The Mythical Salary Cap Monster

[CyberB0b]

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.

Not every team's owner is willing to max out the cap.

 

[xwalker]

I can't believe so many fans don't want to get better this year by adding guys like Melton and Allen. The are afraid of the salary cap, but it's not an issue and never has been. Dallas has always signed FAs, extended their own guys and never reached the so called "cap hell" we always hear about.

This is after the cap went from 128m in 2009 to 120m in 2011 and after getting hit with 10m cap penalty. That includes the Barber contract, the RWilliams contract, the Ratliff fiasco and the Newman and Free extensions. They have resigned Romo and Ware to monster deals, tagged Spencer twice for big hits, signed Carr to a huge deal and extended Lee, Scandrick, Church and Bailey.

If they restructure Witten, Carr and Free, they will have over 25m in cap space this year and will still be 28m UNDER the projected cap next year. That number includes Romo's 27m cap hit that will be cut in half, creating 13-14m more space. Orton, Free, Austin, Ware and Bern will be gone after next year. Carr, Witten and hopefully Allen will be gone a couple years later.

That leaves plenty of room for Melton and Allen and still extending Dez, TSmith and Murray. Restructuring isn't scary and should be welcomed by the fans. It's a great way to maximize the cap every year and pay over multiple years in the future when the cap is higher. It's a a zero interest loan and benefits the team and the player. It in no way makes it harder to cut someone. That money is already spent either way. Why do you think most people use Visa over AmEx? You have to pay your bill in full every month with the AmEx, but with Visa you can pay over time and this card has a 0% APR.

What good is cap space if you don't spend it? It's all Monopoly money if you know what you are doing and Stephen does. With the ability to roll-over any extra cap space, there is even less risk to creating as much space as possible. I would rather have an owner/GM that tries to spend to or above the cap every year than one would rather pocket the excess. There is no prize for extra cap space. No one is saying to build thru FA, but don't be afraid to sign a guy or two that can fill a need and make the team better.

 

[Tezz]

If not used with care restructures cause a great deal of problems when players start to decline or if there was an incorrect evaluation of a player, which is the reason for pause in Witten, Carr and Free deals as they are looking for an out. Pushing things into the future puts you behind the curve if things go south with a player. Every team restructures to a certain degree and at any point can create cap space if in need, but nobody pushes everything into the future because very few long contracts last till the end and dead money accelerates when cut. There are also others issues that can occur...

I'm under the belief that being the league leader in dead space combined with little cap has made an impact on the Cowboys. If the Cowboys had say a surplus of $25M cap going into the new year they would've found middle ground with Ware and possibly been more active in the early parts of FA.

 

[coult44]

It amazes me that folks still yet to argue that Dallas doesn't have cap problems...hahahhahahahhahaah. Do you think we would have went through the first week of FA without picking up some defensive help if we didn't have major cap issues??? Even JJ isn't that dumb....

 

[kelc]

It amazes me that folks still yet to argue that Dallas doesn't have cap problems...hahahhahahahhahaah. Do you think we would have went through the first week of FA without picking up some defensive help if we didn't have major cap issues??? Even JJ isn't that dumb....

It is amazing isn't it. Then what is even funnier is they want to sign a couple of old guys.like that will turn this team around.Some fans just chase the big names.

 

[coult44]

It is amazing isn't it. Then what is even funnier is they want to sign a couple of old guys.like that will turn this team around.Some fans just chase the big names.

And some just want any names....ones that wouldn't be on practice squads of teams like Seattle and SF.

 

[CyberB0b]

It amazes me that folks still yet to argue that Dallas doesn't have cap problems...hahahhahahahhahaah. Do you think we would have went through the first week of FA without picking up some defensive help if we didn't have major cap issues??? Even JJ isn't that dumb....

Hey, we signed McClain and Mincey. We have Ben Bass coming back. We are all set, buddy.

 

[coult44]

Hey, we signed McClain and Mincey. We have Ben Bass coming back. We are all set, buddy.

I needed to laugh my self to sleep, thanks

 

[ConstantReboot]

I wish there was a way for us to buy cap space from cash strapped teams like the Raiders. Will give them 10 million for freeing up 10 of our cap space. Thus they would be able to afford some of their players that would otherwise go to other teams. And we also would be able to sign more players without having to worry about the cap as much. We will still be regulated by the cap. But buying cap space frees us up a little and ALL the parties thats involved wins, especially the players and teams with lots of cap space.

Call it silly but I think its a great idea. They can limit the amount of cap space we buy just to make sure we don't sign the top FAs each and every year.

 

[Frosty]

I can't believe so many fans don't want to get better this year by adding guys like Melton and Allen. The are afraid of the salary cap, but it's not an issue and never has been. Dallas has always signed FAs, extended their own guys and never reached the so called "cap hell" we always hear about.

