What is the reason the Jones' don't spend in free agency?

[CTcowboy203]

Because they know better than the fans on here about how to run a team.
Especially since all teams operate under the same cap. Much to many fans disbelief that they are cheap. When they are not.

Ehh…they may not be cheap as they have a lot of money committed to the roster but if you look at roster building in 3 main components; draft, trade and free agency. They are good at drafting, middling in trades and don’t use free agency at all. That’s 2 out of the 3 functions of roster building they aren’t good at or lack aggression.

Losing role players and then signing other role players of the same talent level is a lateral move- that’s how they use free agency. Then in return they put more pressure on the draft (which is already a crap shoot) because now they need to hit to get impact players which means if you’re wrong, you are screwed royally.

I don’t blame the jones for everything and I do defend them quite often but their utilization of free agency is completely wrong. It’s ok to overpay occasionally or swim in the middle ground of the pool.

 

[Cowboysheelsreds053]

Have you seen their yacht?

Lol

 

[Shannon1]

The only way it might change is we stop going to the games ,watch on TV ,stop buying merchandise,countless emails to them ,phone calls etc ,I said might ,This includes me of not going and buying !

 

[TheCritic]

I think the Joneses are heavily influenced by Vince McMahon. Build a love-hate relationship with Cowboys fans and *****slap them until they fork over their lunch money. The Joneses know that the fans are real suckers and they will always take the abuse.

 

[wecasa]

There has to be some pin head pencil pushing numbers geek that can look at contracts as related to salary cap and come up with an better way than what Johnny walker blue and bravo Eugenia can come up with.

 

[DrlabonAggiesCowboys]

Is it ego that they want their own homegrown players through the draft?

OR

Do they not know how to manage the salary cap?

OR

Both or some other reason?

They think the best way to continually field a competitive team (in the salary cap era) is to have a few elite players that you pay a lot for like Prescott, Lamb, Parsons and then you use draft picks to backfill positions and players that you would overpay for in FA or have to overpay to resign yourself. They use cheaper FA's for specialized roles or insurance on the draft picks or for general depth. I think they also count on some draft picks giving a discount for resigning, especially before they hit the open market.

The results are mixed, like it or not, the team has been competitive over the years, ranking either 1st or 2nd in the division and getting to the playoffs. The issue is that the top players like Prescott don't seem to perform as well in the bigger playoff games, which have led to some disappointments. Also, Jones overpays on what he considers top players (Elliot's 2nd contract being an example) which squeezes the cap numbers and what you can spend on FA's.

In order to fix, you have to evaluate players properly and be willing to walk away from players that are demanding too much. If Prescott is worth 200M then you can justify paying him that, if not, giving him a 200M contract is going to lead to disappointment because he won't perform well enough to overcome your lack of investment elsewhere. Not to just pick on Prescott, he did the same thing with Tony Romo, whom Parcells said himself had upside but also was likely too small and going to be prone to injury.

GM Jerry has to be willing to let go of good but not great players that he feels he can market the franchise with.

 

[Captain-Crash]

and he played college football too. lmao..and high school football with a leather helmet

 

[fifaguy]

… because, “We like our guys”

 

[Jayinem]

Obviously if someone else was the GM they'd be fired a long time ago, unfortunately ours is also Jerry.

I can't think of two worse things than two of the things Jerry and Stephen do. They don't spend on free agency and they won't even pick up a phone to make a trade! You have to contact them! Who do they think they are like they're royalty who can't reach out to peasants?

I swear it's like Michael Scott from The Office running a professional football team.

 

[raven55]

got to take care of his baby mama's that's why

 

[VaqueroTD]

Is it ego that they want their own homegrown players through the draft?

OR

Do they not know how to manage the salary cap?

OR

Both or some other reason?

Ego.

I bring up that one time Stephen Jones was asked why don't they try and work Free Agency and Trades like the Rams, and he went on and on about how "look at them now." Yeah, look at them now, Super Bowl champs, brief pause, and now back in Playoffs, enough that most fans here were scared to play them again.

These guys still think they're the 1990s Dynasty and everyone wants to come to Dallas. Low-balling existing players and FAs. Offering low contracts because you'll make more money as a Cowboys. I think they've lost sight of how easy it is to watch games in the multimedia age. Just because the team is worth the most doesn't mean they'll get the most. Eagles almost had the same amount of high-rated games last year.

