You can't pay everyone

[DC Cowboy]

Salary cap is very important but so is the culture of your locker room and organaization.

Right now we have Murray, who is very humble and a hard worker/runner. He gives most of the credit to his O-line, which they appreciate and will continue to block for a guy like that. Alone with Dez is becoming the heart and soul of this team (throw in the O-line here as well). I would rather have Murray than AP, Murray is a Cowboy and AP isn't, it's as simple as that.

Dez, no one wears the Star on their sleeve like this guy. He bleeds blue and silver. Intregal part of the locker room and is becoming a good learder as well. I won't mention his skill set b/c we all know about that.

Ro McClain, is an absolute beast and is one of the D leaders. I think we must resign him if we can.

Bruce Carter, IMO, he is also a must sign. I think he has found a home at SLB and was playing well before the injury. Maybe a Sean Lee type contract that will proctect the team in case of injury.

Not sure if I would let Carr and Claiborne go at the same time. I would restructure Romo's contract as well. I might take a look at Witten's as well if Escobar continues to improve.

DRAFT well from this point going forward. No more reaches

 

[Doomsday101]

yeah I think you are right.

I think it is doable for the Cowboys. How you structure the contract and signing bonus can make it a lot more doable. My own view Dallas will get both Dez and Murray signed, no doubt in my mind right or wrong but Jerry sees this very similar to Irvin and Smith and will do what he can to get this done. Of course I think there is a bottom line Jerry is willing to go and If Murray is asking for close to AP money then there will be no deal

 

[DiResta]

fwiw, very few people are complaining about not having Hatcher. at his age, signing him to a new contract wouldn't be worth it. even fewer are complaining about Ratliff, because in the end, he didn't want to be here. but I have no problem saying that imo, it was a mistake to cut Ware.

I think we all love Ware, hes just a great player but at his age with his injuries the cost was to high for a young team thought to be at least couple years from contention. of course Ware is healthier now and as I knew with Von Miller opposite him, he may get the record this year but there was no way to see if he would recover from multiple injuries or was he in decline?

 

[DC Cowboy]

Murray will probably get a 4 year 26 mil deal. Jerry holds the Franchise tag card that would put our guy back into contract year training mode again which is good for the Cowboys. Our WR corps is young and loaded with decent talent to play in the passing game. This will make many of the zone cringe but the smart thing to do is trading Dez for younger players if we can find a taker, and signing the Learys and the Carters and the Ro's & Durant... and not stretching things out to future cap hell problems. Win now is not the only solution rather win every year should be the goal. The old guys (we don't have many) like Free will be gone and same goes with Carr who has contributed to this team but will be a casualty. Melton will have to be looked at as a new free agent, released and resigned

If you were going to do that then trade Witten and not Dez!

 

[Doomsday101]

Salary cap is very important but so is the culture of your locker room and organaization.

Right now we have Murray, who is very humble and a hard worker/runner. He gives most of the credit to his O-line, which they appreciate and will continue to block for a guy like that. Alone with Dez is becoming the heart and soul of this team (throw in the O-line here as well). I would rather have Murray than AP, Murray is a Cowboy and AP isn't, it's as simple as that.

Dez, no one wears the Star on their sleeve like this guy. He bleeds blue and silver. Intregal part of the locker room and is becoming a good learder as well. I won't mention his skill set b/c we all know about that.

Ro McClain, is an absolute beast and is one of the D leaders. I think we must resign him if we can.

Bruce Carter, IMO, he is also a must sign. I think he has found a home at SLB and was playing well before the injury. Maybe a Sean Lee type contract that will proctect the team in case of injury.

Not sure if I would let Carr and Claiborne go at the same time. I would restructure Romo's contract as well. I might take a look at Witten's as well if Escobar continues to improve.

DRAFT well from this point going forward. No more reaches

I agree but I think out of all of them Carter may be the one lost. I think Dallas drafting Hitchens and having Durant makes that more likely. We will see how it all plays out. I would love to keep Carter I just think he would be the less likely.

 

[tyke1doe]

You keep Dez. You let Murray walk. As much as I appreciate Murray, if we had Levon Bell, Jamal Charles or Alfred Morris, you don't think they could do the same thing behind this line?

Dez is special. You keep your special players.

 

[tyke1doe]

The only idea I can think of that's worse than signing Murray long-term is signing AP at all.

Unless the Cowboys need someone to administer discipline to da children.

 

[mattjames2010]

If we lose Murray, give me Spiller over Peterson.

 

[DC Cowboy]

I really dont want to break this up man

Its your time. You bout to eat.
same thing from the Saints game @ around the 3:00

THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[mattjames2010]

You keep Dez. You let Murray walk. As much as I appreciate Murray, if we had Levon Bell, Jamal Charles or Alfred Morris, you don't think they could do the same thing behind this line?

Dez is special. You keep your special players.

Then you don't appreciate him, you're downplaying his abilities by putting most of his success on the offensive line. There have been many RB's behind great lines in the past (This offensive line isn't the greatest offensive line of all time) and haven't produced like Murray has. Morris can't catch, Bell isn't as good of a runner, Jamaal Charles would certainly come close to what Murray is doing because he's a fantastic RB as well.

However, him being comparable to one player in the league shows that it won't be so easy to replace him.

If people aren't putting Murray down, they are putting Dez down it seems just to justify not paying them. If you can, you find ways to pay both and continue building this team through the draft.

 

[DC Cowboy]

I agree but I think out of all of them Carter may be the one lost. I think Dallas drafting Hitchens and having Durant makes that more likely. We will see how it all plays out. I would love to keep Carter I just think he would be the less likely.

I just think you have to keep the O-line in tact BUT you need core players on both side of the ball that you have to keep. I do see your point though.

