What is the deal with the lack of FA signings?

[xwalker]

If free agency doesn't start 'til March 10th, how is it that Richie Incognito signed with the Buffalo Bills yesterday?
If I'm not mistaken, he was cut by Miami last year and was a free agent before his signing. Just seems odd.

Players that were not on a team team at the end of the season can sign at anytime.

 

[mahoneybill]

Free agency doesn't officially begin until March 10th.

Also heard that during the owners meeting, the agents have their own gathering, and this is where more info on who is interested in whom, and what the prices would be are discussed.

For Jerry in particular he would know what direction Murray talks would take.

Source: Pat Kirwin on Sirius radio show.

 

[cej757]

Doug Free
Dez Bryant
Jeremy Parnell
DeMarco Murray
Bruce Carter
Justin Durant
Anthony Spencer
George Selvie
Nick Hayden
Rolando McClain
Dwayne Harris
Tyler Clutts
Chris Jones
Sterling Moore
Cole Beasley
Darrion Weems
CJ Spillman
Lance Dunbar
Ron Leary
Cameron Lawrence
Tony Hills
James Anderson
David Little

Dan Snyder is looking over this list as we speak and he can't wait to dive into it. Bruce Carter is as good as gone. Snyder will pay him on the 1st day of Free agency and he might try to get Free, Parnell or Leary too with Calahan taking over the o-line.

 

[xwalker]

Doug Free
Dez Bryant
Jeremy Parnell
DeMarco Murray
Bruce Carter
Justin Durant
Anthony Spencer
George Selvie
Nick Hayden
Rolando McClain
Dwayne Harris
Tyler Clutts
Chris Jones
Sterling Moore
Cole Beasley
Darrion Weems
CJ Spillman
Lance Dunbar
Ron Leary
Cameron Lawrence
Tony Hills
James Anderson
David Little

Dan Snyder is looking over this list as we speak and he can't wait to dive into it. Bruce Carter is as good as gone. Snyder will pay him on the 1st day of Free agency and he might try to get Free, Parnell or Leary too with Calahan taking over the o-line.

Parnell is probably Washington's top target. Callahan loves him. If the Cowboys let him leave, Washington will probably give him a ridiculous contract.

 

[Nightman]

Taking that next step starts with the Dez Bryant contract.

I told people early that this was going to be a difficult contract, and it has turned out to be just that.

The Cowboys don't want to franchize Dez Bryant, that will really hurt our season. You can't do anything in accounting for 2015 on Dez's contract if he plays on the franchise tag.

That is the worst case scenario for us. I'd almost rather trade Dez Bryant than have him play on the franchise tag this year.

The reality is that Dez's contract and a million here or a million there isn't going to make or break our season, which should tell us how far apart they are, which is pretty scary given how close we are to being a good team.

We have a very winnable schedule next year. We play the NFC South and the AFC East... We have a revenge game against green bay, and we will play both teams that were in the super bowl, and we'll have an opportunity to show that we're the best team in the league.

We need to be as aggressive as we can in this offseason, and if we get started shelling out money for dez and demarco.... well... the money has to come from somewhere...

I agree with tagging Dez. If it comes to that point then he won't be any easier to sign next year. In fact he will probably want to get franchised again because it would be for over 15m. Players whine about the tag, but it pays better than most signing bonuses over the first 2 years and the player is still a FA able to cash in again.

There are other options if Dez won't play ball. DThomas, Maclin. RCobb and others are FAs. Plus the draft is deep again at WR.

 

[xwalker]

Taking that next step starts with the Dez Bryant contract.

I told people early that this was going to be a difficult contract, and it has turned out to be just that.

The Cowboys don't want to franchize Dez Bryant, that will really hurt our season. You can't do anything in accounting for 2015 on Dez's contract if he plays on the franchise tag.

That is the worst case scenario for us. I'd almost rather trade Dez Bryant than have him play on the franchise tag this year.

The reality is that Dez's contract and a million here or a million there isn't going to make or break our season, which should tell us how far apart they are, which is pretty scary given how close we are to being a good team.

We have a very winnable schedule next year. We play the NFC South and the AFC East... We have a revenge game against green bay, and we will play both teams that were in the super bowl, and we'll have an opportunity to show that we're the best team in the league.

We need to be as aggressive as we can in this offseason, and if we get started shelling out money for dez and demarco.... well... the money has to come from somewhere...

