The Mythical Salary Cap Monster

[Mrdude108]

Right but you don't get it. Restructuring gets you massive amounts of dead money. How do you think we have over 20 million in dead money. If you keep restructure old players one day you will have to release them because they will not be worth what they are getting paid and now they are a big dead money cap hit.

The best way is to not restructure unless it's young players who has a solid future. Not older players on the way out the door.

Exactly, the dead money is the killer. They are simply delaying and putting off the problem until later which will eventually have to be dealt with. In the mean time, the dead money hampers our spending ability right now even though you can restructure to increase spending but then you are creating more dead money. It's a circle of bad cap management and bad habits.

The only reason Dallas is doing it is to maximize their chances at winning with Romo and it bit them hard this offseason by having to cut Ware as a result of their bad cap management trying to "win now". Which doesn't help their chances at winning.

I'm sure Dallas knows exactly how the cap works and how to manipulate it and how to handle it correctly but their current mind set is causing them to handle it this way.

 

[supercowboy8]

Those are the guys you designate June 1st cuts, the guys with the most dead money.

That would be stupid too. We didn't designate ware a June 1st cut. Do you even understand how it works?

If a player is a 10 million Dead money cap hit then it's all this year. Not spread out over several years. If June 1st cut then the prorated for this year say 2 million is a cap hit but next year will be a 8 million Dead money. Again your adding up dead money. It's a stupid process.

 

[Hoofbite]

They are spinning it this way because if the Cowboys really wanted to, they could make the moves to sign any player. But they can't do it without limiting themselves in future years.

So they take that and run with it that the salary cap doesn't matter. They can do what they want. Except they really can't and anybody paying attention since FA started knows it.

Yes. It's not because of the cap the team has almost zero talent at half the starting positions on defense right now. It's choice.

 

[CyberB0b]

It not casual. The mistakes with personel are mistakes in any system of accounting. The players still have to perform.

As to Carr, if they restructure he saves 5m this year. If they June 1st cut next year, he saves another 6m against the cap in 2015 and the dead money of 9m hits in 2016. So they save 11m and take a hit of 9m in 2 years when the cap will be higher.

DeMarcus Ware$8,571,500
Jay Ratliff$6,928,000
Nate Livings$2,100,000
Marcus Spears$1,400,000
Sean Lissemore$1,200,000
Phil Costa$225,000

Nearly 21M in money against the cap for players who haven't been productive in a while. That is the problem. As players get older, they generally get less productive/injured. Guaranteeing more money and spreading out cap hits to years when they are less likely to be productive is moronic.

 

[coult44]

JJ and The Cowboys have restructured contracts more than anyone in the NFL during the past 17 years. We have also won as many Superbowls as the Browns, Bengals, Lions, and a few more in the last 17 years... Not a coincidence!!!!!

 

[Nightman]

That would be stupid too. We didn't designate ware a June 1st cut. Do you even understand how it works?

If a player is a 10 million Dead money cap hit then it's all this year. Not spread out over several years. If June 1st cut then the prorated for this year say 2 million is a cap hit but next year will be a 8 million Dead money. Again your adding up dead money. It's a stupid process.

C'mon don't be insulting. I know how it works. Guys with a lot of dead money are the guys you desginate June 1st cuts. Ware only had 8.5m in dead money compared to a 16m cap hit. They still saved 7.5m and took the whole hit to get the money now. Why do you think they are waiting on Miles? It's a 1m savings now vs a 5.5m savings later.

 

[Nightman]

JJ and The Cowboys have restructured contracts more than anyone in the NFL during the past 17 years. We have also won as many Superbowls as the Browns, Bengals, Lions, and a few more in the last 17 years... Not a coincidence!!!!!

The also play in Texas and so do the Texans who haven't won the Super Bowl in 17 years, so they should both move out of Texas

 

[Maxmadden]

For all those that think that this team is in cap hell and want to moan and complain about it, just be prepared to keep up the whining and complaining. As long as Stephen is in control of the Cowboys cap we are always going to appear that we are up against it. For one, if you have a budget then you need to maximize it by spending it all. How wisely you spend it is a totally different subject on it's own. Secondly, if you have 30 million in cap space and several pending free agents of your own, what kind of bargaining power do you have. And third, if you have 30 million cap space your fan base expects you to go out and purchase every free agent that hits the market no matter the cost. What advantage do you have by sitting on extra cap dollars?

Whine and complain all you want about our cap situation but it should never change. We appear cap strapped because that's exactly the impression the Cowboys want to portray.

 

[Nightman]

Yes. It's not because of the cap the team has almost zero talent at half the starting positions on defense right now. It's choice.

Two career injuries, a 32 year old FA and a declining superstar played no role. It was the salary cap.......mmooomooowwaaaw

 

[CyberB0b]

. As long as Stephen is in control of the Cowboys cap we are always going to appear that we are up against it.

