The Phantom Salary Cap Menace

[waldoputty]

From 1995 to now, the idea of the salary cap has been pounded into us.
We had to break up the 90's dynasty because of the cap.
We got roasted by the league for 'manipulating' the cap.
On and on...
Well that was all true.

That is no longer true in the current environment.
For 2017, we could easily open up $30M by restructuring 5 contracts without even doing something with Romo. $50M or more can be opened up if desired.
For 2018, we are $60M under the cap currently. If Romo is gone, ~$90M under the cap.

Why? Mostly because the salary cap has been going through an unprecedented annual increase of $10M
And it will keep doing this for 4 more years at the minimum.

So WHY are we stuck in feeling helpless because of the salary cap.
Because it has been droned into us for 20 years.
Also the FO wants to manage expectations if they cannot get big time players.

We are not helping ourselves making excuses for the FO
The FO probably monitors fan reactions - and CZ is one easy place for them.
More pressure should be put on for the best possible product/team.

What can we afford?
Easily 3 top FAs this year plus a WR2 at least as good as TWill, choice of Church/Wilcox, extension for Martin after the season starts.
If we get 2 top FA DL and a top FA CB, we should become prohibitive favorites next year especially if Jaylon is 90+% of what he used to be.

Will the cap blow up if we spend like this
Not for many years because of the cap rise.
That is because we are currently $60M or so below the cap in 2018 so much less restructuring needed.

What happens if we blow up the Cap in 2022 by spending much more now?
That is a good thing to tank 1-2 years at that point.
5-6 years from now, we will need better draft picks to nail down Elliott's replacement or a WR1 or a passrushing edge or a shutdown corner.
For all we know, NFL may outlaw tackling by then due to brain damage concerns...

But the Patriots are Frugal so they never blow up the team
Think about how many more superbowls Brady would have won if the Pats tanked 1 year every 5 years to reload on 1 key high #1 pick (WR1, RB, dominant DL/OLB or shutdown corner)

 

[DallasEast]

We are not helping ourselves making excuses for the FO
The FO probably monitors fan reactions - and CZ is one easy place for them.
More pressure should be put on for the best possible product/team.

Seriously? The Dallas front office is influenced by public opinion? In that case, wouldn't the logical assumption be that past front office decisions would have more closely reflected what fans (or fansites like CowboysZone) desired instead of the actual roster acquisitions that took place?

 

[waldoputty]

Seriously? The Dallas front office is influenced by public opinion? In that case, wouldn't the logical assumption be that past front office decisions would have more closely reflected what fans (or fansites like CowboysZone) desired instead of the actual roster acquisitions that took place?

They are a for-profit corporation.
You dont think they monitor public opinion?
PR is one of the most important part of sports management and most large corporations and organizations.

You think they want their brand to suffer - instead of striving to do everything possible to win - have their brand tarnished as just milking the goose that laid the golden egg.
You dont think the FO is ego-driven in some of the decisions they make?

 

[DallasEast]

They are a for-profit corporation.
You dont think they monitor public opinion?

I apologize. I should have been more specific. My questioning was motivated by the condition of player acquisition influenced by public opinion--NOT overall corporate decisions based on research data gauging what, why and how the public will consume product. Perhaps a helpful sampling of past National Football League franchise decisions, over an 80+ year span, that were directly contributable to public opinion influencing specific player acquisitions might change my mind about monitoring superficial, fragmented and constantly changing public opinion. In that sense, my short answer would be no.

PR is one of the most important part of sports management and most large corporations and organizations.

Again, I would enjoy reading ANY supporting data, studies, etc., that indicates corporate public relations marketing and management directly control free agent and draft selections specifically coinciding with certain players that the public desires. Not coincidences, mind you. Fact.

You think they want their brand to suffer - instead of striving to do everything possible to win - have their brand tarnished as just milking the goose that laid the golden egg.

Do you know the monetary value of individual National Football League brands, from the least visible to most prevalent franchises? Scratch that. Do you know what the current net worth of the Dallas Cowboys currently is DESPITE what measureable public apathy has been over the past two decades? Suffer?? Seriously???

You dont think the FO is ego-driven in some of the decisions they make?

Ego-Driven? Jerry Jones?? I apologize but say it ain't so Joe.

Yes, Jerry Jones is ego-driven. The world has gotten to know Jerry Jones over the past 28 years. May I ask a question? When exactly has Jerry Jones acquired a specific player for his team based upon the opinion of either his franchise's fanbase or the general public? I would not mind reading or hearing any confirmation made by Jones stating he got a certain player based on who the fans wanted.

 

[Sydla]

No, the Dallas Cowboys will not change how they operate in FA based on what fans say.

 

[Toruk_Makto]

This front office for the past few years has been spending big in "free agency." But it's been to take care of our own players. You'll notice that our best players are not exactly going hungry. This is the proper way to build a team.

