The problem with bloated contracts

[revospeed]

In the future, if we want to keep our core offense of Tyron,Frederick, Martin, Dak and Zeke, we're going to scrimp on defense and hope that Dak carries the team like Brady does. Quit handing out big contracts on decent seasons. Tyrone Crawford is stealing money and getting outplayed by rookies.

 

[conner01]

It's not what Dez or Witten makes than deter us from spending on big name free agents. It's the fact much of the time you get a player who doesn't live up to the contract you have to give them and that's a long term deal you then are stuck with. Remember Roy Williams? Carr?
And it's not just us, teams all over the league have signed high dollar free agents and regretted it
You think the Texans would like a redo on Oswaller

 

[conner01]

In the future, if we want to keep our core offense of Tyron,Frederick, Martin, Dak and Zeke, we're going to scrimp on defense and hope that Dak carries the team like Brady does. Quit handing out big contracts on decent seasons. Tyrone Crawford is stealing money and getting outplayed by rookies.

You don't have to scrimp on defense. You have to hit on draft picks

 

[Stash]

Guys like Witten and Dez Bryant come to mind when I think of bloated contracts. Both are valuable players but are significantly underperforming their contracts. Doug Free is another in that same category.

Those 3 guys are likely all top 10 in terms of our cap hit which prevents us from going out and paying a top flight pass rusher, dominant DT or dominant linebacker on defense.

The salary cap makes you make choices. The sentimentality of this team is really handicapping us in terms of cap allocation. I would love to see all of the above (not Free) stay with the Cowboys as long as possible, but not at all costs.

Some tough decisions need to be made here. Hopefully Witten decides to take a pay cut and stay with the team, but if not the team should really look at moving on from players like him and Dez.

Seriously?

If you want to look at one as an example, there's no bigger or more galling example than Tyrone Crawford's. The line forms behind him.

 

[Stash]

Dez will be back among the league leaders next year. He helped get us back in the game. None of our other receivers can make the plays he made.

Honestly, I see this team as having three receivers worth anything. Bryant, Beasley, and Williams. The rest are worthless. And Williams has one foot out the door. I think the team will need to do something at that position. Some level of investment.

 

[Stash]

Actually yeah I do. Free catches too much flak. The guy is a starter in this league.

"A starter".

And the limbo bar of expectations gets one rung lower...

 

[bootyhunta]

I'm just going to leave this here...

 

[AdamJT13]

We could have lowered their cap numbers (along with a bunch of other players), had more money to spend in free agency and had a better defense. But our front office didn't want to do that, and many fans didn't want to do that either. Something about "mortgaging the future."

 

[AzorAhai]

I would like to see both of them sticking around. What I'm not ok with is for them to eat up so much cap that we can't field a defense.

If they are going to eat up that much cap then Dez needs to be scoring two TDs and 130 yards every game and Witten needs 10 catches 100 yards and a TD in every game to justify their contracts

The Verdict is in. You're guilty of not knowing what you're talking about.

 

[LandryFan]

I would like to see both of them sticking around. What I'm not ok with is for them to eat up so much cap that we can't field a defense.

If they are going to eat up that much cap then Dez needs to be scoring two TDs and 130 yards every game and Witten needs 10 catches 100 yards and a TD in every game to justify their contracts

Dez's cap hit versus his stats is interesting at this point. When he was given his new deal, the thought process was that he would primarily be healthy and that Romo would be throwing to him. They (Dez and Romo) had a good thing going at that time. Since then a lot changed. Dez didn't stay healthy and neither did Romo. Hopefully, Dez's injuries are a thing of the past, but even if they are, he no longer has Romo throwing him the ball. That's Dak's job, now. The $64 question, in my mind, is how that will translate going forward. Maybe I'm not being realistic, but it seemed to me that he and Dak were coming together more as the season progressed and really showed against GB. If Dak has 800 yards and 6 or 7 TD's at the end of next year, then he'll be overpaid...by quite a lot. I hope he and Dak work this offseason to really get on the same page. I think (hope) they will.

 

[Sydla]

Sorry gonna stop you right there. Significantly underperforming?

Well if you look just at the 2017 cap hit of $12MM, I'd say Witten certainly no longer plays at that level.

 

[Sydla]

that is a hard undersell.......he is consistently the QB pressure and hurries guy....playing SDE and 3T only increases his value

He was 15th in the league with 23 hurries.....right with Mack, JPP and Wake

https://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/stats/defensive-hurries/2016/

I think it's been said that sportingcharts data is consistently wrong and should not be relied on.

 

[Paniolo22]

I agree with LandryFan. With Romo, Dez has a monster Year. With Dak, he played a key role and cashed in on a good percentage of quality targets, specifically when he returned from injury. He is also the player that deters teams from consistently sitting 8-9 in the box. Without him, we are the Rams with a better QB.

 

[Verdict]

The only salary that will deter us from spending money on defense will be Romo's.

I love the guy but handing out a 100 million dollar contract at his age, with back issues showing up, was ill advised. Not to mention the fact we restructured the contract at least twice was dumb. We did need him back at the time but we should've been more stingy in negotiating.

Every contract counts. Every cap dollar counts. It's not just about Romo, but his contract, like every other contract on this team counts against the cap.

You can't ignore all of the other contracts and focus only on Romo because it makes you feel better.

 

[Verdict]

No I want him cut. But if you notice, I didn't include him in my original post either.

Yes I think both Witten and Dez are significantly underperforming their contracts. You heard it right the first time I said it.

 

[Nightman]

I think it's been said that sportingcharts data is consistently wrong and should not be relied on.

I saw a lot of pressures from TCrawford myself

 

[Verdict]

Seriously?

If you want to look at one as an example, there's no bigger or more galling example than Tyrone Crawford's. The line forms behind him.

Crawford is probably another one. It's not an exhaustive list, it is for illustration purposes.

Dez is drawing top 5 money and he may only be a top 25 receiver.

 

[Nightman]

Every contract counts. Every cap dollar counts. It's not just about Romo, but his contract, like every other contract on this team counts against the cap.

You can't ignore all of the other contracts and focus only on Romo because it makes you feel better.

We were 8m under the cap this year with another 15m in available space...so save the dramatics

 

[Nightman]

Well if you look just at the 2017 cap hit of $12MM, I'd say Witten certainly no longer plays at that level.

What about his cap hit of 5.8m in 2016? or 6.1m in 2015 or 4.8m in 2013?

 

[Verdict]

What what part of we will not be players in free agency again this year do you not get? We aren't setting on the free agency sideline twiddling our thumbs because we have a ton of cap space we don't want to spend.

We are sitting on the sidelines because we have a less than ideal amount of cap space and have to keep our powder dry to resign our own free agents.

I'm not sure where in the hell you came up with the dramatic comment. My comment was based on fact. You have to count every contract we have in computing the cap. Romos cap number is part of that equation, but every other contract is part of that too.