Sturm On Cowboys Contract Handling

[waldoputty]

Probably because there is no one to spend it on. This has been one of the worst free agent classes I can remember.

well the class of 2018 is worse assuming the franchised players of 2017 are franchised again.
this is the new reality.

 

[Stash]

In a rising cap environment if you're not restructuring base salaries on an as needed basis to butt up against the salary cap ceiling you're playing at a disadvantage.

For instance the Crawford contract. nobody signed his 5 year deal thinking we'd want to move on after year 2. NFL contracts are largely designed to be 3 year pacts. It is why agents care so much about how much will be paid out during the first 3 years.

Why in the world would we want to cut Crawford who has position flex and was one of the league leaders in all the National Football League in hurries. And while what Sturm said is correct and you want to be thoughtful on who you restructure....that is exactly what the Cowboys do. It's why i've had to fight with people on this board who say we should restructure everyone always.

What we do is smart. What we haven't always done is have a smart team-building mantra to pair with an appropriately aggressive cap manager. Now we do and the results are concomitant.

I love it when no true starting role now = "position flex"

 

[Stash]

I think the fact we are at the bottom of available space practically every year and have to borrow against contracts to get cap complaint speaks to evidence of an issue.

It is a credit card mentality. They are so used to it, they think it is a sound business practice.

And they've got their fans convinced of it as well.

 

[Toruk_Makto]

I love it when no true starting role now = "position flex"

He could never play esclusively at 3T where he should stay because we had so few DE options. This should be self evident.

Why do you keep ignoring he was one of the best pressure players in all of football last year?

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

In 2013, Anthony Spencer and Demarcus Ware got hurt. That was also the year the Ratliff decided to not honor his contract.

In 2011, Flozell Adams, Leonard Davis, and Andre Gurode didn't make it out of TC making what was going to be a transition into a rebuild

Both were issues with pro scouting. You cannot fix those problems in July no matter how much Sturm might insist.

Sturm is playing sophist with this one. There have been no doomsday cap years since the late 90s and we currently have $10m in cap space with more coming down the pipe. We are going to have no issue signing Martin and still have room to add more FA. We have more cap room coming down the pipe.

 

[Stash]

He could never play esclusively at 3T where he should stay because we had so few DE options. This should be self evident.

What's also "evident" is that Maliek Collins was the better player at 3T. Now we're now paying over $7 million this year to a role player who isn't better than Collins inside and isn't someone you want to have outside of you can help it. That's evident too.

Why do you keep ignoring he was one of the best pressure players in all of football last year?

I'm not "ignoring" it, but 'hurries' is a 'close but no cigar' stat. Given Crawford's lack of flexibility and change of direction, I've seen several instances of a quarterback easily eluding him when he did get near him. The guy is neither a true defensive tackle nor is he a true defensive end.

His contract extension was a miss, but due to restructuring, the team is stuck.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I think the fact we are at the bottom of available space practically every year and have to borrow against contracts to get cap complaint speaks to evidence of an issue.

It is a credit card mentality. They are so used to it, they think it is a sound business practice.

It certainly is. . . . with the fans. The rub is there is no such thing as an interest free credit card

Taking interest free loans in an inflationary money market is smart business. If only us plebs could be so lucky.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

And they've got their fans convinced of it as well.

I'm not thrilled with how the Cowboys have handled contracts over most of the salary cap era.

However I think they've done better (not perfect, but better) over about the last 3 years. I'd say after the Brandon Carr signing. Yeah the T. Crawford contract has been a turd, but I'm sure the Cowboys weren't expecting him to blow out both rotator cuffs in consecutive seasons. But contracts like that they offered T. Williams and the one year $2 mil deal for Paea give me hope.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I love it when no true starting role now = "position flex"

I love the "true scotsman" argument.

Who started the past two years at two different positions, stash?

 

[windward]

I'm sorry but how does restructuring contracts hurt them? As long as they have money to re-sign their guys I don't see the problem.

It doesn't.

 

[Toruk_Makto]

What's also "evident" is that Maliek Collins was the better player at 3T. Now we're now paying over $7 million this year to a role player who isn't better than Collins inside and isn't someone you want to have outside of you can help it. That's evident too.



I'm not "ignoring" it, but 'hurries' is a 'close but no cigar' stat. Given Crawford's lack of flexibility and change of direction, I've seen several instances of a quarterback easily eluding him when he did get near him. The guy is neither a true defensive tackle nor is he a true defensive end.

His contract extension was a miss, but due to restructuring, the team is stuck.

How exactly was it evident that Maliek Collins is a better player? In 2 fewer games Crawford had more tackles and only one half fewer sacks (5 vs 4.5).