Now either this offseason (more likely next offseason) we'll have to go outside to bring in some guys simply because there won't be as many core guys for us to pay as the front office has gotten rid of bad contracts and gotten younger.

As to your point on cap hell? Many people here have been preaching that we aren't in trouble. For a few years now we've been saying it. Planned restructures are not forced restructures. And you should be looking to throw larger cap charges into the future. It's simple mathematics and an understanding of opportunity cost.

As to your plan on tanking every 5 years that isn't even remotely feasible. On a roster of 53 people all playing for contracts and fighting their football mortality you can't simply just turn off the hose and tell everyone to lose every game. If we wanted to tank next year for instance how would we do it? Do we just sit Dez, Dak, Zeke, Lee and our offensive line? It's a silly idea. This isn't fantasy football.

As to thinking the FO comes to the Zone to determine of we can sign a free agent. Lol.

 

[waldoputty]

I apologize. I should have been more specific. My questioning was motivated by the condition of player acquisition influenced by public opinion--NOT overall corporate decisions based on research data gauging what, why and how the public will consume product. Perhaps a helpful sampling of past National Football League franchise decisions, over an 80+ year span, that were directly contributable to public opinion influencing specific player acquisitions might change my mind about monitoring superficial, fragmented and constantly changing public opinion. In that sense, my short answer would be no.
Again, I would enjoy reading ANY supporting data, studies, etc., that indicates corporate public relations marketing and management directly control free agent and draft selections specifically coinciding with certain players that the public desires. Not coincidences, mind you. Fact.
Do you know the monetary value of individual National Football League brands, from the least visible to most prevalent franchises? Scratch that. Do you know what the current net worth of the Dallas Cowboys currently is DESPITE what measureable public apathy has been over the past two decades? Suffer?? Seriously???
Ego-Driven? Jerry Jones?? I apologize but say it ain't so Joe.

Yes, Jerry Jones is ego-driven. The world has gotten to know Jerry Jones over the past 28 years. May I ask a question? When exactly has Jerry Jones acquired a specific player for his team based upon the opinion of either his franchise's fanbase or the general public? I would not mind reading or hearing any confirmation made by Jones stating he got a certain player based on who the fans wanted.

There is no need to look up how many billions the Dallas Cowboys is worth.
The Jones have more money than they know what to do with for the next 100 generations or more.
But they do not want to be labelled as "just milking the goose that laid the golden egg".
Make that the PR hit they get if they do not want to change their ways.
When I mean suffer, I dont mean any possible financial hit that would make a difference to their pocketbook. Losing 5% sales due to bad PR does not affect them personally in any way whatsoever.

Trying to win frugally is an EGO THING for these FO's.
The Patriots do it to show how much smarter they are than everyone else.
They easily have the cap space to keep those players that they traded away and almost lost the superbowl over.
But they just want to say how much better than everyone one.
Since they are proven winners in the recent past, that is why else they can do to boost their own ego.

 

[Supercowboy1986]

This is similar to when people think game developers care about what gamers think about their product. Which they don't. There are multiple Reddit threads for games (most notably hearthstone with 500k subscribers) where literally all the posts are about bashing the game and how terrible it is, while providing a million bad suggestions to fix it. The devs never pay any attention to those people despite all the "backlash." This fourm is similar in that regard.

There is no way I could believe (without acknowledgement from one of the Jones boys) that the front office checks CZ to gauge how fans think the org should be ran. They may know this site exist but I highly doubt they come here to figure out their offseason plans based on what users post here.

From 1995 to now, the idea of the salary cap has been pounded into us.
We had to break up the 90's dynasty because of the cap.
We got roasted by the league for 'manipulating' the cap.
On and on...
Well that was all true.

That is no longer true in the current environment.
For 2017, we could easily open up $30M by restructuring 5 contracts without even doing something with Romo. $50M or more can be opened up if desired.
For 2018, we are $60M under the cap currently. If Romo is gone, ~$90M under the cap.

Why? Mostly because the salary cap has been going through an unprecedented annual increase of $10M
And it will keep doing this for 4 more years at the minimum.

So WHY are we stuck in feeling helpless because of the salary cap.
Because it has been droned into us for 20 years.
Also the FO wants to manage expectations if they cannot get big time players.

We are not helping ourselves making excuses for the FO
The FO probably monitors fan reactions - and CZ is one easy place for them.
More pressure should be put on for the best possible product/team.

What can we afford?
Easily 3 top FAs this year plus a WR2 at least as good as TWill, choice of Church/Wilcox, extension for Martin after the season starts.
If we get 2 top FA DL and a top FA CB, we should become prohibitive favorites next year especially if Jaylon is 90+% of what he used to be.

