Why does Dallas not have a lot of cap space?

[xwalker]

If I can recall, Dez was of of whining at the prospect of a franchise tag like he was at the sideline of the Seahawks game when Dallas were doing a good push with Eliiots running and Dez didn't get the attention he thought he deserved. I think it was a error to cave into him with such a big contact. Did Dez's contract hurt the team a lot in cap space ?

They don't have cap space problems per se. That has been explained here many times.

Dez hurt the team from the concept they could have signed a much better player for the money.

Two players whose contract expired in 2015:

Dez
2015 didn't do much stats wise.
2016
50 catches
796 yards
8 TDs
14M average salary

Terrell Pryor
2015 didn't do much stats wise.
2016
77 catches
1007 yards
4 TDs
1.67M salary

The Cowboys could have then signed free agent Marvin Jones in 2016 (8M average contract). They could have kept Pryor or let him move on. Either way both players together cost less than Dez.

2017 comparision
Dez (14M average)
69
838
6

Jones (8M average)
61
1101
9

 

[AbeBeta]

Stephen Jones said pushing money into later years catches up with you.

He's clearly referring to not doing that with older guys. If you look at Witten's deal and Lee's deal, we are leaving them alone as you don't want to shove money down the road for a guy who may not play much longer.

As guys get older, we do "clean" deals with them. If Witten retires, we've got zero deal money. If Lee retires, we have 3 mill dead but save 7 mill, so that's four mill extra cap space. Heck you even see it with Crawford, who we'd save four mill in space by cutting.

All about choosing whose money you push forward.

Also, if Stephen actually said that, it would stand in stark opposition to our clear strategy to write deals that are meant to be restructured. For example, Fred is guaranteed 10 mill this year. Why didn't we just give that money as a signing bonus? Because it allows us the flexibility to restructure the money that we already are on the hook for into later years that have no bonus charged against them yet. We write deals that are designed to be restructured, so he clearly isn't saying what you think he is saying.

 

[Nightman]

Can you say 9 million dead cap to Romo and another 3-4 mill to a few guys cut like Billy Bob Thornton, Nolan Carroll Burnett et al. Oh yes and $17.2 mill just ponied up to Tank. And a few unwieldy contracts like Dez's.

DAL saved 34m the last 2 years with Romo retiring........SAVED

He was due 53m and we paid 19m in Dead Money..... that is 34m in space gained..... we had 18.9m in Dead Money only because we saved 40m in cap space over Romo's career by restructuring

DAL saved 14m last year alone on Romo and rolled over 8m of that to 2018
Romo's Dead Money hit is 8.9m or .9m after the rollover

Restructuring is never the problem......signing chumps and stiffs like RW11, RW31, MBIII, ASpencer, Miles Austin(3rd contract), Doug Free, BCarr to big deals was the problem......Dez and TCrawford are borderline bad......a few million a year overpaid at best

 

[Kaiser]

Trading for EThomas is the one splash move they might make

Not a splash move but I think they sign a WR and a veteran Swing Tackle.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

Dez was never good enough to deserve a second contract. He should have been given the 5th year option and then traded if possible during
that season. Dez is slow, can't create separation and can't run proper routes. He another marginal player at best.

I was with you until that comment.

 

[xwalker]

Why? Because the FO paid Romo upfront and the backend of his deal on a credit card and his final salary must be accounted for on the cap.
When you defer and defer, the day of reckoning must come due and has!

That is actually false.

The bill never really comes due because there are always more contracts to restructure to offset dead-money.

People think in terms of managing real money, but there is ZERO interest on cap "loans".

The only issues would be if the NFL cap started getting smaller OR a team didn't have enough real money cash flow to be able to keep restructuring contracts.

There is a limit to it, but a team can have the annual average of all player's pay be over the cap every year in the current NFL setup.

In years past I posted many spreadsheets that explained the concept.

Some people that said I was crazy eventually agreed with me.

If you get a zero interest 1 year loan from the bank and they give you a new loan every year for the same amount to pay off the previous year's loan, you would never have to pay back the loan.

 

[aikemirv]

When you are not getting full production from 33 million of your cap space, that is part of the problem. Tyron was injured and Dez had a bad year(QB issues or not). Dak's small number makes up for Romo's dead money. Lets face it, Tyron injury easily costs us 2 games. Add in Sean Lee's injury issues and you have another 10-11 million of low production cap money that could have also cost you a couple games. 11-12 wins and nobody is crying for FA's

It is really not cap issues but player issues IMO.

 

[LatinMind]

Millions in dead money for Romo and others. Bad contracts, overpaying marginal players and sticking with players
past the age of 30. Now you have older players like Dez, Witten, and Scandrick sucking money off the cap for
less than optimum play. Until the FO manages the team more like NE, the Cowboys will continue to struggle.

