The albatross that is Ratliff, and his dimwitted enabler

erod

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Jay Ratliff is six games into the first season of his five-year contract extension. For no apparent reason, Jerry Jones gave that to him....two years ago when he still had two years left on his previous contract.

The Cowboys could have cut ties this summer with nary a nickle weighing on this this year's cap.

That an $18-million guaranteed bonus that was completely unnecessary. He'll count $6 million against the cap next season IF they cut him after June 1st. If not and he plays, he'll count $7 million.

This is what Jerry got for his money.

After playing a few games last year, Ratliff suffered a sports hernia. This is generally a 4-6 week event, as it was for Terrance Newman. We're now closing in on a full year since Ratliff had his surgery, without seeing him suit out once.

Ratliff does not bother going to Valley Ranch for rehab, conditioning of any sort, team meetings....nothing. He is disconnected from the team pretty much altogether, even though he's officially off the PUP list as of now.

Other than a drunk-driving arrest and a surly appearance at the team kickoff luncheon, we've seen virtually nothing of Ratliff. He doesn't attend the games, he doesn't talk to the media, his coaches, his teammates, or the trainers.

Yet, Jerry keeps enabling Ratliff, telling him it's OK to train on his own and see his own doctors. The two were seen chatting at training camp as Ratliff looked on from the side, but that was the last real contact apparently they've had, other than through his agent.
It's not just disgusting, it's so different from before.

Not that long ago, Ratliff was perhaps the heart of the team. He was the vocal leader of the defense, and one of its top performers. He was a media favorite, even though he was always playfully sharp with his verbal jabs at them. He imitated teammates, played practical jokes, kept everybody light at times, and on edge at times.

For absolutely no apparent reason, Jerry decided to pay an undersized defensive tackle into his 30s with two years still on his contract. This is the dumbest of Jerry's mountain of dumb decisions as the team's "generl manger". It has completely blown up in his face on multiple fronts.

Well, check that. Roy Williams got $45 million from Jerry, and the Lions got a bevy of high draft picks to boot. Perhaps this is second on the list, which seems logically impossible for anyone by Jerry.

Soon, Ratliff will be sent away on IR to count his $18 million for nothing. He'll likely be cut loose on June 1st.

I suspect, or at least I hope, Jerry files a grievance to get a lot of that money back. It seems like Ratliff has been derelict in his obligations to the team to get healthy and communicate with the organization. Then again, with Jerry enabling all along, Ratliff probably has a good case to fight it.

Meanwhile, there's a 3-3 season ongoing that could definitely use a defensive tackle of Ratliff's former ability. And no one seems to know anything about what's going on. Is he healthy? Is he trying to get healthy? Is it a different injury? Does he want to play? Is he bipolar? Is he in trouble with the law? Is it personal? Just what in the name of Tom Landry is wrong with this butthead?

And why does this team seem to always have 4-5 of these contracts suffocating the cap at all times?
 

Tabascocat

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Paragraphs Erod, paragraphs. Excuse me while I go grab some BC Powder! Fun read even though we don't know the full story :)

Definitely can't argue Jerry's loyalty, it does get him in cap trouble.
 

khiladi

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I thought Jason Garrett was cleaning up the culture and the bad contracts? Now there are 4-5 bad contracts suffocating the cap at all times...
 

erod

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Paragraphs Erod, paragraphs. Excuse me while I go grab some BC Powder! Fun read even though we don't know the full story :)

Definitely can't argue Jerry's loyalty, it does get him in cap trouble.

Fixed. I don't write them here because I get an odd typing delay for some reason. I copy and paste, then I have to go back and add paragraphs because it doesn't "paste" my paragraph breaks for some reason.
 

erod

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this is the biggest 180 turn i've ever seen in a cowboys player (intangible wise).

Isn't it strange? There's got to be a fascinating backstory to all this. I'm sure we'll know in time.
 

cowboys1981

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Has he been charged for the drunk driving arrest? Can we use that against him?
 

Zordon

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Isn't it strange? There's got to be a fascinating backstory to all this. I'm sure we'll know in time.

very strange. ratliff was one of the handful of players that truly cared about winning during those disappointing wade years. i refuse to believe all of this is over a fight with jerry or a DUI incident. either he feels betrayed (maybe some info got leaked that he's upset about) or something completely off the wall that nobody is thinking about occurred.
 

dallasdave

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Jay Ratliff is six games into the first season of his five-year contract extension. For no apparent reason, Jerry Jones gave that to him....two years ago when he still had two years left on his previous contract.

The Cowboys could have cut ties this summer with nary a nickle weighing on this this year's cap.

That an $18-million guaranteed bonus that was completely unnecessary. He'll count $6 million against the cap next season IF they cut him after June 1st. If not and he plays, he'll count $7 million.

This is what Jerry got for his money.

After playing a few games last year, Ratliff suffered a sports hernia. This is generally a 4-6 week event, as it was for Terrance Newman. We're now closing in on a full year since Ratliff had his surgery, without seeing him suit out once.

Ratliff does not bother going to Valley Ranch for rehab, conditioning of any sort, team meetings....nothing. He is disconnected from the team pretty much altogether, even though he's officially off the PUP list as of now.