This is after the cap went from 128m in 2009 to 120m in 2011 and after getting hit with 10m cap penalty. That includes the Barber contract, the RWilliams contract, the Ratliff fiasco and the Newman and Free extensions. They have resigned Romo and Ware to monster deals, tagged Spencer twice for big hits, signed Carr to a huge deal and extended Lee, Scandrick, Church and Bailey.

If they restructure Witten, Carr and Free, they will have over 25m in cap space this year and will still be 28m UNDER the projected cap next year. That number includes Romo's 27m cap hit that will be cut in half, creating 13-14m more space. Orton, Free, Austin, Ware and Bern will be gone after next year. Carr, Witten and hopefully Allen will be gone a couple years later.

That leaves plenty of room for Melton and Allen and still extending Dez, TSmith and Murray. Restructuring isn't scary and should be welcomed by the fans. It's a great way to maximize the cap every year and pay over multiple years in the future when the cap is higher. It's a a zero interest loan and benefits the team and the player. It in no way makes it harder to cut someone. That money is already spent either way. Why do you think most people use Visa over AmEx? You have to pay your bill in full every month with the AmEx, but with Visa you can pay over time and this card has a 0% APR.

What good is cap space if you don't spend it? It's all Monopoly money if you know what you are doing and Stephen does. With the ability to roll-over any extra cap space, there is even less risk to creating as much space as possible. I would rather have an owner/GM that tries to spend to or above the cap every year than one would rather pocket the excess. There is no prize for extra cap space. No one is saying to build thru FA, but don't be afraid to sign a guy or two that can fill a need and make the team better.

Good write up but I think you are way off base. There is a reason the Cowboys have won only 1 playoff game in the entire Salary Cap ERA. Poor Salary Cap management (bad player contracts) and bad trades, and bad drafts....they all go together in the Salary Cap ERA.

Championship teams have Championship front offices.

 

[LittleD]

Good write up but I think you are way off base. There is a reason the Cowboys have won only 1 playoff game in the entire Salary Cap ERA. Poor Salary Cap management (bad player contracts) and bad trades, and bad drafts....they all go together in the Salary Cap ERA.

Championship teams have Championship front offices.

It might make sense to go all in with all of JJ's chips if we were 1 or 2 great players away from a S.B. but we are years away from that
goal. This team has had too many overpaid/underperforming players, too many bad drafts, too many bad coaching decisions, too
many screw-ups by the front office all of which has led to years of mediocre football in Dallas. Why invest 55-80million dollars into
over 30yr old players when you know it will just lead to another 8-8 season. This team needs to blow up, un-wind, melt down and have
a couple of bad years in order to draft high, get a franchise QB for the future and rebuild a new, young defense. Wasting money on
30 something's is just delaying the necessary purging of old, dead wood to foster new growth.

 

[Alexander]

Hey, we signed McClain and Mincey. We have Ben Bass coming back. We are all set, buddy.

Crawford. You forgot about Crawford.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

You can thank the media nonsense for this. They’ve been claiming we are in cap hell since before last season. And it is pure and utter nonsense. Cap hell exists when you have to let good, valuable players that are near the primes of their careers go for the market value and there is no replacement for them. We could have kept Ware and signed Hatcher, but it would make little sense to do so at those prices and at their age. We let Austin go, but he was a non-factor the last 2 years and was already replaced by Williams and Beasley. And I liked how the media started to change their tune a little when the cap was higher than they thought. Like Jerry Jones wouldn’t have a better idea what the cap is going to be than those idiots.


When all else fails, they claim Jerry ‘got lucky’ and have now gone back to the narrative that we are in cap hell again. It makes little to no sense. Yet, the ‘fans’ buy into it hook, line and sinker.


As far as Melton and Allen go, I would like to see them here, but at the right price. That’s really the name of the game, finding the right players for your system at the right price. Allen should be more of a no brainer, essentially give him a 1 or 2-year deal. Melton is a little more tricky given his age and injury past.



YR

 

[LittleD]

You can thank the media nonsense for this. They’ve been claiming we are in cap hell since before last season. And it is pure and utter nonsense. Cap hell exists when you have to let good, valuable players that are near the primes of their careers go for the market value and there is no replacement for them. We could have kept Ware and signed Hatcher, but it would make little sense to do so at those prices and at their age. We let Austin go, but he was a non-factor the last 2 years and was already replaced by Williams and Beasley. And I liked how the media started to change their tune a little when the cap was higher than they thought. Like Jerry Jones wouldn’t have a better idea what the cap is going to be than those idiots.


When all else fails, they claim Jerry ‘got lucky’ and have now gone back to the narrative that we are in cap hell again. It makes little to no sense. Yet, the ‘fans’ buy into it hook, line and sinker.


