Sturm On Cowboys Contract Handling

[Stash]

Who came out of camp the starter at the 3? Him moving to SDE was about Collins being better than Jack Crawford and starting the best 4 for all of your spin.

i don't argue that. Collins missed most if not all of training camp. I'm talking about going forward, where's Crawford playing?

 

[YosemiteSam]

no one does it as often as the Cowboys. its a tool and shouldn't be a common procedure. The downside is u get players in the same boat as Romo. No one wants to touch the existing contract because of all the dead money. We should have gotten a 4th-3rd for him if the contract wasnt such a mess

Were you opposed to signing Romo when he signed? Nobody expected the outcome that came. Both with Romo injuries or with Dak. Sometimes, life just throws you a curve-ball. You can't call the world off when that happens, You have to work with it. You're acting like having Romo or Dak is a negative. It's not. Just circumstance of how it played out was both great for the Cowboys, but it did come with one real consequence. On the plus side. Before we have to re-sign Dak. Guess what. No dead Romo money and Dak makes chump change right now.

 

[jterrell]

again, this is a middle ground case.
restructuring young guys who you know will be here 5 years is of no real concern.
adding money down the line for older guys, injured guys or knuckleheads is a bad move.

dallas has restructured a lot of guys this off-season, anyone pretending they haven't has missed lots of info.
but you don't want to restructure guys like dez/witten imho.
that's going to have real effects on you sooner rather than later.
same as romo getting restructured effects us this year and possibly next.

paying 19m for him to play elsewhere is a pretty big impediment to going and getting free agents.

 

[LatinMind]

Now, there is one thing that I continue to be dissatisfied about, and that is the way they write their contracts. They do not write contracts that they intend to honor as written. They write contracts to allow them multiple restructures to accommodate other contracts that they have already restructured to make room for contracts that they wrote before that were restructured. And so on and so on and so on. There was some back and forth on this behavior this past week when Stephen Jones again defended the fine art of credit-card juggling.

They have so much dead money on Player A, that they must restructure Player B to free up the room. But, then, Player B cannot be cut because he isn't very good anymore, since the restructure guaranteed money for him in Year 3 of his deal (because of Player A's situation), so now we must restructure Player C's deal to accommodate Player B, who is only in his spot because of Player A. It is maddening. But, perhaps not as maddening as knowing we have all be desensitized to it as a poor way of doing business.

There are media folks who tell us "everyone does it", which is sort of true, but not. Yes, everyone you know uses credit cards. So, you can justify your credit card use by looking around the room and seeing everyone uses them. But, does everyone open up new credit cards to pay off the old ones? Does everyone max them out and have to sit out shopping because of the unpaid balances?

The Cowboys are doing better, but a sign that they are still in a weird spot is that they definitely need to retain some players, but in order to do so, they have to figure out how to restructure more deals to make even a little room.

http://sportsday.***BANNED-URL***/d.../2017/03/06/cowboys-money-problem-free-agency

This might have been bad in the past because of the amount of SB already paid and restructuring. but Sturm needs to check his numbrs because the restructures they have done really dont apply because of the contracts concept.

Tyron Smith got a 97mil contract and only 10mil SB with 22 mil guaranteed. on a 8yr contract. Thats 1.25mil in prorated SB money on the cap a yr and the startof the contract. The highest 1yr cap hit will be next yr at 17mil thats already account for, and the Cowboys still have around 65-75mil. And in 2021 the last yr in his current deal that he has any guaranteed money owed his cap hit will only be 12.2mil. And his deal still has 2 more yrs remaining after to 2023. When he will only be 32, thats crazy. He will have played 13 yrs at age 32.

Travis Fredrick got a 6 yr 56mil contract with only 3.2mil SB 28mil guaranteed. His highest cap hit will be 13mil next yr aswell. Thats already taken into account aswell.

Nobody couldve predicted Romo's injuries. They could restructure Dez, Witten, and Crawford and couldve spent crazy in FA but they didnt. Why because they have left that way of doing business. And did the necessary ones that they planned on doing when they made the contracts for Smith and Frederick.

Sturm makes valid points on past operations Dallas has ran, but he's reaching here because of the Romo contract. But he's a frachise QB and is paid like one, and he's writing this like anybody couldve predicted 2015 and the 3rd play of 2016 in preseason. Where Dallas would be this posistion that Romo wouldnt be on this team and they would have his money blocking FA signings that isnt that strong to begin with. IM sure he is looking at WR signings because it cant be DE signings. Because the good one Dallas wanted wasnt allowed to reach FA.

Im sure Sturm is looking at Crawford like a fan and probably wants him cut. Sturm couldve done a little more research of the structure of this team.

