Zack Martin and opportunity cost

[zrinkill]

I knew some idiot would have a problem paying Martin.

 

[BourbonBalz]

Zack Martin is pretty much universally accepted as one of, if not the top guards in the NFL. But for the sake of argument, we are going to assume that Zack's Martin is the best guard in the NFL and we are going to also assume that from a football playing perspective that everyone wants us to keep him, which is almost universally true.

On the other hand, we have this thing called the salary cap. It's a hard cap that only allows you to spend so many dollars. That means that for every dollar you spend on Zack Martin you CANNOT spend that same dollar on anyone else. So if you pay Martin the biggest bucks in the league as a guard, then someone at another position is going to get slighted on salary.

Guard is not normally a top tier salary position and it's not a position that is normally drafted high. Granted that does seem to be changing, as Nelson was in the top 5 or so picks of this draft. But it isn't a position that on average gets paid as well as many other positions.

If we resign Martin, we are "probably" getting a player who can play out his full contract at a high level. I say probably because if he gets injured and can't return to elite form, a contract like we are hearing about can set this team back significantly in the cap department.

Contracts like this also can cause depth problems. We are finally getting some decent depth and this contract doesn't help that at all.

We could have easily traded Martin for a 1st. In fact we could have probably traded Martin for a first and more. Maybe even as much as a third.

The difference in pay between a first round rookie draft pick and the contract Martin will probably sign will be around $10 million dollars per year difference (times the length of his contract). So a 6 year deal would be a $60 million dollar difference in the total cap hit.

A draft pick is not likely to play at the same level as Martin, as Martin is a perennial pro bowler, but if the draft pick replacement at guard is a first round pick he should theoretically be a top tier guard. (Top 5 to 10 or better).

When you sign a player like this to a mega deal, all of the risk shifts over to the team. When a team signs a guy like this to a mega deal the BEST case scenario is that the player continues to play at a high level, justifies his cap hit, and maybe if the salary cap continues to go up you end up with a slight bargain in the last year or two of his contract. So best case, you get what you expected to get. But the worst case is a train wreck cap hit for an injured player or he underperforma his contract for whatever reason.

Granted I think Martin is a solid person so you minimize the intangible portion of the train wreck, but the injury part can't be under appreciated.

You can bring the injury issue up for any player at any position, not just Martin or just a guard. So, do you never sign any of your best players to big contracts because they MIGHT get hurt??? I don't want to be Cleveland.

 

[guag]

We can only spend on new players not the ones that have been here

Yup, the grass is always greener.

 

[BourbonBalz]

The theory will likely play to 8-8, like all of their other ones.
Signing Martin is a no brainer, but in a way it’s almost bad luck that the three first Round OL turned out to be quite this, HOF good. If they were just a little bit worse there would be a lot less expense with probably not much effectiveness lost.

LOL. So now we have people on here wanting to draft players that aren't elite???? We want them to be good, but not too good???? You can't make this **** up.

 

[guag]

Yeah KC signed Hitchens Anthony Hitchens, signed a 5 year, $45,000,000 contract with the Kansas City Chiefs, including a $14,000,000 signing bonus, $25,090,000 guaranteed. Glad Dallas did not try to match it

Wow I didn't realize he got that big of a contract, good for him! Honestly happy to see him get paid, I liked him (though not enough to have us pay that much lol).

 

[OmerV]

It was a couple of months ago people were going crazy because we weren't spending money.

A lot of fans don't seem to get that whatever salary cap room a team has can't just be earmarked for new players, so they get upset when the team doesn't sign all the new players they think are possible. The team naturally also has to keep sight of existing players that need to be signed or extended.

 

[Nightman]

I think we have become overly paranoid about the team spending money on players.

Besides the STs unit all we have is rookie deals, dollar store FAs and the OL

If we screw up the cap now we should be relegated to the XFL

 

[Nightman]

I knew some idiot would have a problem paying Martin.

A few idiots

 

[cowboyec]

extending Zack...money well spent.

 

[TwoDeep3]

If Zeke rolls off 1600 yards rushing this year, the crowd will say this was well worth it. If Zeke merely hits 1000 yards, then the grousing about "overpaying" Martin will be a twenty-five page thread after the merge.

What won't happen is Martin go to another team and solidify their line and come back and assist that team in beating Dallas.