 

[irishline]

If I'm going to pay someone between AP and Murray, I'd rather pay AP. Not just because I think AP is better than Murray, but because if we could get compensation for Murray while getting AP, I see that as doubly winning.

You only get compensation if you lose more free agents then you sign. So losing Murray and signing AP gets you nothing.

 

[Doomsday101]

I just think you have to keep the O-line in tact BUT you need core players on both side of the ball that you have to keep. I do see your point though.

I agree Tyron has been taken care of. Leery and Free are FA and Bernadeau is a FA 2016 Frederick is a FA in 2017 and Martin is a FA in 2018. I would hope we can get a deal with Leery I highly doubt Free will be back who knows.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

You only get compensation if you lose more free agents then you sign. So losing Murray and signing AP gets you nothing.

Unless Peterson is a free agent, then released players don't count

 

[DFWJC]

Keeping the O-Line in tact, or at least Smith-Frederick-Martin is the absolute top priority. I'd let Murray AND Dez walk if it meant keeping those three.

We already signed Smith and the other two have 3-4 years left...so that's not an issue.

We will not let both Dez and Murray walk.
Mark that down.

 

[theSHOW]

If you were going to do that then trade Witten and not Dez!

If Wittens numbers end up significantly lower this year I don't have a problem asking him for a renegotiated pay cut vs an outright cap causality cut but because we restricted him last year it is virtually imposable and we would have to wait one more year to bring the dead hit from over 5 mil to 1.8 mil

 

[DeaconMoss]

If we lose murray, I want a rookie. Odds are way against finding a RB via Free Agency and it working out.

 

[xwalker]

This is really starting to get to me, the same people who complain about us not having Ware, Hatcher, and Ratliff are the same people who think we don't need to ask players to take pay cuts, or cut expensive players who aren't performing to their compensation.

Reality is there is a salary cap, and we can't pay everyone.

On offense

We're slated to have the 4th most expensive offense in the league next year, and we haven't resigned Bryant or Murray.

Having both Murray and Bryant free agents in the same year really makes things difficult. I think Bryant has to be the priority though. I still just don't want to pay Bryant anything close to what Calvin Johnson is making. I also don't want to pay Murray anything close to what AP is making. I think we need to sign Dez Bryant long term, and backload a lot of the money towards a time I will categorize as post Romo/Witten. Murray on the other hand, if he can't be signed for a reasonable amount, I would then after signing Murray long term, franchise him. I would then either trade him, or franchise him again for a second year (and then maybe trade him). There is also a good chance AP will be available in free agency next year. I might even franchise Murray and sign AP with the intent of trading Murray.

Outside of these two I don't think anyone will be impossible to sign.

Free is gone, even with a pay cut, I think we have to move on to a rookie or less expensive player here. The surprise issue here might by Ronald Leary. Will they tender him or will they simply sign him long term. Given his knee, a tender might be more appropriate, but assuming he continues to develop signing him in a later year will simply be more expensive.

I think as long as we can keep the coaching staff together, we should have no problems getting McClain to resign, and despite his play, I don't think teams will knock down doors to compete in getting him. Worst case scenario though we go with Carter, Lee, Durant. I also want to re-sign Carter and Durant. Neither should break the bank.

Carr is absolutely gone. We draft a cornerback in the first or second round to replace him. And Claiborne is gone the year after that. I'm not convinced Melton gets cut at the end of the year. They may simply look to restructure his contract. We'll see what he does through the year though. I think a lot there depends on Okoye and Crawford.

I think Hayden is gone. Especially if we re-establish Brent.

I want to keep as much of this team the same as possible, but we can't pay everyone. I've finally backed off restructuring Romo, but I'd still like him and Witten to take pay cuts to help the team.

Just restructuring Romo's 17 million dollar base salary, we can open up about 12 million against the cap next year.

Using general logic it would seem that that can't re-sign everybody; however, there are a lot of unknowns at this point. The actual NFL cap the next few years is unknown at this point with some of the new network contracts.

It's unknown how long Romo plays. They could structure contracts for guys Dez to be smallish initial cap hits and then big hits later. If Romo is replaced by a young QB in a few years then some of that could offset. Romo is almost defintely gone by the time Martin needs a new contract.

I don't want to see some big waste contracts like they had in the past and I'm not a big fan of the 1 player away mentality, but their best chance to win is with Romo. It might be worth pushing the cap issues to keep this team together next year.

 

[theSHOW]

This is the very reason that this league will never see a dynasty again. You can't hold on to players you drafted. Sucks

wrong. It's tough but doable. Got to cut some of the vets every year seemingly. Stay young thru the draft and free agency. This team has the perfect scenario to be a dynasty. Zero state taxes on millions is a huge benefit. It's extra free money other team most of them can't match. Playing for Dallas...many players want to be here and need to be sold on being here without budging on contracts. This team has the right to offer 5-10 percent less than any other team (at worst) and that my friends is critical to potential league dominance. And 1stly on my agenda is restating that the WR position should be made up of young & inexpensive players while the offensive line needs to be a unit playing together for years. I'll say it again. Keep the Oline together and pay the men proper and be the best. Run the ball and pass protect. Pay the QB and draft well on the receivers. With maybe 3, 4 or sometimes 5 receivers on every snap ready to be the guy who catches the ball "my money is on the QB and the line"

 

[theSHOW]

I think we all love Ware, hes just a great player but at his age with his injuries the cost was to high for a young team thought to be at least couple years from contention. of course Ware is healthier now and as I knew with Von Miller opposite him, he may get the record this year but there was no way to see if he would recover from multiple injuries or was he in decline?

Yeah we love him and many are glad we got rid of him as he brought no intensity was run on and barely registered a pulse after the 1st few games last season. This seasons D is cheaper and alive playing with true grit. Real Cowboys!