Crawford in 2 fewer games had 7 more hurries than Collins did. Crawford was 16th in the NFL. Collins was 160th.

Yes, Crawford makes a lot more money. But saying Collins is a better player is a lie, unsupported by any objective measures.

Nice try. But the truth is inconvenient at times eh?

 

[Idgit]

In 2013, Anthony Spencer and Demarcus Ware got hurt. That was also the year the Ratliff decided to not honor his contract.

In 2011, Flozell Adams, Leonard Davis, and Andre Gurode didn't make it out of TC making what was going to be a transition into a rebuild

Both were issues with pro scouting. You cannot fix those problems in July no matter how much Sturm might insist.

Sturm is playing sophist with this one. There have been no doomsday cap years since the late 90s and we currently have $10m in cap space with more coming down the pipe. We are going to have no issue signing Martin and still have room to add more FA. We have more cap room coming down the pipe.

Yeah, but is there more cap room coming down the pipe? That's what I want to know. I think there is.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Yeah, but is there more cap room coming down the pipe? That's what I want to know. I think there is.

When Romo leaves we will be paying $54m less under the previous projections through 2019.

 

[Idgit]

When Romo leaves we will be paying $54m less under the previous projections through 2019.

What I take from this is that you're saying we'll definitely have more cap room coming down the pipe.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

What I take from this is that you're saying we'll definitely have more cap room coming down the pipe.

Yup. We are going to be in good shape with a cost controlled pro bowl QB. We are not remotely maxxed out on our restructuring "credit card" either

Further, a lot of people like to wring their hands about dead money but when it accelerates it only is accounted for one season and then it is gone. If you make it a June 1 then the remainder only accelerates into the next year and it's gone. There is no permanence like you see in an interest environment where your debt burden increases.

 

[Bluestang]

@Sturm1310 hit the nail on the head with this article...

- The Cowboys use this practice out of necessity and the Romo trade situation (or lack thereof) is a product of this malpractice. No team wants to take it on because it's simply not worth the money vs the injury risk. That's why the Broncos and Texans are willing to wait it out until we cut him.
- The same thing happened with Ware as well, we tried offering a trade but no team was willing to take on his ballooned contract due to the constant restructures.
- I do like the fact that the Cowboys have been able to convince poor performing players to take pay cuts (Free and Carr) but this isn't a sure fire thing.
- I think its comical that fans/bloggers convince themselves that we stay away from the top tier FAs because its not a good way to build a team. However that is hyperbole, because it doesn't mean you go out an build your entire team from FA. 1 top tier player and 1 mid tier player can make a world of difference but we cant even do that because we are paying out ballooned contracts that we can't even make an offer. The storylines seem to always be you overpay but that also has to do with how exactly the contract is structured. Players don't always go with the max money especially ones that are looking to play for a contender.

The most ironic thing to me though is that it's obvious that Jerry has taken a backseat to Stephen and Will but the same old "snake oil salesmen pitch" has fooled some of you into thinking that we have changed.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

How exactly was it evident that Maliek Collins is a better player? In 2 fewer games Crawford had more tackles and only one half fewer sacks (5 vs 4.5).

Crawford in 2 fewer games had 7 more hurries than Collins did. Crawford was 16th in the NFL. Collins was 160th.

Yes, Crawford makes a lot more money. But saying Collins is a better player is a lie, unsupported by any objective measures.

Nice try. But the truth is inconvenient at times eh?

Ouch. The truth even hurt me on that one lol.

 

[waldoputty]

What I take from this is that you're saying we'll definitely have more cap room coming down the pipe.

we had more cap space in 2017 if you restructure dez and tcrawford.
that would have only restructured the top 5 contracts not counting Romo.

that would have opened about 13 million of cap space.
13m could have signed 2 12-15m aav contracts.
the front office simply decided not to do that, even though they knew Free was going to retire.

rough estimate of 2018 cap space is $50m.
even if we sign collins and martin to long term contracts, 2018 cap space would be ~$40m.

 

[Stash]

I'm not thrilled with how the Cowboys have handled contracts over most of the salary cap era.

However I think they've done better (not perfect, but better) over about the last 3 years. I'd say after the Brandon Carr signing. Yeah the T. Crawford contract has been a turd, but I'm sure the Cowboys weren't expecting him to blow out both rotator cuffs in consecutive seasons. But contracts like that they offered T. Williams and the one year $2 mil deal for Paea give me hope.

There's certainly been more done right than done wrong. But I'm with you, the Crawford contract has been a turd.

 

[Stash]

I love the "true scotsman" argument.

Who started the past two years at two different positions, stash?

Who's been replaced at one and looking to be at the other? Let's face facts here.