Will the cap blow up if we spend like this
Not for many years because of the cap rise.
That is because we are currently $60M or so below the cap in 2018 so much less restructuring needed.

What happens if we blow up the Cap in 2022 by spending much more now?
That is a good thing to tank 1-2 years at that point.
5-6 years from now, we will need better draft picks to nail down Elliott's replacement or a WR1 or a passrushing edge or a shutdown corner.
For all we know, NFL may outlaw tackling by then due to brain damage concerns...

But the Patriots are Frugal so they never blow up the team
Think about how many more superbowls Brady would have won if the Pats tanked 1 year every 5 years to reload on 1 key high #1 pick (WR1, RB, dominant DL/OLB or shutdown corner)

 

[waldoputty]

This front office for the past few years has been spending big in "free agency." But it's been to take care of our own players. You'll notice that our best players are not exactly going hungry. This is the proper way to build a team.

Now either this offseason (more likely next offseason) we'll have to go outside to bring in some guys simply because there won't be as many core guys for us to pay as the front office has gotten rid of bad contracts and gotten younger.

As to your point on cap hell? Many people here have been preaching that we aren't in trouble. For a few years now we've been saying it. Planned restructures are not forced restructures. And you should be looking to throw larger cap charges into the future. It's simple mathematics and an understanding of opportunity cost.

As to your plan on tanking every 5 years that isn't even remotely feasible. On a roster of 53 people all playing for contracts and fighting their football mortality you can't simply just turn off the hose and tell everyone to lose every game. If we wanted to tank next year for instance how would we do it? Do we just sit Dez, Dak, Zeke, Lee and our offensive line? It's a silly idea. This isn't fantasy football.

As to thinking the FO comes to the Zone to determine of we can sign a free agent. Lol.

It does not take much sophistication to do a tank.
Tanking can be easily accomplished when we do not replace the top FAs when their FA contracts run out (or released in their last year).

PR matters to FOs everywhere.
Like it or not, FO manage public opinion everywhere.
Blog/sport writers read the boards.
If sports writers (who are not cap experts) can be influenced by fan opinion trashing the team, then there is a multiplier effect there.
We are obviously not putting a gun to their heads, but I did my little part in putting this in BTB with a little editing.

 

[Toruk_Makto]

It does not take much sophistication to do a tank.
Tanking can be easily accomplished when we do not replace the top FAs when their FA contracts run out (or released in their last year).

PR matters to FOs everywhere.
Like it or not, FO manage public opinion everywhere.
Blog/sport writers read the boards.
If sports writers (who are not cap experts) can be influenced by fan opinion trashing the team, then there is a multiplier effect there.
We are obviously not putting a gun to their heads, but I did my little part in putting this in BTB with a little editing.

OK so tell me how we tank next year. Or tell me the year where all our best players are free agents at the same time.

 

[waldoputty]

This is similar to when people think game developers care about what gamers think about their product. Which they don't. There are multiple Reddit threads for games (most notably hearthstone with 500k subscribers) where literally all the posts are about bashing the game and how terrible it is, while providing a million bad suggestions to fix it. The devs never pay any attention to those people despite all the "backlash." This fourm is similar in that regard.

There is no way I could believe (without acknowledgement from one of the Jones boys) that the front office checks CZ to gauge how fans think the org should be ran. They may know this site exist but I highly doubt they come here to figure out their offseason plans based on what users post here.

I was in a management team in an organization with revenues that were affected by public opinion.
I can guarantee you that we monitored every bit of public polling data there was out there.
CZ, BTB are free polling data for the FO.
Of course, Stephen should not be doing that.
We just assigned an intern to do the monitoring for us, write reports and summaries and present it every month or so.

We as individuals are only individual posters.
The key is to pound on the major blog writers and sport columnists that write in them.
Those people are not cap experts and do not fully understand the situation like some of people who posts on this board like bknight13
If you can influence those writers and columnist, then you will get a major multiplier effect.

 

[DallasEast]

Make that the PR hit they get if they do not want to change their ways.
When I mean suffer, I dont mean any possible financial hit that would make a difference to their pocketbook.

You mean, the PR hit that they have suffered after recent player acquisitions like Prescott and Elliott? I would take those as positive public relation accolades and not as negative public relation hits.

Still not seeing how the franchise's privately held perception of its corporate persona or aura is suffering so much so that it will begin acquiring players mandated by public opinion.

Trying to win frugally is an EGO THING for these FO's.

Perhaps but public opinion has perceptible influence on how franchises protect the league's image. It has little to no influence on how franchises specifically choose to fill their rosters.

 

[waldoputty]

OK so tell me how we tank next year. Or tell me the year where all our best players are free agents at the same time.

WHY would we want to tank next year?

