You always have those fans that claim that cap is not a factor at all and it can be manipulated so easily that it does not keep from signing any players or handing out new contracts to players on the team. Stephen is making statements that if two players are close to being equal, the cheaper player will be kept for cap reasons. Dallas does not have the cap room to even attempt signing big money free agents, not that they ever pan out, but Dallas hasn’t been able to afford the medium priced free agents that could and would fill in the holes on the roster. These fans can minimize the effect that the cap has on the team, but when Stephen quickly rules out signing free agents that could help the team and gives the reason as being lack of salary cap room, I tend to believe him. Smart teams use free agency to sign these mid-tier free agents as a big part of successful team building. Dallas doesn’t have that option the last couple of years and it hurts. They have resorted to signing low-end free agents that often times can’t even make the team. All of them have minimum talent, are at the end of their careers or they are coming off of serious injuries. Investing in your own players is a good thing, but Dallas has handed out too many big contracts that players have not played up to and it has all but eliminated signing quality free agents to fill holes on the team.
Restructuring those contracts puts the team in a position where they are still paying big money to players that are towards the end of their careers and they are not worth the money at that point of their careers. Restructuring can be useful, but personally, I had rather see them stay ahead of the salary cap and pay as they go. I know the advantages of restructuring, but Dallas has too many big contracts to keep pushing them down the road. This is just my opinion of course and it is the way that I conduct my personal finances. I hope that Dallas moves on from Cooper and his contract. Gallup is a very good number two WR and Lamb is emerging as a very good number one. Cheaper WRs will be better options for slot WRs.
Even Romo could have been traded to the Texans who expressed interest at the time but Jerry publicly said that he would be released and that dashed all hopes of getting something in a trade. Maybe Cooper could draw interest from teams , but I am sure that Dallas will release him instead of listening to trade offers when the time comes.
Crawford is a great example. Zeke and Lawrence will be in the same situation. Neither have lived up to their contracts and the team never should put themselves in the position to still be paying them big money years down the road when that money should be used in young players in their prime.
I agree that going after the big free agents rarely pays off and the team ends up regretting it. KJ Wright is the type of free agent that I think would be a much better option. I am just using him as an example, but he would not have required a big money deal and he could have been a big upgrade for the defense. Drafting Parsons filled the hole in defense, but signing him could have give the team more options for that first round pick. I have noticed that most Super Bowl winners usually have a few of these mid-tier free agents that are big contributors and are a big part of putting the team in the Super Bowl.
That has never mattered less in the history of the NFL's salary cap than it does now.
