The Cowboys and 2015 Cap Options

[Wood]

Melton, Carr and Free are over-paid and Dallas needs to do something about that. As for Murray, the rumblings around Ranch is that Dallas isn't going over $10 million for 3 years and that Murray agent will be seeking much more as this is probably his one big contract.

 

[DogFace]

Excellent informative post. Carr is the one more than the others that is way overpaid now. Melton, if kept, will take that title next year.

mcClain, Carter, and Dez should be top priority as someone else said.
I'd also like to keep Moore. Murray too but I'm a little worried we're wearing him out. I'm sure you've all heard the stat on rb's that have the amount of carries he's on pace to have and how they perform after that.

 

[TheFinisher]

Romo has the highest cap number in the league next year at nearly 28 Million. He needs to be willing to bring that number way down if he wants to have a chance at winning anything before he retires. Do that and we can resign everyone we want... McClain, Carter, Murray, Harris and Dez, etc.

 

[LittleD]

Romo has the highest cap number in the league next year at nearly 28 Million. He needs to be willing to bring that number way down if he wants to have a chance at winning anything before he retires. Do that and we can resign everyone we want... McClain, Carter, Murray, Harris and Dez, etc.

Romo would be most happy to restructure and take his 7.5mil in a bonus. He is not ever going to take a pay cut and I'll bet money Jerry will never
ask him to. That would not be "Romo Friendly" and you heard it here first...Jerry is not going to pissoff his chance at the promise land.

 

[bodi]

http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/49155/77/dose-murray-on-record-pace

DeMarco Murray leads the league with his 670 rushing yards. That's 210 more than Le'Veon Bell, who is next closest with his 460 yards on the ground. You have to run a lot to rack up that kind of yardage. And Murray has done just that. He's on pace to carry the rock 416 times, which would tie the all-time record set by Larry Johnson in 2006. That was Johnson's age-26 season. Murray is also in his age-26 season. Following that 2006 campaign when Johnson set records, he never played another full 16-game slate again, never rushed for more than 854 yards in a season, and washed out of the league in 2011. Murray already has an extensive injury history. So, when coach Jason Garrett said on Monday that he plans to scale back Murray's workload, we nodded in agreement for Murray's sake. It's going to be hard for the Cowboys to take their offensive centerpiece off the field, especially if they're going to make a run at the division title, but they can't keep feeding him 26 carries per week if they expect him to last. Look for Murray to still flirt with 22-24 touches weekly and continue his dominance behind one of the league's best offensive lines. But Joseph Randle and Lance Dunbar will have to give Murray breathers. Randle would likely assume early-down duties if Murray were to get hurt, with Dunbar playing in a passing-down role like he's been doing.

What's also of great significance is Murray is in a contract year. The Cowboys have expressed a strong desire through the media that they want to sign him to an extension. And reports are that they've already offered him a new four-year deal worth more than $4 million annually. Murray balked at the offer. He'll continue to bet on himself while the Cowboys run him into the ground. If he finishes the season with upwards of 350-370 carries, the Cowboys very well may franchise-tag Murray. The one-year tag would pay Murray about $9.5 million. But if he plays all 16 games and leads the Cowboys to a winning season, Murray would deserve and earn a long-term deal. It'd be unfortunate for Murray if he were slapped with the tag. We obviously have a long way to go before that. If Murray finishes near the top of the league in rushing and stays healthy,

I just would let him walk

he's not E Smith

 

[bodi]

I don't see FREE going any place - we have a good line with him - so how many sacks did JJ WATT have on him one maybe

 

[Toruk_Makto]

LOL. Cowboys will not take another OL in the first round next draft. Have you seen this defense?

Best player available.

 

[jazzcat22]

We went into the 2014 off season, in cap hell as people like to put it. We lost Ware & Hatcher, then Lee goes out with an injury. Everyone said, well, we know all about all that crap. no need to rehash it.

But here we sit at 4-1, and a lot of room under the cap. Which should, and will increase again. Especially with that new monopolized direct tv contract that dictator Goodell insists upon having. Actually it's more like the owners too, don't they need to approve it, not sure.

I think they will figure it out and do what is best, in spite of all the armcahair GM's who "know" better than JJ.

Anyway, great OP and info.

 

[casmith07]

LOL. Cowboys will not take another OL in the first round next draft. Have you seen this defense?

Yes, I have. I see a much improved unit that I expect will improve more over the next off-season with the additions of Lawrence and Spencer full time and another year in the system for players like Crawford, Mincey, and McClain.

Do I think we'll take a linebacker or defensive tackle or end high in the draft? Yes. But I would not at all be surprised to see us select a right tackle in the first round. People "saw the defense" last year and Dallas took Zach Martin. I don't see anybody whining about that pick, and if they are, point them out to me so that I can ridicule their intelligence to the highest degree possible.

 

[casmith07]

Free last yr is voided when he restructured. Scratch that 8mil off the books. He will be back for less than half that. 3-3.5mil sounds bout right. And i dont see Melton in Dallas next yr the way Crawford is playing with Coleman his backup in 2015. Then again i could see Melton taking a restructure, just dont see Dallas paying him 9mil next yr. I think he's gone. Dez McClain and Carter are must signs. Moore wont be expensive but im sure other teams will bid driving his price up some. Durant, Selvie, Spencer IMO will all be let go free to sign somewhere else. Dallas really likes Gardner and can draft a DE too. continue to get younger and build depth. Selvie gave you 150% in 2013 and we see what he is now.

With the CBS deal going into effect in 2015 and the new Directv deal going in i expect the salary cap to go up alot.