You want to tank in 2021 or 2022.
Say we get 3 major FAs for 5 years contracts, cut them 1 year early together.
Or let their contracts expire and dont replace them with 3 more major FAs.
If we are capped out in 2020 and say Dez retired in 2019 after his contract ended, we simply dont replace him with a tier 1 WR1 FA and simply go with the draft.
Building is hard, tanking is easy.

 

[waldoputty]

You mean, the PR hit that they have suffered after recent player acquisitions like Prescott and Elliott? I would take those as positive public relation accolades and not as negative public relation hits.

Still not seeing how the franchise's privately held perception of its corporate persona or aura is suffering so much so that it will begin acquiring players mandated by public opinion.
Perhaps but public opinion has perceptible influence on how franchises protect the league's image. It has little to no influence on how franchises specifically choose to fill their rosters.

they did great this year and performed far beyond expectations.
next year expectation rise accordingly.

note that jerry felt 'compelled' to say they will try to get the war daddy.
you dont think he is feeling pressure?
i dont mean pressure in the pocketbook.
i mean pressure because others are laughing at them for the DL
i dont understand why you dont think jerry would be upset at public thinking they are mailing it in instead of GETTING THE BEST TEAM MONEY CAN BUY

 

[T-RO]

Good lawd this forum is sliding into sheer silliness.

We finally start running the organization in an intelligent way--and reaping the rewards with a 13-3 season...

And some fools want us to go back to the days of organizational stupidity.

 

[waldoputty]

Good lawd this forum is sliding into sheer silliness.

We finally start running the organization in an intelligent way--and reaping the rewards with a 13-3 season...

And some fools want us to go back to the days of organizational stupidity.

before you can people names, provide some justification beyond you know better.

 

[Toruk_Makto]

WHY would we want to tank next year?

You want to tank in 2021 or 2022.
Say we get 3 major FAs for 5 years contracts, cut them 1 year early together.
If we are capped out in 2020 and say Dez retired in 2019 after his contract ended, we simply dont replace him with a tier 1 WR1 FA and simply go with the draft.
Building is hard, tanking is easy.

And what are you doing in the next 5 years outside of just those "3 top FA." Are you not still signing free agents during your 5 year window when you're going for the superbowl? Are you not retaining Zeke? Are you not keeping Dak who you hope is a top 10 QB by that point? It's now time to sign your draft picks from the last 3 years. Players you picked who probably helped you win that coveted super bowl. None of them have gotten contracts over this magical 5 year window?

How do you tank with a top 10 QB btw? Who is going to win you at least 7 to 8 games. I don't even know why I'm responding to this absurd fantasy. Where you can just have one big free agent spending year. Bring in 3 guys. Win it all a few times. Give out no other big contracts over 5 years. Cut everyone. Get the number 1 pick. And then go on to win the superbowl again a few times in the next 5 years.

Why did I respond to this nonsense?

 

[Nightman]

This front office for the past few years has been spending big in "free agency." But it's been to take care of our own players. You'll notice that our best players are not exactly going hungry. This is the proper way to build a team.

Now either this offseason (more likely next offseason) we'll have to go outside to bring in some guys simply because there won't be as many core guys for us to pay as the front office has gotten rid of bad contracts and gotten younger.

As to your point on cap hell? Many people here have been preaching that we aren't in trouble. For a few years now we've been saying it. Planned restructures are not forced restructures. And you should be looking to throw larger cap charges into the future. It's simple mathematics and an understanding of opportunity cost.

As to your plan on tanking every 5 years that isn't even remotely feasible. On a roster of 53 people all playing for contracts and fighting their football mortality you can't simply just turn off the hose and tell everyone to lose every game. If we wanted to tank next year for instance how would we do it? Do we just sit Dez, Dak, Zeke, Lee and our offensive line? It's a silly idea. This isn't fantasy football.

As to thinking the FO comes to the Zone to determine of we can sign a free agent. Lol.

Good stuff

The only point I'd like to expound on is that tanking the salary cap is not even necessary, let alone practical.....it only takes one season to reset the cap .....contracts have grow so much they can be dumped or traded to create a ton of space

I bet a lot more teams struggle with the 90% cash floor than the ceiling

 

[GhostOfPelluer]

This team is doing it the right way (finally). When has spending big in FA ever led to a championship? A piece here or there can help, but you need to be smart about it. Most teams are spending bigger money to keep the guys they develop, so the players that hit FA are - with very few exceptions - players not worth top dollar.

 

[DallasEast]

note that jerry felt 'compelled' to say they will try to get the war daddy.
you dont think he is feeling pressure?

Wait wait wait. Hold the phone.

This is a serious question. Do you believe Jerry Jones' public acknowledgment that the defense needs a (nonspecific) dominate pass rusher was dictated by public opinion pressure and not because of his own perceptions of defensive need?