Because that thread after merge would be nearly fifty pages.

Maybe this board should stop over-thinking this continued salary cap woes. The objective is to win the Lombardi. You don't do that by trading away your play makers because you're scared of the cap.

 

[kevm3]

Who are we going to spend the money on instead? A bunch of 'bargains' ? No thanks. We saw what happened to the offense when Chaz Green came in and when Tyron was injured. The offense went into the toilet. Now if we have Zack Martin gone and the next guy is nowhere near as good? It doesn't matter what running back you have or what receivers you have if the rb is getting tackled immediately and the qb is constantly being slammed in the ground.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Zack Martin is pretty much universally accepted as one of, if not the top guards in the NFL. But for the sake of argument, we are going to assume that Zack's Martin is the best guard in the NFL and we are going to also assume that from a football playing perspective that everyone wants us to keep him, which is almost universally true.

On the other hand, we have this thing called the salary cap. It's a hard cap that only allows you to spend so many dollars. That means that for every dollar you spend on Zack Martin you CANNOT spend that same dollar on anyone else. So if you pay Martin the biggest bucks in the league as a guard, then someone at another position is going to get slighted on salary.

Guard is not normally a top tier salary position and it's not a position that is normally drafted high. Granted that does seem to be changing, as Nelson was in the top 5 or so picks of this draft. But it isn't a position that on average gets paid as well as many other positions.

If we resign Martin, we are "probably" getting a player who can play out his full contract at a high level. I say probably because if he gets injured and can't return to elite form, a contract like we are hearing about can set this team back significantly in the cap department.

Contracts like this also can cause depth problems. We are finally getting some decent depth and this contract doesn't help that at all.

We could have easily traded Martin for a 1st. In fact we could have probably traded Martin for a first and more. Maybe even as much as a third.

The difference in pay between a first round rookie draft pick and the contract Martin will probably sign will be around $10 million dollars per year difference (times the length of his contract). So a 6 year deal would be a $60 million dollar difference in the total cap hit.

A draft pick is not likely to play at the same level as Martin, as Martin is a perennial pro bowler, but if the draft pick replacement at guard is a first round pick he should theoretically be a top tier guard. (Top 5 to 10 or better).

When you sign a player like this to a mega deal, all of the risk shifts over to the team. When a team signs a guy like this to a mega deal the BEST case scenario is that the player continues to play at a high level, justifies his cap hit, and maybe if the salary cap continues to go up you end up with a slight bargain in the last year or two of his contract. So best case, you get what you expected to get. But the worst case is a train wreck cap hit for an injured player or he underperforma his contract for whatever reason.

Granted I think Martin is a solid person so you minimize the intangible portion of the train wreck, but the injury part can't be under appreciated.

Making up trade scenarios is fun and all but you have no idea what we could have gotten. WE start looking to trade him and then teams have two things to consider. 1) They still have to extend himm themselves for huge money or its just a 1 year rental, and 2) We have no leverage because we are obviously not looking to pay the man.

If you can explain to me how we are not going to be able to sign Zeke or Dak then i will listen but I see no real opportunity cost but more a tad of fear and wishing.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

When you draft a guy and he becomes the best at his position in football and a perennial all-pro... you re-sign him, period.

Martin is a huge plus on the field. A huge plus in the locker room. A hard worker, young, and very likely the most coveted interior OL in football.

It would have been the pinnacle of lunacy to let homegrown takent like that walk away... particularly when he is not even really in his prime yet.

Ian Rappoport called this signing a “no brainer” by the Cowboys. That’s because nobody in the NFL would have let Zack go.

He's the best player on the team.

 

[Nightman]

Making up trade scenarios is fun and all but you have no idea what we could have gotten. WE start looking to trade him and then teams have two things to consider. 1) They still have to extend himm themselves for huge money or its just a 1 year rental, and 2) We have no leverage because we are obviously not looking to pay the man.

If you can explain to me how we are not going to be able to sign Zeke or Dak then i will listen but I see no real opportunity cost but more a tad of fear and wishing.

It is just another Chicken Little thread when things are going great

We are young and loaded with talent and flush with cash and cap space

Whining about signing ZMartin is a real stretch

 

[Jake]

Zack Martin is pretty much universally accepted as one of, if not the top guards in the NFL. But for the sake of argument, we are going to assume that Zack's Martin is the best guard in the NFL and we are going to also assume that from a football playing perspective that everyone wants us to keep him, which is almost universally true.