And ultimately, as others have written, lack of accountability. We're trapped. Every other team can go back to the drawing board on team culture, staff, etc, but we will always have the same team -- and all their strengths and weaknesses.

This is why I say let Charlotte take over the team. I guarantee she'll just hire the right people and experts for the job. No faking it or trying to keep it in the family. She's a smart one, she'll handle it as sharply as Jeanie Buss did for the Lakers.

 

[exciter]

Is it ego that they want their own homegrown players through the draft?

OR

Do they not know how to manage the salary cap?

OR

Both or some other reason?

Because outside FAs invariably fail and at an overinflated rate!

 

[fivetwos]

Because they know better than the fans on here about how to run a team.
Especially since all teams operate under the same cap. Much to many fans disbelief that they are cheap. When they are not.

Does that include all the fans around here that have been screaming to fix the middle of the defense since I can remember or no?

 

[jazzcat22]

Does that include all the fans around here that have been screaming to fix the middle of the defense since I can remember or no?

That has nothing to do with my post.
My post is about making money as a franchise. Compared to what is spent on players when all teams operate with that same cap.
Not about how they spend it. That is a complete different issue, as we know they screwed that up.

Very funny how many seem to think from their posts, that every dollar the team makes should be spent on players.
Or most likely an excuse to vent I guess. Lame excuse though.

 

[Jayinem]

Teams must spend at least 89% of the cap over a 4 year period (average) if they fail to do so they have to give the difference to the players on the rosters for those 4 years. So there's no such thing as being cheap really. It's all about where they're spending the money.

 

[fivetwos]

That has nothing to do with my post.
My post is about making money as a franchise. Compared to what is spent on players when all teams operate with that same cap.
Not about how they spend it. That is a complete different issue, as we know they screwed that up.

Very funny how many seem to think from their posts, that every dollar the team makes should be spent on players.
Or most likely an excuse to vent I guess. Lame excuse though.

If you meant it that way I understood it wrongly. My fault.

 

[DandyDon52]

Is it ego that they want their own homegrown players through the draft?

OR

Do they not know how to manage the salary cap?

OR

Both or some other reason?

I think in the past they realized they suck at it?
They always got the wrong players that turned out to be either horrible or ok but not worth the $ they paid.
They are horrible FA shoppers.

I remember they got a wr from detroit and gave up top draft picks and paid him alot, and he was too old and totally worthless.
When you shop like that lol it is better to not shop.

 

[DandyDon52]

Teams must spend at least 89% of the cap over a 4 year period (average) if they fail to do so they have to give the difference to the players on the rosters for those 4 years. So there's no such thing as being cheap really. It's all about where they're spending the money.

yes and the cowboys will spend all the big money on their personal favorites, and overpay them to boot. They low ball all the others.

 

[Creeper]

That's a good question. And I wish they would explain it to the fans. The best reasoning I have heard is that they believe free agents are overpriced because multiple teams bid on them. This makes no sense to me because they are happy to overpay their own players, even if it means having to cut them because they never perform up to their compensation, like Zeke and Gallup.

I don't believe it was because of Brandon Carr. Yeah, they paid a lot of money for him but he was terrible. Besides, even if he was a bust the logic would be stupid. If your draft a bust in the first round, do you trade away all you first round picks because 1 failed to meet expectations? They have been drafting all kinds of projects and failures in the 2nd round and they haven't changed their strategy there.

I think they really believe this nonsense about winning through the draft. But we now see the entire 2018 draft class is off the team, which is exactly why that strategy does not work. You cannot draft good enough, or retain players long enough to build a championship roster. You need to use Free agency to fill in your misses in the draft. The Cowboys think otherwise. It drives me crazy.

 

[cheftjpeck]

Brandon Carr- overpaid - didn’t play to the hype
Being burned by other free agents that they low balled

Trade game simply put was Joey Galloway and Roy Williams failures - gave up the farm - failed to live up to the hype

Then if you look around the league there are plenty of examples of teams not hitting the mark with overpaid free agents

Plenty of off season super bowl
Champs who barely made it to playoffs

It’s a crap shoot
Yes I would love an occasional cannonball move into the deepend of the free agent pool - however
If you look at the stats - more misses than
Hits