Timing of Free's retirement notification, Leary

[Ring6]

If the front office knew Free was going to retire, would they have gone after Leary in free agency? Only one hole to fill, just move Collins to RT. Wonder if they knew. I know cap money doesn't grow on trees, but I just wonder at what point they knew. Maybe Free didn't even know until late.

 

[dagreat1_87]

i dont think they would've kept leary. you can only invest so much money into the o-line and they obviously value martin over leary alot more.

 

[John813]

Doubtful.
IMO He wanted to get paid, aka highest bidder, and I'm not sure we would of come close to those numbers.

 

[DBOY3141]

If the front office knew Free was going to retire, would they have gone after Leary in free agency? Only one hole to fill, just move Collins to RT. Wonder if they knew. I know cap money doesn't grow on trees, but I just wonder at what point they knew. Maybe Free didn't even know until late.

Either Spags or Broddus have said the Cowboys FO knew of Free's intent before FA started. Did not change how they dealt with Leary.

 

[Irvin88_4life]

Not likely. Leary has a knee injury that could make him retire.

Grabbing Cooper and Bell and letting Green and Cleary all compete for LG spot was the best choice

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

They were not going to pay two OGs top 10 OG money contracts in the same year. I believe that they will pay Martin this year.

 

[Qbert]

Money talks obviously, but I don't think Leary wanted to come back for the way his job was taken from him and just given to Collins

 

[Alexander]

If the front office knew Free was going to retire, would they have gone after Leary in free agency?

They couldn't and wouldn't. The cap was not in line to do it and the Romo drama was still on-going.

 

[Seven]

Money talks obviously, but I don't think Leary wanted to come back for the way his job was taken from him and just given to Collins

He didn't play with that attitude.............course he had to showcase his goods, i guess.

I still think that was Dallas' greatest loss.

 

[WoodysGirl]

Not likely. Leary has a knee injury that could make him retire.

Grabbing Cooper and Bell and letting Green and Cleary all compete for LG spot was the best choice

Leary has been playing in the league for about 5 years with that knee condition, right? And it hasn't hindered him. That's a good career by any other measure, so him retiring at this point wouldn't be that big a deal and would be considered good value for the Cowboys.

That said, Leary's price was above what the Cowboys were gonna pay him. Didn't have a thing to do with his knee, IMO. Just makes good business to let him walk and throw darts at the position to see who sticks.

 

[Alexander]

Either Spags or Broddus have said the Cowboys FO knew of Free's intent before FA started. Did not change how they dealt with Leary.

And all that means is they knew they could not reasonably afford him and afford to stay within their comfort zone with the cap.

 

[Alexander]

Just makes good business to let him walk

If the Cowboys had more cap space, the narrative would have changed.

 

[Doomsday101]

If the front office knew Free was going to retire, would they have gone after Leary in free agency? Only one hole to fill, just move Collins to RT. Wonder if they knew. I know cap money doesn't grow on trees, but I just wonder at what point they knew. Maybe Free didn't even know until late.

I don't think it made a difference it was being reported that Free was considering retirement and reported on March 1st. FA did not begin until March 6th


He hasn’t announced anything yet and could very well play in 2017, but reports indicate that Cowboys’ RT Doug Free is at least thinking about hanging up his cleats and calling it a career.

https://www.fanragsports.com/news/report-cowboys-rt-doug-free-thinking-retirement/

 

[WoodysGirl]

If the Cowboys had more cap space, the narrative would have changed.

I don't think so, but we'll never know.

 

[Irvin88_4life]

Leary has been playing in the league for about 5 years with that knee condition, right? And it hasn't hindered him. That's a good career by any other measure, so him retiring at this point wouldn't be that big a deal and would be considered good value for the Cowboys.

That said, Leary's price was above what the Cowboys were gonna pay him. Didn't have a thing to do with his knee, IMO. Just makes good business to let him walk and throw darts at the position to see who sticks.

He has been injured though. That's how Collins took his spot a couple years ago. If he retired yes 5 years is decent but not if you just signed him to a huge contract. Either way the best decision was to let him go, I think we both agree on that

 

[Redball Express]

i dont think they would've kept leary. you can only invest so much money into the o-line and they obviously value martin over leary alot more.

With what we have..

the FO couldn't afford either of them.

 

[WoodysGirl]

He has been injured though. That's how Collins took his spot a couple years ago. If he retired yes 5 years is decent but not if you just signed him to a huge contract. Either way the best decision was to let him go, I think we both agree on that

I don't think he was as inured as it was made out to be, tho, and it wasn't for his knee. It was a back thing. And if IIRC, Leary either tweeted or retweeted something that alluded to him not being injured, at all, and that he could've played.

But yes, we agree on the decision.

 

[Idgit]

I don't think there's any situation where we'd have kept Leary short of him re-signing at a fairly significant discount. Not with Martin and, probably, Collins' deals on the horizon.

Collins is the one I think is interesting. Jerry's going to make sure he gets paid if he wants to stay here. He takes care of his guys, and you know they talked about what that second contract could look like. I'm curious to see if we plan to just sign him or let him test the market and try to match what he gets. I'd probably guess the latter, unless there's a way to get a deal done early and still pay him what he'd be happy with to get him more of the money he should have gotten on his rookie deal earlier.

And we *could* have kept Leary if we'd been inclined to. It would have been a bad financial decision, but we could have done it if we really cared to.

 

[robjay04]

The team values Collins more.

If Collins performs well I'm sure Jerry will be excited to pay him. It may have been a gentlemens agreement when he chose us.

 

[Nova]

They were not going to pay two OGs top 10 OG money contracts in the same year. I believe that they will pay Martin this year.

Precisely.

The Saints paid Jahri Evans instead of Carl Nicks.

Even when you have 2 great guards, you can't tie that much money up there.