deal elsewhere.
2. Schultz probably gets overpaid elesewhere
3. Kearse made himself some money. Will it be here?
4. Losing a LG, for better or worse.
5. Gregory could get a Quinn deal elsewhere

 

[Stash]

He's trying to get us ready for getting rid of Amari and not signing our own fa. The Amari thing is baffling due to the fact that his targets are terribly low for a number 1 wr yet they still want him to put up numbers like higher targeted 1s.

I looked it up and Cooper was 42nd in average targets per game at 7 per game.

 

[buybuydandavis]

We keep Kearse, Dlaw and maybe trade Coop. I'd rather keep him though. They will restructure and let some guys go. The cap will continue to inflate and we will be fine. Maybe we lose Schultz. Gallup was gone the moment we turned in CDs name. Whatever.

We could push it further down the road, but this team isn't good enough to make rash decisions thinking keeping the band together will win a chip. Who exactly are yall so afraid of losing?

Kearse isn't ours to keep. He's a free agent. We don't spend in free agency. He played well. Most likely we're outbid.

 

[birdwells1]

Drafting well and being smart in free agency? Plenty of teams had none of those names and made it further. With all those guys, this year's team wasn't good enough. What makes you think sacrificing future dollars will have a different result next year? If you aren't improving, you're falling behind. The only way to improve cheaply is to go through the draft or have some damn good scouts who can find half of the players you have listed (Schultz, Anger, Kearse)

The Dolphins have $64M in cap space without restructures
The Chargers are at $58M in cap space without restructures
The Bengals are at $54M in cap space without restructures
The Colts are at $37M in cap space without restructures
The Chiefs are at $15 (17th in cap space) in cap space without restructures

The Cowboys (30th) are at -$25M in cap space without restructures

That's at minimum $40M, and up to about $90M in more cap space to start with. Every one of those teams can exercise the same restructuring option. What are you going to get when over half the league can restructure from a significantly better starting point and flat-out outspend you in terms of the cap without doing a single thing? The Cowboys are currently 30th in cap space so there isn't much further to fall than that. In fact, they are $40M below the league average right now. That discrepancy between cap space makes it so you can't even plan on free agency. If someone can spend more than you and is willing, you won't be signing anyone.

Myself, I'd probably be the most interested in keeping the punter. After that, Schultz, but only at a reasonable deal. Those are pretty much the only 2 who consistently performed. Between Lawrence and Gregory, we're only talking 9 sacks. Is that worth $27M plus whatever a Gregory contract would cost against the cap?

If that results in a few less wins, who cares? They weren't good enough with them; they won't be good enough without them. Better get the books right so they can actually go after elite talent at some point.

This right here is the problem with analytics, people keep saying hey player A is 90% of player B but player B makes more money, lets just sign player A to save money. Keep doing that and you eventually run against a team of As in the playoffs and get beat. You could actually sign 53 street free agents and pay them rookie minimum and do wonders for your salary cap but the goal is to win an NFL Super Bowl not a Salary Cap Bowl. We forget that sometimes.

 

[buybuydandavis]

1. We are going to lose a receiver or 2 or 3 lol. Either Gallup stays and Cooper goes or vice versa. Wilson may get a good deal elsewhere.
2. Schultz probably gets overpaid elesewhere
3. Kearse made himself some money. Will it be here?
4. Losing a LG, for better or worse.
5. Gregory could get a Quinn deal elsewhere

Some estimated market values from Spotrac.
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/market-value/2022/dallas-cowboys/

• Randy Gregory($13.3M)
• Connor Williams($13.2M)
• Dalton Schultz($12.7M)
• Michael Gallup($11.9M)
• Cedrick Wilson($6.5M)

I don't want to pay that for any of those guys. I doubt Stephen does either.

 

[John813]

Some estimated market values from Spotrac.
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/market-value/2022/dallas-cowboys/

• Randy Gregory($13.3M)
• Connor Williams($13.2M)
• Dalton Schultz($12.7M)
• Michael Gallup($11.9M)
• Cedrick Wilson($6.5M)

I don't want to pay that for any of those guys. I doubt Stephen does either.

Yea. I think they have no issue with bigger deals for core players. But none of the above have shown they are worth building around.

They could make the first year low then restructure if they wanted to, but none of those are worth the restructure game imo

 

[Stash]

People hate on SJ but have you seen the seen the cap problems the Saints have this season.

Yes. Mickey Loomis clearly kicked the can down the road in an effort to stay competitive and now has a mess on his hands.

But I also see a team that made the playoffs 4 out of the past 5 years. And very likely would have made it 5 out of 5 if they weren’t decimated by injuries this year.