I agree with tagging Dez. If it comes to that point then he won't be any easier to sign next year. In fact he will probably want to get franchised again because it would be for over 15m. Players whine about the tag, but it pays better than most signing bonuses over the first 2 years and the player is still a FA able to cash in again.

There are other options if Dez won't play ball. DThomas, Maclin. RCobb and others are FAs. Plus the draft is deep again at WR.

Giving Dez the franchise tag will have minimal impact on 2015. The Cowboys can generate about 50M in cap space before signing or re-signing anybody. They are not going to use all of that space. There are likely a couple of contracts that they will restructure if Dez get the tag that they wouldn't restructure if he signs a contract, but the overall effect on what who else they sign will not change.

bkight12 is correct in that the advantage to signing him is that tagging him for 2 years would likely be more expensive than signing him to a long term contract.

 

[Nightman]

Giving Dez the franchise tag will have minimal impact on 2015. The Cowboys can generate about 50M in cap space before signing or re-signing anybody. They are not going to use all of that space. There are likely a couple of contracts that they will restructure if Dez get the tag that they wouldn't restructure if he signs a contract, but the overall effect on what who else they sign will not change.

bkight12 is correct in that the advantage to signing him is that tagging him for 2 years would likely be more expensive than signing him to a long term contract.

I'm not worried about 2015. If he doesn't get a long term deal that can be pro-rated over many years, it hurts the club and shows me he cares more about the money than winning with Dallas. They have to take the full 12.75m cap hit with the Franchise tag and would lose a year of pro-rating any signing bonus. If they had to do it again in 2016 that would be a disaster.

That wold be over 27m for 2 years and he would still be a free agent. He has to decide between every last dollar and staying and winning with Dallas.

 

[xwalker]

I'm not worried about 2015. If he doesn't get a long term deal that can be pro-rated over many years, it hurts the club and shows me he cares more about the money than winning with Dallas. They have to take the full 12.75m cap hit with the Franchise tag and would lose a year of pro-rating any signing bonus. If they had to do it again in 2016 that would be a disaster.

That wold be over 27m for 2 years and he would still be a free agent. He has to decide between every last dollar and staying and winning with Dallas.

I said in last year's draft that I would go BPA to the point that if Mike Evans or Odell Beckum Jr. were available that I would take them. The Cowboys could then use the money that would go to Dez and sign defensive players. If he gets franchised I'm not against doing that this year either. If Dorial Green-Beckham is available at #27 I would have to consider drafting him depending on what the Cowboys find in regards to his personality.

How much do you think Dez should be paid per year on a long term contract?

 

[joseephuss]

Have to say, a lot of people here have been complete jerks for no reason.

The OP was asking why we haven't resigned any of our own players yet, something we don't need to wait until free agency to do, and something we probably don't want to do if we want to keep players without having the market drive up their cost.

@Bullflop Richie Incognito didn't have a contract last year. Free agency starts in March, because that is when contracts expire for the previous year. You can resign your own players and you can sign players who aren't under contract any time you want.

Being a "complete jerk" and "having a little fun" are not the same thing.

 

[AsthmaField]

No news out of camp either... WTH?

 

[Manwiththeplan]

I told people early that this was going to be a difficult contract, and it has turned out to be just that.

I'd hardly say it's been difficult, talk to me on March 2nd at 4:00pm

 

[Nightman]

I said in last year's draft that I would go BPA to the point that if Mike Evans or Odell Beckum Jr. were available that I would take them. The Cowboys could then use the money that would go to Dez and sign defensive players. If he gets franchised I'm not against doing that this year either. If Dorial Green-Beckham is available at #27 I would have to consider drafting him depending on what the Cowboys find in regards to his personality.

How much do you think Dez should be paid per year on a long term contract?

I could go 12-13m. That is still top 3 but CJohnson was more a product of his rookie contract. Most big WR contracts don't turn out that well for the team, yet everyone has no problem dishing out 100m contracts. But they won't pay 25m to Murray.

It's kind of like the Gurley situation though. They have to decide by March 2nd whether to tag Dez and if they do that pretty much throws DGB out the window. And if they tag Dez, they can't tag Murray. If they can't tag Murray then they have to draft someone, but there is no way to know if Gurley will be there at 27. If he is healthy he goes early, if not, then he is a terrible fit for 2015.

 

[xwalker]

I could go 12-13m. That is still top 3 but CJohnson was more a product of his rookie contract. Most big WR contracts don't turn out that well for the team, yet everyone has no problem dishing out 100m contracts. But they won't pay 25m to Murray.