Whine and complain all you want about our cap situation but it should never change. We appear cap strapped because that's exactly the impression the Cowboys want to portray.

Why do you think this is all about perception? I am not trolling, genuinely asking.

How wisely you spend it is a totally different subject on it's own.

My biggest complaint is value of how it is spent. Why are more successful teams not following the same model?

 

[Hoofbite]

Two career injuries, a 32 year old FA and a declining superstar played no role. It was the salary cap.......mmooomooowwaaaw

Oh, has free agency not started yet? Pretty sure they could have replaced all those players and added safety help and solidified every other position.

Hard to imagine how Dallas would ever lack talent. After all, you can buy all you would ever need without any worrying.

Clearly there's a disconnect between what hypothetical moves a team could make by manipulating the cap and what teams actually do.

 

[Kaiser]

Yep thanks to restructures and then having to cut players with high caps due to the restructuring we have over 20 million in dead money. Our top 51 team salary right now is only 108 million. That's one of the lowest in the NFL but we have one of the least amount of cap space. And some people think we should still restructure old players to sign old players to massive deals. Some people don't get it.

And that is entirely because Ware and Ratliff both fell off the map in performance after being signed to contracts when they were Pro Bowl players. Its easy to say we should give contracts to players over 30 but we didn't. We gave them to guys like Ware when he was one of the best players in the game. He signed his last contract after 2008 when he had 20 sacks that season. He has averaged about 10MM in salary (12 when you average the dead money from that contract) since then and its been worth it. If you don't want dead money showing up at any point, you have to let that 27 years old version of Ware coming off a dominant season walk in free agency.

 

[Nightman]

Oh, has free agency not started yet? Pretty sure they could have replaced all those players and added safety help and solidified every other position.

Hard to imagine how Dallas would ever lack talent. After all, you can buy all you would ever need without any worrying.

Clearly there's a disconnect between what hypothetical moves a team could make by manipulating the cap and what teams actually do.

I didn't realize it was over already. They are trying right now to replace their 2 biggest holes, DT and DE. Free agency isn't a cure all. The back 7 on the defense is made up of 5 or 6 draft picks.

 

[Hoofbite]

I didn't realize it was over already. They are trying right now to replace their 2 biggest holes, DT and DE. Free agency isn't a cure all. The back 7 on the defense is made up of 5 or 6 draft picks.

Why isn't a cure all. If the cap is inconsequential and Jerry has the highest earnings in the entire league, why wouldn't he just hoard the talent?

 

[Nightman]

Why isn't a cure all. If the cap is inconsequential and Jerry has the highest earnings in the entire league, why wouldn't he just hoard the talent?

Now you're just being obtuse.

 

[Maxmadden]

Why do you think this is all about perception? I am not trolling, genuinely asking.



My biggest complaint is value of how it is spent. Why are more successful teams not following the same model?

Because there is absolutely no benefit to appear under the cap.

 

[CyberB0b]

Because there is absolutely no benefit to appear under the cap.

What benefit is there to appearing over the cap? They aren't fooling anyone and they aren't playing poker. No need for any deception.

 

[Toruk_Makto]

If the salary cap wasn't an issue the Cowboys wouldn't worry about the price tag for any of these players.

You can chalk up "the salary cap isn't an issue" with the "GMs don't matter" gem. It's what some fans have resorted to to make the state of the team more palatable.

By this logic the salary cap matters a lot for everyone.

So either it's a huge deal for everyone or not a big deal for anyone.

 

[TheDude]

Why do you think this is all about perception? I am not trolling, genuinely asking.



My biggest complaint is value of how it is spent. Why are more successful teams not following the same model?

Other teams don't follow the same model to this extent. I suspect it is because the GM has to be accountable to the owner. By guaranteeing salaries and maxing the cap hit, there is headline risk brought about by call risk. What I mean is that if you sign a player to big guaranteed money deal and the player underperforms or retires (injury, etc) the dead money is a reminder to the owner that your player evaluation was flawed AND there is a number attached to it. The GM may then ask for another FA deal with guarantees to replace a "mistake". This dynamic is completely void in Dallas

Pushing dead money does have limits. If Romo had retired this year from his back, along with Ratliff, Ware, extending Dez and Tyron would have been really difficult.

All in all restructuring isn't evil, but it highlights how bad some of these deals have been for 8-8. Obviously, Stephen doesn't want to max the cap with Carr and Witten, so there has to be a reason, I think Witten and Carr (esp Carr) is gone after this year and I expect a big FA splash next year. Dez and Tyron get extensions in Aug-Sept

 

[ElGatoGrande]

Mythical, lol. This site never fails to entertain.