 

[waldoputty]

again, this is a middle ground case.
restructuring young guys who you know will be here 5 years is of no real concern.
adding money down the line for older guys, injured guys or knuckleheads is a bad move.

dallas has restructured a lot of guys this off-season, anyone pretending they haven't has missed lots of info.
but you don't want to restructure guys like dez/witten imho.
that's going to have real effects on you sooner rather than later.
same as romo getting restructured effects us this year and possibly next.

paying 19m for him to play elsewhere is a pretty big impediment to going and getting free agents.

dez's contract runs out after 2019 not 2022.
there is no more restructuring of witten.
he is done after 2017.

 

[CowboyRoy]

Now, there is one thing that I continue to be dissatisfied about, and that is the way they write their contracts. They do not write contracts that they intend to honor as written. They write contracts to allow them multiple restructures to accommodate other contracts that they have already restructured to make room for contracts that they wrote before that were restructured. And so on and so on and so on. There was some back and forth on this behavior this past week when Stephen Jones again defended the fine art of credit-card juggling.

They have so much dead money on Player A, that they must restructure Player B to free up the room. But, then, Player B cannot be cut because he isn't very good anymore, since the restructure guaranteed money for him in Year 3 of his deal (because of Player A's situation), so now we must restructure Player C's deal to accommodate Player B, who is only in his spot because of Player A. It is maddening. But, perhaps not as maddening as knowing we have all be desensitized to it as a poor way of doing business.

There are media folks who tell us "everyone does it", which is sort of true, but not. Yes, everyone you know uses credit cards. So, you can justify your credit card use by looking around the room and seeing everyone uses them. But, does everyone open up new credit cards to pay off the old ones? Does everyone max them out and have to sit out shopping because of the unpaid balances?

The Cowboys are doing better, but a sign that they are still in a weird spot is that they definitely need to retain some players, but in order to do so, they have to figure out how to restructure more deals to make even a little room.

http://sportsday.***BANNED-URL***/d.../2017/03/06/cowboys-money-problem-free-agency

All you have to do to see that the Cowboys mismanage the cap is look at two simple facts:

1. They keep having to restructure (push salaries off to future years) just to get under the cap to sign draft picks
2. We only use FA to sign bargain level FA's. Cant fill any glaring holes with top level talent the last 4 years.

And trust me................once we have plenty of room with the cap, Jones will start signing some bigger name people again. Unless he keeps mismanaging and then that day may not come.

 

[Chuck 54]

Crawford needs to move back inside to 3-tech and earn his playing time, only playing DE in an emergency or short yardage. He is not a DE.
Irving can actually play both spots, but despite what he did in a couple of games, I see him as a DT as well; he gets a good push, and his length makes him hard to handle 1-1 inside. When you stink inside, QB can just step up which killed DWare for many years or he might be in the LT comparison, but when you make things happen inside, the QB is moving towards the DE's whether they are winning or not.

 

[Chuck 54]

This might have been bad in the past because of the amount of SB already paid and restructuring. but Sturm needs to check his numbrs because the restructures they have done really dont apply because of the contracts concept.

Tyron Smith got a 97mil contract and only 10mil SB with 22 mil guaranteed. on a 8yr contract. Thats 1.25mil in prorated SB money on the cap a yr and the startof the contract. The highest 1yr cap hit will be next yr at 17mil thats already account for, and the Cowboys still have around 65-75mil. And in 2021 the last yr in his current deal that he has any guaranteed money owed his cap hit will only be 12.2mil. And his deal still has 2 more yrs remaining after to 2023. When he will only be 32, thats crazy. He will have played 13 yrs at age 32.

Travis Fredrick got a 6 yr 56mil contract with only 3.2mil SB 28mil guaranteed. His highest cap hit will be 13mil next yr aswell. Thats already taken into account aswell.

Nobody couldve predicted Romo's injuries. They could restructure Dez, Witten, and Crawford and couldve spent crazy in FA but they didnt. Why because they have left that way of doing business. And did the necessary ones that they planned on doing when they made the contracts for Smith and Frederick.

Sturm makes valid points on past operations Dallas has ran, but he's reaching here because of the Romo contract. But he's a frachise QB and is paid like one, and he's writing this like anybody couldve predicted 2015 and the 3rd play of 2016 in preseason. Where Dallas would be this posistion that Romo wouldnt be on this team and they would have his money blocking FA signings that isnt that strong to begin with. IM sure he is looking at WR signings because it cant be DE signings. Because the good one Dallas wanted wasnt allowed to reach FA.