If this is true about Doug Free, and he can (and should) return for around $3 million, then we will be in a lot better shape to really go defense heavy in the draft. We also will be able to keep players like Ro McClain and Henry Melton.

 

[jterrell]

Looks to me like numbers 3,4, and 5 have a good chance of not being here next year. Certainly not at those numbers.

Yup. That's really about all you need to look at.
The bigger money is guaranteed and the smaller money would be about performance not cap hits.

Melton I believe will be gone.
If he plays well he has more value to other teams, but I don't see any way he can be worth 9m to us.

Free is interesting because he knows he isn't an 8m a year guy having taken 3m the last couple.
I believe he'd take 3m again and it is up to us to decide if that is the best deal.
It could be cheaper to keep Free than to cut him.

Carr is also interesting. Seems to love being here but simply hasn't met his contract.
But we only save 500k by cutting him before June 1st. It goes up a lot after June 1st but we'd eat big dead money again in 2016.
We cut Ware in a similar situation last year and that may be the new way of handling this.
Don't pay declining vets and progress stoppers huge money.

We can probably keep all 3 guys if we really wanted to.
I think all 3 would work with us.
I don't see any Tank Johnson or Mike Jenkins type discord.

One of things I would caution the OP on is looking at just base salaries.
Cap hits are what really count.
Jason Witten is absolutely worth 5m, but he is not worth 8.5m in cap hit.
He can easily be restructured down to 5m with no loss of money.
You simply hand him his base up front and eat his remaining bonus plus 1/3 of that new 4m bonus plus his vet base. ~5.5m cap hit.

 

[jterrell]

LOL. Cowboys will not take another OL in the first round next draft. Have you seen this defense?

They really didn't want to go OL this year so you can imagine it would be almost impossible to get them to do so next year.

 

[conner01]

Bryant - done deal. just a matter of time
Murray - interesting one. he has an offer on the table thats [probably close to market value
McClain - i think he will get done. this is a perfect situation for him
Carter - unless he takes less than market value he will be gone
Harris - love harris but he will get starter money and be gone
Durant - likly to be easy to sign
Selvie - should'nt be that expensive
Moore - been in the league 5 year. been on the street more than on a team. should'nt be hard to sign
Spencer - who knows on spencer but he is not going to get any big offers on the market
melton - expensive option. could see crawford replace him if we decide to go de in the upcoming draft
we have the money to sign anyone we want to. the question is not can you, but should you. and some just are'nt going to be worth what it will take to keep. then you have some vets like carr you may look at. i'm hoping we can go another year without having to do any restructures.

 

[Mr Cowboy]

It would also be wise to invest in a high quality, young proven pass rusher for next year with the salary cap increase. I would also consider re-signing Moore, Harris and Durant, and perhaps other contributors before the end of the season.

 

[gimmesix]

I think replacing Doug Free is a foregone conclusion, almost to the point we could end up taking another round 1 OL.

I think Carr will restructure. He's playing much better this year.

Melton might be the odd one out, especially with how Mincey and McClain have come on, much to the chagrin of Zoners. Spencer will be a cheaper keep than Melton as well George Selvie.

I think Sterling Moore gets a contract structured similar to Scandrick's but for less money, obviously.

I don't agree on Free. I think he and Carr both restructure.

The only one I don't see us keeping at this point is Melton, but if he gets past the nagging injuries and shows we should keep him, I could see a restructure there as well to lower his number.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

It would also be wise to invest in a high quality, young proven pass rusher for next year with the salary cap increase.

You're almost guaranteed of having to draft a pass rusher and not being able to sign one through free agency.

#1 is that other teams know the value of young, proven pass rushers so the likelihood of one hitting the market is pretty slim.

#2 is that the cap increase affects every team so that enables them to more easily keep what talent they have and more easily sign other free agents.

This is a zero-sum game. You can't sign talent unless another team willingly loses talent.

 

[rpntex]

They really didn't want to go OL this year so you can imagine it would be almost impossible to get them to do so next year.

I disagree. Provided the Cowboya resign McClain, Carter, & Marinelli, this team is primed to take BPA - regardless of position. If Marinelli's back as DC, I don't think the urgency for defense is as severe. Provided Sean Lee returns, and Lawrence is what they think he is, the front seven could possibly be a strength without adding anyone new.

RM's scheme hinges on three players - WSDE, 3-tech, and WLB. That's Crawford, Lawtence, and Lee right there. The LB corp will definitely be a strength.

Under those circumstances, it's going to be best player available - even if he's an offensive lineman.

 

[casmith07]

I don't agree on Free. I think he and Carr both restructure.

The only one I don't see us keeping at this point is Melton, but if he gets past the nagging injuries and shows we should keep him, I could see a restructure there as well to lower his number.

If you restructure and keep both Free and Carr, then I think we don't pick up the option on Melton's contract. If I recall correctly, too, it was performance-based and incentive laden, so his option may not actually cost what it's anticipated to cost anyway if he continues to have nagging injuries.

Either way, I think we reasonably could replace Melton or Free with a 1st round pick come April regardless of which we decide to restructure and keep. I would like to keep both, though. Melton is quite disruptive when in the game with Crawford, Selvie, and Mincey and McClain. All we need now is Demarcus Lawrence to get healthy and for Anthony Spencer to knock the rust off.

 

[perrykemp]

I was interested and looked up the RB with the most carries ever in a season. It was Larry Johnson.

He was pretty much shot after breaking the record and averaged about 300 yards per season after that.

 

[burmafrd]

The cap will not go up as much as some people here fantasize. Expenses like lawsuits and medical benefits and pensions come off the top. They will certainly go up a fair amount each year.