It's kind of like the Gurley situation though. They have to decide by March 2nd whether to tag Dez and if they do that pretty much throws DGB out the window. And if they tag Dez, they can't tag Murray. If they can't tag Murray then they have to draft someone, but there is no way to know if Gurley will be there at 27. If he is healthy he goes early, if not, then he is a terrible fit for 2015.

Then maybe 27M for 2 years of the tag is not that bad. It would be 26M for 2 years of a 13M per year contract.

 

[Nightman]

Then maybe 27M for 2 years of the tag is not that bad. It would be 26M for 2 years of a 13M per year contract.

But you only have him for 2 years.
With a long term deal, that 26m might only be 15-18m on the salary cap and his signing bonus would be 40% accounted for. You would still have him under contract for at least 3-5 more years, with little guaranteed money remaining.

Dallas lost a lot flexibility tagging Spencer back to back for 20m and only got him cheap for year 3 because he got hurt and missed all of year 2. Dallas still paid 22m for 2 years of actual production.

 

[MRV52]

You guys are something else in here. We have Randle news to keep us entertained in the meantime.

 

[xwalker]

But you only have him for 2 years.
With a long term deal, that 26m might only be 15-18m on the salary cap and his signing bonus would be 40% accounted for. You would still have him under contract for at least 3-5 more years, with little guaranteed money remaining.

Dallas lost a lot flexibility tagging Spencer back to back for 20m and only got him cheap for year 3 because he got hurt and missed all of year 2. Dallas still paid 22m for 2 years of actual production.

Yes, but Spencer was a bad Franchise Tag candidate because his average salary should have been about 7M on a long term contract. The Seahawks signed Avril that year and paid him 6M for 2013 and paid Bennett 4.8M.

If the average salary is going to be the same or more than the tag, then the tag is not a bad option if the team has room to maneuver under the cap. The Cowboys are not tight up against the cap and can fairly easily absorb Dez on the franchise tag.

There is nothing to prevent them from signing him to a long term contract after he plays a year or two on the tag.

Megatron got between 48M and 60M guaranteed depending on which reports you read. The franchise tag dramatically lowers the risk as compared to giving him 40M+ guaranteed.

The tag would also give the team the opportunity to see how he handled getting a significant pay day. The insider types around the team say that the team still has some concerns about how Dez will handle himself after he gets a big pay day.

 

[Nightman]

Yes, but Spencer was a bad Franchise Tag candidate because his average salary should have been about 7M on a long term contract. The Seahawks signed Avril that year and paid him 6M for 2013 and paid Bennett 4.8M.

If the average salary is going to be the same or more than the tag, then the tag is not a bad option if the team has room to maneuver under the cap. The Cowboys are not tight up against the cap and can fairly easily absorb Dez on the franchise tag.

There is nothing to prevent them from signing him to a long term contract after he plays a year or two on the tag.

Megatron got between 48M and 60M guaranteed depending on which reports you read. The franchise tag dramatically lowers the risk as compared to giving him 40M+ guaranteed.

The tag would also give the team the opportunity to see how he handled getting a significant pay day. The insider types around the team say that the team still has some concerns about how Dez will handle himself after he gets a big pay day.

It's definitely not as severe with Dez because the money is really close either way. I guess you worry if he is gonna make "business decisions" like Desean Jackson and not go all out. But if that is the case then you probably don't want him long term anyways.

I would rather see around 30-35m guaranteed on a 7/88m deal.

 

[KJJ]

No recent news on ANY cowboy FA signings. I understand that Bryant and Murray are priority but jeez lol

Throw us a bone JJ! A small signing!

 

[xwalker]

It's definitely not as severe with Dez because the money is really close either way. I guess you worry if he is gonna make "business decisions" like Desean Jackson and not go all out. But if that is the case then you probably don't want him long term anyways.

I would rather see around 30-35m guaranteed on a 7/88m deal.

I don't think there are any concerns about his on field actions. It's the fact that he has odd issues in his personal life including having a large number of people living at his house. Now the media has often exaggerated some of those issues like the baby locked in the car incident, but it does appear that he has an odd cast of characters around him. He also lives South of Dallas which is odd considering where they practice.

I think he will be fine, but if you can pay him 13M per year on the tag vs 13M per year AND 40M guaranteed, then it's a much lower risk to use the tag.

Using the tag on someone like Murray would be a completely different situation. The tag is more than double what they want to pay Murray per year.

 

[HeavyBarrel]

Not to dogpile (ok a little) but geez OP.....