Free Agency
At least not in March. Which is really unfortunate as we desperately need help via free agency on the defensive line. The one positive note is that if Brian Waters returns next year, we'll probably be signing him late into the offseason.
Off Season Moves
The first major moves involve restructuring Romo, Witten, and Lee. Followed by potential cuts to Bernadeau, Parnell, Costa, Durant, Irvin, Hayden, Brown, Moore, Johnson, Nevis, Clutts, Wilson, Webb, Lemon, Olson, and Heath.
Salary Cap Management
That would put us at about 8.1 million under the cap (assuming the cap is what is being currently projected), except that we're going to have to do something about Jones and Bailey. Giving Bailey a 2nd round tender would bring us down to 5.5 million. I think more likely they'll want to sign him longer term and get that 2014 cap hit lower.
Regardless that 5.5 million doesn't give us much freedom in free agency. I'd still like to see us sign one if not two defensive linemen with that, and backload their salaries.
If we are unable to sign any free agent linemen that will tell me that this defense probably won't be much better next year. Unless we can really hit it big in the draft, and something falls into our laps in free agency after June 1st cuts.
June 1st
We're allowed to designate two june 1st cuts. I'm guessing those will be Ware and Austin, at least to suck up some of the free agency dollars out there. That will give us another 18.3 million dollars in June, and will really let us work around things like extending Smith and Bryant, and perhaps even work some trades or at the very least go after that 2nd free agency market pretty aggressively. It'll certainly allow us to resign Waters if he doesn't retire.
Being able to resign Waters will be a huge factor in this team's success next year, I hope he can commit to return before the draft. Either way we still need to draft a guard. Worst case, they replace Waters, best case they compete with/replace Leary.
I don't see how we can manage to replace Free this year, but next year will be his last year in Dallas unless he becomes a beast in 2014.
Problems/Solutions
Biggest issue on offense will be the running back position. I don't envision we can invest in Murray, but fixing this defense takes priority of replacing him as a starter. Running back is going to be a pretty big issue for us next year, it'll be interesting to see how we address the problem. Hail mary idea, but with the money we save by cutting Ware/Austin, we'd probably be able to put money into a trade for AP. And before naysayers suggest that is a Madden move, his contract would be fairly affordable for his production. 4 years 55 million. Equivalent of signing a player like AP to a 4 year deal with a 44 million dollar contract with a 10.845 million dollar signing bonus. He would cost 3.566 million in year one. In this case I would try to package Murray and 2015 1st or 2nd round draft pick. Worst case scenario we would get 2 years out of him on the somewhat cheap, by restructuring his 2nd year, and releasing him his 3rd year (where the dead money from other players would be less of a factor). To me the real question would come down to compensation to Minnesota.
On defense we're going to need 4 new starters on the defensive line (3 if you count selvie or not, 2 if you count Ben Bass). This means at minimum you'd want 1 free agent and 1 high round draft pick, but likely two high round draft picks on the defensive line. A lot of people will see what a new world opens up without DeMarcus Ware and Miles Austin.
Development
I think if we can keep the improvements coming to the offensive line, have Williams/Beasley continue to develop, have Escobar continue to develop, and then we address the running back position and the defensive line, you'll see this team turn the corner pretty quickly. All of which I think is not only possible but easy to do.
And you still have players that you would bring back and see if they can finally contribute like Wilcox and Johnson.
Conclusion
The two single players holding this franchise back the most are Miles Austin and DeMarcus Ware. We currently have 147 million of which Austin and Ware represent 24.2 million or 16%. They are 1/6th of our entire salary, and we're getting little to no production from them. You think back to this year and add Spencer and Ratliff to them... and it's actually surprising that we made it to 7-6. It's really a credit to how well Romo has been playing.
I don't think the future is necessarily dim for us, but it really depends on whether or not the front office makes some in my opinion quite obvious moves, the two biggest being parting ways with Austin and Ware. If Ware is given another year here, expect another poor defense.
I'm at the point where I think this season is basically over, and if Garrett and Kiffin are definitely going to be here next year, it's probably best to start playing younger players who are going to be vital next year.
Amendment:
If they really plan on keeping Carr (which I think is a mistake), you can restructure him and save an additional 5 million against the cap next year. Which would certainly help us make some moves earlier in free agency. And if we can use that money to get a better defensive line, that would probably make Carr more valuable.
