I recall Jerry delving into free agency in the past. It's a little scary. he's had a few successes, but his blunders were memorable.
Contrary to popular belief, Jerry doesn't spend less than other teams when it comes to the salary cap.
Since a team is allowed to rollover unused cap space, Jerry has been trying to stockpile cap space in anticipation of the large contracts he knew he would have to deal with.
The Cowboys have designated more than 22 million dollars as their rollover for 2025. However, they also have to contend with over 9 million dollars in dead money, most of it coming from the Michael Gallup contract.
I think that Jerry will make a few moves in next season's free agency period. There are a few deficiencies that can best be addressed through veteran free agency and he may have no choice.
For example, the RB squad will have to be completely revamped and I don't think this can be resolved by drafting two or three rookies.
he used to spend on one or two semi big FAs, again, I think to sell tickets.
he has had a team that teeters on the edge of playoffs each year and that's enough for him to sell hope and bring people back.
now, there is a salary cap floor, which every team has to adhere to, but we are one of the lowest in dead cap money, not necessarily because of large contracts, but because he likes to keep players to the end of their contracts since if he lets them go early it means he is paying for the same position twice. he has been doing that for a while now. we are also middle of the pack in cash spending this year, but that's because of CD and Dak contract, else we were 30th in cash spending. he tends to keep draft picks, despite their play until the end of contract as well as again, he doesn't like to pay a player for when he is not here. and it also gives him a lot of lower level picks that he uses to fill the roster.
and the roll over is just his strategy. its money he is not spending. rolling over to next year, just gives him more cap space to account for the large contracts and an easier way to manage the cap than signing FAs.
I have read several articles that with a few contract redo's we can have almost 70M in cap space, that includes the large CD and Dak contracts. that's significant cap space.
he spends enough to have a semi competitive team (ala past three years at 12-5 despite post season failures). that's enough to keep seats filled, jerseys flying off the racks and sell hope. he miscalculated this year because he is not a real GM and didn't see how bad this team would be....
this is the way its going to be unfortunatley....if we end up with a short run against crappy teams, it will be enough for Jerry to claim, we were bad because of injuries and we are close, so thus continue as is. perhaps he will make one mid level FA signing in the second wave of FA.