Other than a drunk-driving arrest and a surly appearance at the team kickoff luncheon, we've seen virtually nothing of Ratliff. He doesn't attend the games, he doesn't talk to the media, his coaches, his teammates, or the trainers.

Yet, Jerry keeps enabling Ratliff, telling him it's OK to train on his own and see his own doctors. The two were seen chatting at training camp as Ratliff looked on from the side, but that was the last real contact apparently they've had, other than through his agent.
It's not just disgusting, it's so different from before.

Not that long ago, Ratliff was perhaps the heart of the team. He was the vocal leader of the defense, and one of its top performers. He was a media favorite, even though he was always playfully sharp with his verbal jabs at them. He imitated teammates, played practical jokes, kept everybody light at times, and on edge at times.

For absolutely no apparent reason, Jerry decided to pay an undersized defensive tackle into his 30s with two years still on his contract. This is the dumbest of Jerry's mountain of dumb decisions as the team's "generl manger". It has completely blown up in his face on multiple fronts.

Well, check that. Roy Williams got $45 million from Jerry, and the Lions got a bevy of high draft picks to boot. Perhaps this is second on the list, which seems logically impossible for anyone by Jerry.

Soon, Ratliff will be sent away on IR to count his $18 million for nothing. He'll likely be cut loose on June 1st.

I suspect, or at least I hope, Jerry files a grievance to get a lot of that money back. It seems like Ratliff has been derelict in his obligations to the team to get healthy and communicate with the organization. Then again, with Jerry enabling all along, Ratliff probably has a good case to fight it.

Meanwhile, there's a 3-3 season ongoing that could definitely use a defensive tackle of Ratliff's former ability. And no one seems to know anything about what's going on. Is he healthy? Is he trying to get healthy? Is it a different injury? Does he want to play? Is he bipolar? Is he in trouble with the law? Is it personal? Just what in the name of Tom Landry is wrong with this butthead?

And why does this team seem to always have 4-5 of these contracts suffocating the cap at all times?
That's what a lot of us want to know, and want stopped in the future.
 

ufcrules1

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We should have found a way to trade/cut him after his DUI last year.. following the DUI of Brent that killed a teammate.
 

Zordon

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We should have found a way to trade/cut him after his DUI last year.. following the DUI of Brent that killed a teammate.

how? the money is going to kill us. that's the only reason the team is bending over backward for him and jay ratliff knows it. he knows the team needs him on the field and for the financial commitment they made to him so he's in a position of power.
 

Broges74

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how? the money is going to kill us. that's the only reason the team is bending over backward for him and jay ratliff knows it. he knows the team needs him on the field and for the financial commitment they made to him so he's in a position of power.

He could have played it straight up and came back and actually worked for his lofty paycheck. Novel idea I know... The fact he has been milking the injury this long suggests he has lost the love of the game. Time for Jerry to play hardball.
 

erod

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I'd like to add this thought to my OP.

If the Cowboys put Ratliff on IR without any further explanation, I suspect Ratliff has legal leverage against them of some sort. It just doesn't add up. Somebody screwed up bigtime. The Cowboys wouldn't go to such great lengths to keep this hush-hush.

However, if he goes on IR and the team comes out blasting Ratliff for his lack of effort to return, than this is more about Ratliff as we suspect.

The cryptic cloud hanging over all this is bizaare.
 

dallasdave

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Example one, of many leading to the cap hell we are in.

The Cowboys need to stop making bad cap deals like this for the future of the team. What's done is done, but Jerry needs to learn from his mistakes to keep us out of cap hell in the future.
 

speedkilz88

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I bet when they made the earlier contract they had a handshake deal to redo it at a certain point that he was underpaid.
 

erod

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The Cowboys need to stop making bad cap deals like this for the future of the team. What's done is done, but Jerry needs to learn from his mistakes to keep us out of cap hell in the future.

There's a certain number of these that all teams deal with. Injuries, in particular, can't be predicted. And sometimes you have to overpay to keep someone or get someone, a la Doug Free or Brandon Carr.

But Jerry has a habit of paying guys he doesn't have to pay big money to. Nobody was offering Marion Barber, Roy OU, Roy UT, or Terrance Newman the amounts he paid them. He does this over and over.

Since Garrett took the reins, Jerry seems to be doing a better job of this. Ratliff happened when Wade was still here.
 

erod

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Wrong, he signed the extension September of 2011.

OK, then the first month of Garrett's first full season. Fair enough. It was still two years before it needed to be, and Garrett's youth movement had not been fully implemented yet.
 

TheMarathonContinues

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Not to nitpick but.....

For absolutely no apparent reason, Jerry decided to pay an undersized defensive tackle into his 30s with two years still on his contract. This is the dumbest of Jerry's mountain of dumb decisions as the team's "generl manger". It has completely blown up in his face on multiple fronts.

Well, check that. Roy Williams got $45 million from Jerry, and the Lions got a bevy of high draft picks to boot. Perhaps this is second on the list, which seems logically impossible for anyone by Jerry.

Soon, Ratliff will be sent away on IR to count his $18 million for nothing. He'll likely be cut loose on June 1st.

I can think of FAR worse moves Jerry has made than re-sign a 30 year old Pro Bowl caliber player to a 5 year and 50 million dollar contract. I wish that was the 2nd dumbest decision Jerry has made......
 
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