As far as Melton and Allen go, I would like to see them here, but at the right price. That’s really the name of the game, finding the right players for your system at the right price. Allen should be more of a no brainer, essentially give him a 1 or 2-year deal. Melton is a little more tricky given his age and injury past.



YR

It seems most here want to see them signed at "right prices" but don't be disappointed when neither one happens. These two guys are on their last contracts
and are all out for the "quan". The cowboys will have to way overpay to get either one of these guys to sign. Otherwise, they will just take a competing offer from a playoff team and leave Jerry sucking eggs.

 

[starfrombirth]

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

Actually, as i understand it, if a player retires then no money is owed against the cap or to the player but I agree with your principle

 

[starfrombirth]

You can thank the media nonsense for this.
YR

I normally agree with you YR but not this time. When your cap situation prevents you from keeping people you wanted to keep and being competitive for players you want to acquire, it's salary cap hell. I don't think JJ was onboard with signing hatcher for a long term big money deal but I'm sure he would like to have kept him for another 2-3 yrs and he definitely would have let Ware's contract ride if he could have. Remember he had to let Ware go to get under the cap not because he didn't think he was worth it.

 

[rynochop]

When they cant sign a Dez or Tyron get back to me with this salary cap hell. Not signing an aging once star isnt hell.

Is there anyone theyve let go in the last five years that you just wring your hands about (if anyone says martelus bennett u go straight to ignore)
Really TNew is one i wish we could have kept, only one i can think of

 

[Nightman]

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

I think you are absolutely right about the continuity of the GM being the reason that most teams don't operate this way. It also takes a lot of cash upfront to restructure and pay large signing bonuses. You do have to adopt it as your salary cap system for it to be most effective. You just can't operate willy-nilly going back and forth.

Xwalker had a great analysis showing that as long as you maintained a certain discipline as to spending above the cap and dead money, you can operate this way forever. The bill never comes due and we have witnessed that for the most part, even with a very flat salary cap for a number of years.

 

[Nightman]

If not used with care restructures cause a great deal of problems when players start to decline or if there was an incorrect evaluation of a player, which is the reason for pause in Witten, Carr and Free deals as they are looking for an out. Pushing things into the future puts you behind the curve if things go south with a player. Every team restructures to a certain degree and at any point can create cap space if in need, but nobody pushes everything into the future because very few long contracts last till the end and dead money accelerates when cut. There are also others issues that can occur...

I'm under the belief that being the league leader in dead space combined with little cap has made an impact on the Cowboys. If the Cowboys had say a surplus of $25M cap going into the new year they would've found middle ground with Ware and possibly been more active in the early parts of FA.

But Dallas does have an available surplus of 25m and they still made those moves. Too many people confuse the salary cap with all personnel moves. No matter what system you use, it's not smart to overpay for declining performance. Jerry got burned by taking care of Ratliff and Hatcher expressed nothing but the same desire to cash in. Ware was treated very fairly by Jones and the first time he asked for something back Ware bolted for a little more money.

 

[Cowboys22]

I've read through all these salary cap threads and have yet to see anyone get down to the truth of the current situation. The fact is that the team went 13-3 not that long ago and Jerry viewed that team as a super bowl contender and attempted to keep it together for 4-5 years. To do that, he had to re-sign the players to market deals. The only way to do that is to cheat the cap the way they have been doing it. They have adopted a business model for dealing with the cap that allows them to spend roughly 140-150% of the cap number in real dollars. They view that as a massive competitive advantage over teams not doing it. That type of cap management is not the problem because as we have seen, they can get around it anytime they want. I keep seeing everyone talk about bad contracts, bad contracts but if you go back and look at each one, they were market deals and no one wanted those players to be let go at the time. We have all enjoyed the fact that Jerry refused to let our good players leave. To do that, he had to work the cap the way he did. So lets get down to the real problem. Its the players! There is something going on in Dallas that allows the players to get paid and then not perform at the same level. This problem goes back to guys like Roy Williams and Terrance Newman and continues today. If all the players that Jerry has re-signed had continued to play at similar levels for 2-4 years, no one would be complaining about anything and the team would probably have seen more success like that 13-3 season. If you want to see Jerry treat cap dollars as real dollars, then guys like Ware would not be re-signed and would be leaving in their prime, not after they had broken down and no longer were worth their contract. If Ware hadn't been such a non-factor for the last two years, he would still be here. His contract would have been restructured and he would be a Cowboy for life but he didn't fulfill his part of the bargain. He is just the latest in a long line of players that played very well, looked like a long-term core player, got paid by Jerry, and then didn't continue to play at the same level that earned him his money. Break that cycle in Dallas and the way Jerry works the cap will bring back the glory days!