The 2016 Cap and AP

[es4m11]

Anyone thinking Carr's pay cut situation will work out just the same as Doug Free is wrong. Dallas had Jeremy Parnell ready to step right in if Free did not play ball. There is no way Dallas has that same confidence in Mo Claiborne if Carr decides to dig in and decline any pay cut.

 

[jarntt]

To be clear (and I imagine I made this clear 1,000 times over the last 3 months already) I'm not saying they will sign AP or that they should. Signig him would be stupid IMO. My only point was they did not have to restructure Romo to the extent that they did to sign Hardy and their draft picks.

 

[jarntt]

Anyone thinking Carr's pay cut situation will work out just the same as Doug Free is wrong. Dallas had Jeremy Parnell ready to step right in if Free did not play ball. There is no way Dallas has that same confidence in Mo Claiborne if Carr decides to dig in and decline any pay cut.

Carr was horrendous for most of last year, so don't be so sure about that...You can't let an average player who is playing at a level way below his contract hold you hostage. Moore was much better than him last year and you can always find a Sterling Moore. Is going into the season with Scandrick, Claiborne and a first round draft pick really worse than relying on Carr? Remember they don't have to make the decision today. They could put this off (and could have put off restructuring Romo as well) until late August. If you draft a guy and that guy that looks great in the preseason and looks like he may be ready to start, why would you even consider keeping Carr?

 

[es4m11]

To be clear (and I imagine I made this clear 1,000 times over the last 3 months already) I'm not saying they will sign AP or that they should. Signig him would be stupid IMO. My only point was they did not have to restructure Romo to the extent that they did to sign Hardy and their draft picks.

I know you're against AP to Dallas.

In regards to Romo restructure, short of cutting Carr post 6/1 (which Dallas is not going to do), and a long term deal for Dez, where else would the money for Hardy and McClain come from?

 

[es4m11]

Carr was horrendous for most of last year, so don't be so sure about that...You can't let an average player who is playing at a level way below his contract hold you hostage. Moore was much better than him last year and you can always find a Sterling Moore. Is going into the season with Scandrick, Claiborne and a first round draft pick really worse than relying on Carr? Remember they don't have to make the decision today. They could put this off (and could have put off restructuring Romo as well) until late August. If you draft a guy and that guy that looks great in the preseason and looks like he may be ready to start, why would you even consider keeping Carr?

As bad as Carr has been, Mo Claiborne has been 10x worse. So yes, going into the season with Claiborne as a starter would be worse. I just don't see Dallas expecting to contend going into the season with Claiborne and a rookie as 2 of your top 3 CB's. Dallas still doesn't even have a solid time table for Mo's recovery. Even worse, what has Mo done to inspire anyone that his eventual recovery will go smoothly?

And let's not forget that while Sterling Moore was good last year, he was doing his work against 3rd and 4th receivers usually. Carr was almost always matched up with the other teams #1 WR.

 

[jarntt]

As bad as Carr has been, Mo Claiborne has been 10x worse. So yes, going into the season with Claiborne as a starter would be worse. I just don't see Dallas expecting to contend going into the season with Claiborne and a rookie as 2 of your top 3 CB's. Dallas still doesn't even have a solid time table for Mo's recovery. Even worse, what has Mo done to inspire anyone that his eventual recovery will go smoothly?

And let's not forget that while Sterling Moore was good last year, he was doing his work against 3rd and 4th receivers usually. Carr was almost always matched up with the other teams #1 WR.

He was???

Carr was worse last year than probably any 16 game starting corner in the league. My point was that we plugged Moore in and he was better and you can ALWAYS find a Sterling Moore type. He wasn't in the plans at this time last year, but he still ended up much better than Carr. I don't agree that Carr would definitely be better than Claiborne going forward, but that isn't what I suggested either. I suggested starting a possible first round draft pick that we evaluated all Summer and determined that he was ready to start and cutting Carr in Aug/Sept. Also, I don't think we would have kept Patmon over Moore if we didn't think there was something worth holding onto with Patmon.

 

[jarntt]

I know you're against AP to Dallas.

In regards to Romo restructure, short of cutting Carr post 6/1 (which Dallas is not going to do), and a long term deal for Dez, where else would the money for Hardy and McClain come from?