Im sure Sturm is looking at Crawford like a fan and probably wants him cut. Sturm couldve done a little more research of the structure of this team.

Good analysis. Early on, including some of Romo's, restructuring was robbing Peter to pay Paul; we were pushing back money owed to make FA signings, and it has killed us regarding the cap. Recently, they have been writing contracts specifically with the intention of restructuring down the road when they want some cash, but in a way that doesn't guarantee more money and cripple us. Once we get out of Romo's contractual obligation, we should be in pretty good shape, and we should be able to keep stars and pay them market value when we want to without getting back into this hole.

 

[waldoputty]

All you have to do to see that the Cowboys mismanage the cap is look at two simple facts:
1. They keep having to restructure (push salaries off to future years) just to get under the cap to sign draft picks
2. We only use FA to sign bargain level FA's. Cant fill any glaring holes with top level talent the last 4 years.

And trust me................once we have plenty of room with the cap, Jones will start signing some bigger name people again. Unless he keeps mismanaging and then that day may not come.

there is currently 8.4m of cap space after all the signings.
if and when romo salary is gone, that is $13.5 mil roughly. that is a lot of cap space for whatever is left in the FA market.

next year, there is about $33mil of cap space once romo's salary is gone.
that is not including a single restructure, which could easily provide another $30M of cap space.
that would be about $60m.
you can easily borrow ~$13m of the $60m cap for 2017 if restructuring a couple contracts this year like dez and tcrawford

 

[Alexander]

Im sure Sturm is looking at Crawford like a fan and probably wants him cut. Sturm couldve done a little more research of the structure of this team.

You obviously didn't read what he wrote:

Now, in a year where they should likely at least consider walking away from Tyrone Crawford's deal, they are still upside down in his deal (meaning, it costs more to cut him than it does to keep him). There is no reason a defensive tackle should have a deal that is five years long and Year 3 is basically guaranteed again. Unless, you planned on it. Which, why would you ever fully guarantee Tyrone Crawford's deal? And look, Year 4 already has $7.3 million in dead money which might become fully "upside down" if they restructure him again this month - which they just might.

 

[jterrell]

dez's contract runs out after 2019 not 2022.
there is no more restructuring of witten.
he is done after 2017.

dallas, if they so desired, would add years to the deal and restructure.
hopefully they do not.
witten is clearly on his last season or so.
dez may last 5 more years but he's making a lot of money and one more real injury and you probably have to ask him for a pay cut or release him.

 

[LatinMind]

Good analysis. Early on, including some of Romo's, restructuring was robbing Peter to pay Paul; we were pushing back money owed to make FA signings, and it has killed us regarding the cap. Recently, they have been writing contracts specifically with the intention of restructuring down the road when they want some cash, but in a way that doesn't guarantee more money and cripple us. Once we get out of Romo's contractual obligation, we should be in pretty good shape, and we should be able to keep stars and pay them market value when we want to without getting back into this hole.

It really hasnt killed anything. Because Dallas has said they arent going to go into FA. Dallas has been in worse shape on the cap in the past and have made room to sign FAs. The yr they signed Brandon Carr was the yr they got stripped of millions by the nfl because of the Austin deal. Just seems media and Fans dont understand what this team does. And its right there for you to read, This team is honest in what they can and cant do and will and wont do. People just dont want to believe it, and when it happens the way they say it will. Media never report anything else on it.

LIke now, Dallas is signing back their core, and adding pieces to a rotation on def. With the supposed little cap they had.

 

[waldoputty]

dallas, if they so desired, would add years to the deal and restructure.
hopefully they do not.
witten is clearly on his last season or so.
dez may last 5 more years but he's making a lot of money and one more real injury and you probably have to ask him for a pay cut or release him.

dez may get another contract though at much lower aav than the current one.
there is little risk to restructure to the current one which ends after 2019.

witten is done and no one (i think) will extend him.

whether people know it or not, the cap structure has gotten more and more conservative.
we are effectively squeezing the life out of the cap during Dez's remaining prime and the heart of Zeke's prime.
not the right time to do that.
should be doing it after they are done in about 5 years.
with the rise of the cap and romo's money, we could easily push the expenses into 5 years.
it would not even blow up the cap.

 

[jterrell]

there is currently 8.4m of cap space after all the signings.
if and when romo salary is gone, that is $13.5 mil roughly. that is a lot of cap space for whatever is left in the FA market.

next year, there is about $33mil of cap space once romo's salary is gone.
that is not including a single restructure, which could easily provide another $30M of cap space.
that would be about $60m.
you can easily borrow ~$13m of the $60m cap for 2017 if restructuring a couple contracts this year like dez and tcrawford

please, please, please stop posting about future years.
it's just all wrong.
dallas CURRENTLY has only 8.5M in cap space for 2018.
that number will change quite a lot before 2018 as Romo gets handled, guys are extended (See Martin) and 12-20 more guys are added to this roster.
the team WILL NOT GO into 2018 with 30m of free cap space however. that is a virtual lock.

