Top 7 (in salary) Cowboys represent 64% of the cap

[perrykemp]

Anybody see this in Peter King's MMQB this morning?

Top 7 (salary wise) are taking up $80m of the cap this season -- 64% which is 2nd highest in the league.

 

[Eddie]

At least we're not the Bengals ...

 

[perrykemp]

At least we're not the Bengals ...

Remember when that had bite?

 

[Eddie]

Remember when that had bite?

I always found it hilarious. I guess it made us feel better that we weren't the bottom of the barrel ... when in fact, we were.

It's like comparing ourselves to the kid in the wheelchair. Hey, at least I can run faster than him.

 

[Zordon]

this is why the next few years are looking very dark.

 

[Eddie]

this is why the next few years are looking very dark.

Next few years?

Decades ????

 

[Idgit]

This would be more depressing if we could see who those 7 players were. We're probably getting less value from our top 7 players than most other teams in the league this season.

 

[SilverStarCowboy]

I hate Jerry Jones.

 

[JoeyBoy718]

Who are the 7? I'll take a guess. Tell me if I'm wrong. Austin, Romo, Ware, Witten, Carr, Spencer and Lee?

 

[perrykemp]

Who are the 7? I'll take a guess. Tell me if I'm wrong. Austin, Romo, Ware, Witten, Carr, Spencer and Lee?

Sounds about right:

Romo: Worth it (IMHO)
Austin: He has been committing grand larceny
Ware: Not worth it anymore -- overpaid
Witten: Worth it
Carr: Disturbingly low production for his $10m/year average deal
Spencer: $5.3m per tackle this season ($10.6m contract)
Lee: Probably good value, however, there are those who say that if you can't count on player they are worse than nothing.

 

[Eddie]

Yeah, but according to Jerry, we can just restructure a few contracts, and voila, we're good to go. It's worked for the past 20 years.

We'll be unable to cut Tony Romo until it's 2025.

 

[Dwight]

This mess is all because of one man. Until he steps down as a General Manager, this team will continue to have cap issues. I'm still laughing at Jerry for putting the franchise tag on Spencer and resigning Ratliff a couple of years ago. Sad.

 

[JoeyBoy718]

This mess is all because of one man. Until he steps down as a General Manager, this team will continue to have cap issues. I'm still laughing at Jerry for putting the franchise tag on Spencer and resigning Ratliff. Sad.

I agree. We need a new philosophy. This team has no idea what it's doing.

 

[SacramentoKing]

Sounds about right:

Romo: Worth it (IMHO)
Austin: He has been committing grand larceny
Ware: Not worth it anymore -- overpaid
Witten: Worth it
Carr: Disturbingly low production for his $10m/year average deal
Spencer: $5.3m per tackle this season ($10.6m contract)
Lee: Probably good value, however, there are those who say that if you can't count on player they are worse than nothing.

I think Lee's contract is based on snaps played right? Probably won't reach the required snaps.

 

[xwalker]

Sounds about right:

Romo: Worth it (IMHO)
Austin: He has been committing grand larceny
Ware: Not worth it anymore -- overpaid
Witten: Worth it
Carr: Disturbingly low production for his $10m/year average deal
Spencer: $5.3m per tackle this season ($10.6m contract)
Lee: Probably good value, however, there are those who say that if you can't count on player they are worse than nothing.

Ratliff's numbers could be in there also depending on how they calculated it.

This issue can drastically improve next season.

They free up 7.5M in 2014 by cutting Ware or 12.25M if they wait until June 1st.
They free up 5.5M by making Austin a June 1st cut.
Spencer is a free agent.
Hatcher is a free agent.

That just leaves:
Romo: Must try to win with him. He can't be cut even if they had a replacement.
Carr: Probably trying to do to much to compensate for lack of surrounding talent. Lack of pass rush is killing the CBs.
Witten: Reasonable 5M base salary for 2014. He plays almost 100% of the offensive snaps.
Lee: Great when healthy, but...

 

[Common Sense]

I wonder if this team will ever decide to just take the loss with Carr?

 

[xwalker]

If you looked at this issue when Garrett first became the Head Coach in 2010, it was much worse.

They have slowly been eliminating many of the highly paid older players. The biggest screw up during Garrett's tenure was the new contract for Ratliff. Franchising Spencer didn't turn out well either, but at least they didn't sign him to a big contract.

 

[perrykemp]

I wonder if this team will ever decide to just take the loss with Carr?

They've pushed so much of Carr's cap hit into future years I wonder if it that is even possible. There-in seems to be the problem with building in future restructures into deals... if a high priced player just totally goes off the cliff in terms of performance there is almost nothing that can be done at that point -- they have to live with that player's performance no matter how terribly they are playing.

Exact same reason why they no only restructured Ratliff's deal the offseason but decided they had no choice other than to start a malcontent who was (A) unhealthy and (B) no longer having an impact.

 

[Common Sense]

They've pushed so much of Carr's cap hit into future years I wonder if it that is even possible. There-in seem to be the problem with building in future restructures into deals... if a high priced player just totally goes off the cliff in terms of performance there is almost nothing that can be done at that point -- they have to live with that player's performance no matter how they are playing.

Exact same reason why they no only restructured Ratliff's deal the offseason but decided they had no choice other than to start a malcontent who was (A) unhealthy and (B) no longer having an impact.

They could save about $7.5 million next year by making him a June 1st cut, but he would cost about $12.1 in dead money in 2015. That might be the cleanest break the team could make. If you keep him in 2014, his contract will have to be restructured AGAIN to get under the cap, and in that case, he would cost even more dead money in 2015-16 than if he were cut this year.

 

[xwalker]

They could save about $7.5 million next year by making him a June 1st cut, but he would cost about $12.1 in dead money in 2015. That might be the cleanest break the team could make. If you keep him in 2014, his contract will have to be restructured AGAIN to get under the cap, and in that case, he would cost even more dead money in 2015-16 than if he were cut this year.

I'm not convinced that Carr is a problem. He should be playing press man coverage, but they're trying to compensate for the surrounding issues and have him playing either zone or off-man coverage. Add in the fact that there is no pass rush and it's really difficult to evaluate Carr at this time.

He is only 27 and was good last year and has had some good games this year.