Those are the two biggest. Carr post 6/1 is enough by itself. Resigning Dez would also likely be enough. So you really only have to do one or the other. Because of the nature of how Hardy's contract is structured you have a long time to decide how to fit him under the cap. The other big possibility was restructuring Romo for less. Why did we have to do the max? We didn't need all of this room. There are also a couple of guys you could restructure for lesser amounts that would give you enough to get the draft class signed.

 

[es4m11]

Those are the two biggest. Carr post 6/1 is enough by itself. Resigning Dez would also likely be enough. So you really only have to do one or the other. Because of the nature of how Hardy's contract is structured you have a long time to decide how to fit him under the cap. The other big possibility was restructuring Romo for less. Why did we have to do the max? We didn't need all of this room. There are also a couple of guys you could restructure for lesser amounts that would give you enough to get the draft class signed.

Those two moves together may have been enough to bring McClain back, sign Hardy, and have money for the draft class. Neither one of those moves individually gets you there. The Dez contract extension obviously isn't happening at this point in time -- the two sides seem to be pretty far apart. So we can't just assume that deal is going to happen this off season. Dallas already approached Carr about a pay cut, and they were rebuffed. Dallas can't bail on Carr just yet, not without seeing how the draft shakes out. If Dallas waits until July/August to cut Carr, then there is no guarantee Hardy would still have been available. Hardy was by far the biggest difference maker available to Dallas, it seems to me that restructuring Romo was the only sure fire way to get it done.

 

[Manster7588]

Those two moves together may have been enough to bring McClain back, sign Hardy, and have money for the draft class. Neither one of those moves individually gets you there. The Dez contract extension obviously isn't happening at this point in time -- the two sides seem to be pretty far apart. So we can't just assume that deal is going to happen this off season. Dallas already approached Carr about a pay cut, and they were rebuffed. Dallas can't bail on Carr just yet, not without seeing how the draft shakes out. If Dallas waits until July/August to cut Carr, then there is no guarantee Hardy would still have been available. Hardy was by far the biggest difference maker available to Dallas, it seems to me that restructuring Romo was the only sure fire way to get it done.

Agree. I don't think Dallas wants to release Carr, at least not yet. If it comes down to crunch time they may have to. As for the way I understand it they could not pay Henry and McClains contracts without the Romo restructure or a Carr paycut. How much does the team save by releasing Carr? .5M? That's not paying McClain much less Henry.

 

[jarntt]

Those two moves together may have been enough to bring McClain back, sign Hardy, and have money for the draft class. Neither one of those moves individually gets you there. The Dez contract extension obviously isn't happening at this point in time -- the two sides seem to be pretty far apart. So we can't just assume that deal is going to happen this off season. Dallas already approached Carr about a pay cut, and they were rebuffed. Dallas can't bail on Carr just yet, not without seeing how the draft shakes out. If Dallas waits until July/August to cut Carr, then there is no guarantee Hardy would still have been available. Hardy was by far the biggest difference maker available to Dallas, it seems to me that restructuring Romo was the only sure fire way to get it done.

Carr rebuffing the offer was more a preemptive strike. Let's see his stance when the team says take it or leave it (if they do). They did not have to wait until August on Hardy. His cap hit is very low until during the year. Don't forget they can cut him at anytime with little impact.

 

[es4m11]

Maybe so about not needing the cap room right away for Hardy, but I think the Romo deal was just house keeping. Something about an auto-trigger for the restructure in Romo's contract? Without a long term deal for Dez and cutting Carr, neither of which is a sure thing, Dallas will absolutely need that money from Romo's restructure.

One angle I had considered is, perhaps Dallas did the restructure of Romo to gain a little leverage in the contract negotiations with Dez and Carr. By restructuring Romo, Dallas has made the point that Carr taking a pay-cut is not crucially important to their off season plans, and that they can operate without him cooperating -- thus eliminating some leverage that Carr may have possessed. Same goes for Dez, Dallas doesn't need Dez to sign a long term deal to free up cap room in order to carry out their plans. Without that necessity Dallas can afford to play the waiting game and get a deal more in line with their terms.