On the other hand, we have this thing called the salary cap. It's a hard cap that only allows you to spend so many dollars. That means that for every dollar you spend on Zack Martin you CANNOT spend that same dollar on anyone else. So if you pay Martin the biggest bucks in the league as a guard, then someone at another position is going to get slighted on salary.

Guard is not normally a top tier salary position and it's not a position that is normally drafted high. Granted that does seem to be changing, as Nelson was in the top 5 or so picks of this draft. But it isn't a position that on average gets paid as well as many other positions.

If we resign Martin, we are "probably" getting a player who can play out his full contract at a high level. I say probably because if he gets injured and can't return to elite form, a contract like we are hearing about can set this team back significantly in the cap department.

Contracts like this also can cause depth problems. We are finally getting some decent depth and this contract doesn't help that at all.

We could have easily traded Martin for a 1st. In fact we could have probably traded Martin for a first and more. Maybe even as much as a third.

The difference in pay between a first round rookie draft pick and the contract Martin will probably sign will be around $10 million dollars per year difference (times the length of his contract). So a 6 year deal would be a $60 million dollar difference in the total cap hit.

A draft pick is not likely to play at the same level as Martin, as Martin is a perennial pro bowler, but if the draft pick replacement at guard is a first round pick he should theoretically be a top tier guard. (Top 5 to 10 or better).

When you sign a player like this to a mega deal, all of the risk shifts over to the team. When a team signs a guy like this to a mega deal the BEST case scenario is that the player continues to play at a high level, justifies his cap hit, and maybe if the salary cap continues to go up you end up with a slight bargain in the last year or two of his contract. So best case, you get what you expected to get. But the worst case is a train wreck cap hit for an injured player or he underperforma his contract for whatever reason.

Granted I think Martin is a solid person so you minimize the intangible portion of the train wreck, but the injury part can't be under appreciated.

I get what you're saying given that guard isn't typically where teams invest their money. But with a run-oriented offense built around a first round RB coupled with a young QB, guard is more important to Dallas than perhaps some other teams. It'd be awfully tough to lose arguably the best one in the NFL.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

It is just another Chicken Little thread when things are going great

We are young and loaded with talent and flush with cash and cap space

Whining about signing ZMartin is a real stretch

The Cowboys build through the draft and very noticeably do not spend on other teams FA. If nothing else, than to reach the salary floor they need to pay their own drafted players that hit.

These people I imagine would have paid Hitchens and let our best player walk. It's baffling. To me it's really easy, you either want to win at the los or you don't.

They key for us is going to be to continue to draft well. Then all of the issues fear mongered go away.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

You need great players to win in this league....you get great players by drafting. So this notion that signing Martin stops you from getting other great players at other positions is off based. Now if it came down to whether or not we keep Lawrence.....you'd have a argument. But we can keep both.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

It is just another Chicken Little thread when things are going great

We are young and loaded with talent and flush with cash and cap space

Whining about signing ZMartin is a real stretch

Yeah I don't know why fans do this. Will even make a positive move look negative.

 

[CouchCoach]

I hear you, but the time to adjust that "tilt" was before investing a ridiculous amount of draft capital in the OL. Now that they've gone down that road, they have to spend what it takes to play this theory out.

Yep, totally agree. They are a run first heavy on the OL offense going against the grain trying to prove ball control offense can once again be in vogue.

CP, love the run game and even though the RB is no longer the black sheep of the draft, it's still all about the QB's and being able to score points in bunches. I just do not agree with the theory. I just do not agree with this much focus on the OL to this degree because it will adversely affect the rest of the team.

But then I am a build the D first kind of guy but that ain't entertainment round these parts.

 

[Nightman]

I get what you're saying given that guard isn't typically where teams invest their money. But with a run-oriented offense built around a first round RB coupled with a young QB, guard is more important to Dallas than perhaps some other teams. It'd be awfully tough to lose arguably the best one in the NFL.

We are set at OL and the deals are all reasonable

OL contracts left on the books

Tron is due 6/68m.................0m gtd
TFred is due 6/47m...............9m gtd
LCollins is due 2/11-13m....... fully gtd
CWilliams is due 4/5.4m........3.2m gtd

ZMartin guess 7/89m............38m gtd