How to fix the Cowboys cap situation?

[dgambill]

This team has no future as long as Jones is acting as GM. His three SB wins as an owner can all be attributed to Jimmie Johnson's picks, and putting the team together. Switzer's win was still Johnson's team , but since then, ineptitude.

Let me tell you when you have this type of owner, it is brutal. In Baltimore, we had Robert Irsay and Peter Angelo's. You would be hard pressed to find two worse owners of football and baseball respectively. The Redskins have Dan Snyder, and the pre-Steinbrenner Yankees were owned by CBS. Yankee stadium was like an empty morgue during those years. There was no hope, like most of these places when you have owners like Jerry Jones. I heard him the other day saying that because he put out the risk, he is in on calling all the shots. Fair enough, but when you won't get professional people to help you run things, don't expect the fans to keep coming back after years and years if ineptitude. It is that way in every city.

Indeed. Jerry spent too much time with Al Davis really. Same thing going on there. Early success and talent evaluation and power led to a disconnect...and no one can stand up and tell them no or what to do so it just grows over time. Surround yourself with yes men and that is what you get. Same thing happens to many Fortune 500 companies too...not just in football. I don't have a problem with the owner working with the gm in telling him what direction he wants to go...but he has to trust them to do get them there. To me Jerry treats it like its his toy...much like we do with draft similators etc...he doesn't necessarily go after bad players but he overspends like its the Yankees and there is no cap. He also has poor coaches on that team...thats the worst.

[Dustin]

Figured I should update.

 

The cap increase really helped them out this season. With the $7MM jump and restructuring of Romo, Orlando Scandrick, and Sean Lee they currently have $100k in cap space.

 

The next logical move would be to part way with Demarcus Ware to free up another $7MM so they can sign their draft picks. 

[Gavin]

Figured I should update.

 

The cap increase really helped them out this season. With the $7MM jump and restructuring of Romo, Orlando Scandrick, and Sean Lee they currently have $100k in cap space.

 

The next logical move would be to part way with Demarcus Ware to free up another $7MM so they can sign their draft picks. 

Still going to take more then 7 mill to sign there draft picks(roughly a combined $28,207,088.00 after adding what the numbers for there current draft position would be according to Over The Cap), Im expecting a restructure of Brandon Carrs contract, They could cut him now but cutting him post June 1 would be the ideal thing to do according to Over The Cap #'s

[Dustin]

Still going to take more then 7 mill to sign there draft picks, Im expecting a restructure of Brandon Carrs contract, They could cut him now but cutting him post June 1 would be the ideal thing to do according to Over The Cap #'s

 

They still want some room for a rainy day, but what they have now (assuming they cut Ware) is fine for their draft pick. EJ Manuel (taken 16th last year) only has a cap hit of $1.5MM. Leveon Bell's is ~750,000, ect..

[Gavin]

They still want some room for a rainy day, but what they have now (assuming they cut Ware) is fine for their draft pick. EJ Manuel (taken 16th last year) only has a cap hit of $1.5MM. Leveon Bell's is ~750,000, ect..

Thats only 1 year though

[Dustin]

Thats only 1 year though

 

You said:

 

Still going to take more then 7 mill to sign there draft picks

 

 

It's not. $7MM in cap space this year is enough to sign all of their draft picks. 

 

 

$28,207,088.00 after adding what the numbers for there current draft position would be according to Over The Cap

 

 

what? No this is not even close. How are you determining this? 

[bavanlan]

Still going to take more then 7 mill to sign there draft picks(roughly a combined $28,207,088.00 after adding what the numbers for there current draft position would be according to Over The Cap), Im expecting a restructure of Brandon Carrs contract, They could cut him now but cutting him post June 1 would be the ideal thing to do according to Over The Cap #'s

 

You realize you don't pay the full contract of draft picks the first year, right?

[bavanlan]

http://overthecap.com/initial-nfl-rookie-pool-estimates/

[Gavin]

You realize you don't pay the full contract of draft picks the first year, right?

Right, Looks like I got ahead of myself on that one

[throwing BBZ]

I'm not a cap expert by any means, but I really like trying to solve these types of problems.  Using http://overthecap.com/teamcap.php?Team=Cowboys&Year=2013 for my numbers:

-Make Miles Austin, Kyle Orton, and Ware June 1 cuts to save over $20 mil

-Restructure Romo to a base salary of $12.545 mil (not sure how willing he would be to do that) to save about $10 mil.

-Restructure Orlando Scandrick to a base salary of $3.77 mil to save about $3.1 mil

-Restructure Sean Lee to a base salary of $4.77 mil save about $4 mil

-Restructure Carr to a base salary of $6.77 mil to save about $5 mil

-Restructure Witten to a base salary of $4.045 mil save about $3 mil

-Restructure Doug Free to a base salary of $2.645 mil to save about $1.8 mil

 

According to that website, that'll give you over $23 mil in cap room in 2014 and just under $7 mil in 2015 (which will require further restructuring and cutting).  This way, you get rid of Miles Austin, who is injury prone, Ware, who only had 6 sacks as a 4-3 DE, and Orton.  You get to keep Romo (your franchise), Scandrick (solid nickel), Sean Lee (very good LB, though injury prone), Carr (bad season, but too talented to let go and still young at 27), Witten (franchise icon and gets along great with Romo, leader for younger guys, knows the offense), and Free (had a very good season at RT).  Of course, this is assuming those players are willing to restructure.

 

This is also under the circumstance where they do not re-sign any of their current free agents

 

"Not a Cap Expert", but you played one here and looks like you were very ON. Well done.

[Can'tStandYa]

The real question is should we be looking to benefit off there terrible cap management and go after Tyron Smith next off season.

[21isSuperman]

"Not a Cap Expert", but you played one here and looks like you were very ON. Well done.

Thanks.  I don't know how realistic my scenario is though.  If a player isn't willing to restructure, you don't have much hope.  But from what I've seen, players are usually pretty open to restructuring since they don't lose any money (or, at least I don't think they lose any money).