 

[waldoputty]

please, please, please stop posting about future years.
it's just all wrong.
dallas CURRENTLY has only 8.5M in cap space for 2018.
that number will change quite a lot before 2018 as Romo gets handled, guys are extended (See Martin) and 12-20 more guys are added to this roster.
the team WILL NOT GO into 2018 with 30m of free cap space however. that is a virtual lock.

8.5+ romo ->over 30m
the team has been doing about 20-30m of cap space by restructuring.
that gets you to over 50m

go take a look at how many guys are already on the 2018 roster and virtual locks already.
after draft picks, you may only have 3-4 guys to add.
the team will hide the real cap savings by not restructuring like they have been.
that can easily hide 20-30m of cap savings.

 

[jterrell]

dez may get another contract though at much lower aav than the current one.
there is little risk to restructure to the current one which ends after 2019.

witten is done and no one (i think) will extend him.

whether people know it or not, the cap structure has gotten more and more conservative.
we are effectively squeezing the life out of the cap during Dez's remaining prime and the heart of Zeke's prime.
not the right time to do that.
should be doing it after they are done in about 5 years.
with the rise of the cap and romo's money, we could easily push the expenses into 5 years.
it would not even blow up the cap.

you can't get dez's contract number down if you keep restructuring him because you will owe him too much.
that is what happened with demarcus ware.

good basic rules:
1. never restructure a guy coming off a season ending injury.
2. never restructure a guy over 30 unless it is a franchise QB.
3. never restructure a guy you feel is overpaid.
4. never restructure a guy whose been in the drug program.
5. never restructure a guy who's crazy.

believe it or not that leaves lots of restructures.

 

[waldoputty]

you can't get dez's contract number down if you keep restructuring him because you will owe him too much.
that is what happened with demarcus ware.

good basic rules:
1. never restructure a guy coming off a season ending injury.
2. never restructure a guy over 30 unless it is a franchise QB.
3. never restructure a guy you feel is overpaid.
4. never restructure a guy whose been in the drug program.
5. never restructure a guy who's crazy.

believe it or not that leaves lots of restructures.

you pay for dez's restructures in 2018 and 2019.
there is only 1-2 restructure opportunities left.
demarcus happened when the cap was not expanding $10-15m per year
and romo did not leave either

 

[jterrell]

8.5+ romo ->over 30m
the team has been doing about 20-30m of cap space by restructuring.
that gets you to over 50m

go take a look at how many guys are already on the 2018 roster and virtual locks already.
after draft picks, you may only have 3-4 guys to add.
the team will hide the real cap savings by not restructuring like they have been.
that can easily hide 20-30m of cap savings.

again, your numbers won't be close to reality.
the team will early restructure martin to a large deal.
they will have UFA they sign over the remainder of this off-season and they will have guys they sign or extend for next year.

guys on make good deals who could get bigger deals include:
jonathon cooper
st. paea

leon mcfadden
emmett cleary
joe looney
demarcus lawrence
brice butler
chris jones
are all also roster guys who's return reduces that 30m number you made up.
the draft also reduces that number.

again, you've done the goofy reductions without additions cap mgmt that has become so prevalent here.

 

[jterrell]

you pay for dez's restructures in 2018 and 2019.
there is only 1-2 restructure opportunities left.
demarcus happened when the cap was not expanding $10-15m per year
and romo did not leave either

the proper way to handle dez is eat his money now and then ask him to make a team friendly extension with lower base salaries.
hard to do that if it cost you 15m to cut him because you've been restructuring him into a massive one time hit.

dallas is in great shape with witten because they can ask him to come back in 2018 if they like and the team owes him zero if he retires or leaves via FA.

romo is going to leave eventually but he's expensive no matter what happens because his restructures kicked money forward.

i could care less that the cap is growing. that's one of the sillier arguments i've ever heard repeated as if gospel.
whether the cap is 120 or 170; if you have 15m less because you spent it in a prior yea you are behind competition THIS year.
so the only time it makes sense to steal money from a future season is when you are darn good and could win it all.
the cap is versus the market and versus 31 other teams yearly.
salary cap is going up but so are contracts.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

i don't argue that. Collins missed most if not all of training camp. I'm talking about going forward, where's Crawford playing?

SDE or 3T like before. I know you think that we will lose a competition. I think you would be surprised one again.