OL 4 starters 45.7mil

Bad contracts
Dez 16.5 mil
Crawford 9.1mil

Dead money 14mil

85.3mil in 6players and Romo

 

[northerncowboynation]

DAL saved 34m the last 2 years with Romo retiring........SAVED

He was due 53m and we paid 19m in Dead Money..... that is 34m in space gained..... we had 18.9m in Dead Money only because we saved 40m in cap space over Romo's career by restructuring

DAL saved 14m last year alone on Romo and rolled over 8m of that to 2018
Romo's Dead Money hit is 8.9m or .9m after the rollover

Restructuring is never the problem......signing chumps and stiffs like RW11, RW31, MBIII, ASpencer, Miles Austin(3rd contract), Doug Free, BCarr to big deals was the problem......Dez and TCrawford are borderline bad......a few million a year overpaid at best

Ok so Romo's 9 million dead cap hit doesn't come off of this years cap? Honestly didn't know that. Said another way, if his dead cap hit of $9 million doesn't come off the 2018 cap, great!! That's another $9 mill we can spend on FA. Add a few mill (an no dead cap hit) if Witt listens to Fox's offer and we're all good

 

[yimyammer]

What are some of the reasons Dallas doesn't have a lot of cap space?

It feels that Dallas has had salary cap issues for many years and would have finally solved the issue by now. Most other teams seem to be well off.

there are no cap issues, you're just a bad "fan"

 

[Toruk_Makto]

Crawford is a stop gap backup player so why does he deserve a big, long term contract. You only give long term contracts to your top of the line
full time players.

Crawford is more than a JAG which is how you've described him here.

 

[sdfidaho]

Which is a good idea since the cap keeps rising. The current cap is 177 million. It rises around 10 mill a year. If we shove 50 mill into later years, we are gaining using a smaller proportion of the cap allocation. In 2018 50 mill is 28% of your cap. But in 2021, with a cap projected at 210, it is only 24% of the cap. It is like taking out a loan and having to pay negative interest.

People need to stop hearing "restructure" and thinking that is bad.

With declining viewership, I wouldn’t count on the cap to continue to grow like it has the last several years.

 

[xwalker]

Not sure if its a fair comparison. Eagles have more players already under contract the next three years than dallas does. 65 to 55 for 2018, 50 to 39 for 2019, and 22 to 13 for 2020. those numbers could easily shift depending on the moves we make.....which im not confident in at the moment

Yes, I've often pointed out that concept when people compare the current year's cap space of teams.

With the multiyear view, the cap space for the Cowboys shows they are not over-committed to contracts the way people claim when just looking at the 1 year view.

An exact comparison would look at top 50 right now, top 40 next season and top 10 in 2020. However, when for example you look at the top 40 contracts only, the other last 13 contracts on a roster are normally near the rookie minimum; therefore, the total for those bottom 13 will be very similar from team to team.

 

[xwalker]

Not sure if its a fair comparison. Eagles have more players already under contract the next three years than dallas does. 65 to 55 for 2018, 50 to 39 for 2019, and 22 to 13 for 2020. those numbers could easily shift depending on the moves we make.....which im not confident in at the moment

FYI - I do appreciate the intelligent reply.

 

[dagreat1_87]

Yes, I've often pointed out that concept when people compare the current year's cap space of teams.

With the multiyear view, the cap space for the Cowboys shows they are not over-committed to contracts the way people claim when just looking at the 1 year view.

An exact comparison would look at top 50 right now, top 40 next season and top 10 in 2020. However, when for example you look at the top 40 contracts only, the other last 13 contracts on a roster are normally near the rookie minimum; therefore, the total for those bottom 13 will be very similar from team to team.

Ah yes.Very good point with the top 40

 

[Nightman]

With declining viewership, I wouldn’t count on the cap to continue to grow like it has the last several years.

Most people don't know that the cap stayed at 123m from 2009 to 2013.....0 increase in 5 years

Most fans blamed DAL for bad cap management but it really was the Owners colluding to keep the cap artificially low plus the 10m cap penalty

even after all that DAL signed Romo to a 108m deal, TSmith to a 96m deal and SLee to a 42m deal and we went 12-4 in 2014

that was the extent of cap hell or in others words ........not a problem at all

 

[Nightman]

Ah yes.Very good point with the top 40

Exactly.....over 50% the team, around 27 players, account for only 10% of the cap or 18m

 

[cern]

Fantasy/fairy tale football aside, we had 17 million in cap space and spent it on Lawrence. Just like paid NFL cap experts said. Poor contracts are the major reason for our problems. Sure, we can create space and overpay a guy like dez, but it's just a glowing example of why we don't have cap room and why we're reluctant to do so. You have to be smart with your money in the NFL today..

 

[big dog cowboy]

So much misinformation in this thread it's hard to read.

Next 3 years combined cap space:

Cowboys: 210M

On the other hand there is some serious knowledge.

What are y'all going to complain about 1 year from today?

At the least, you are going to give Jerry and Stephen credit right?

 

[Risen Star]

So much misinformation in this thread it's hard to read.

On the other hand there is some serious knowledge.

What are y'all going to complain about 1 year from today?

At the least, you are going to give Jerry and Stephen credit right?

Why would we give the guys responsible for 22 years of failure credit for some imaginary cap space you think they'll have next year? Was that the pay out for all the losing?