Update on Cap Space

[NetsGotBanned21]

With Dez contract out, and if Hardy doesn't go to court and still serves 4 games, and with Ro's 4 games included. We have about 12M in space, I'm sure we will use this to lock up Crawf early, but I wonder if we will make a trade for an RB if we go into camp and they don't like our current group. I'd like to see the space used to sign Crawf and saved to roll over next year personally. Two RB's that I'd look into trading for would be Knile Davis or Christine Michael whom I had the pleasure of watching play in High School at West Brook in Beaumont TX. Both backs would be young, very good, and cheap.

 

[Eiknarflin]

Thanks for the update, Nets.

Question is: whom do we trade for a fourth RB?

 

[jarntt]

I wonder if Minnesota would trade AP...

 

[Eiknarflin]

Makes perfect sense.

 

[cowboycolors]

I wonder if Minnesota would trade AP...

Hey where did FRY I mean greg go ?

I don't miss the little shithead myself

 

[jarntt]

Funny how once the chapter closed he disappeared rather than admit he was wrong. If we get off to a slow start he'll be here to say I told you we should have traded for AP and given him $16M per year!!!

 

[NetsGotBanned21]

No problem E, I think that if we trade for an RB it won't be for a fourth RB it'll be that we are keeping 3 on the team and the one we get will be the lead dog. IMO

 

[NetsGotBanned21]

The most beautiful thing about this is that if we carry over the extra space that we have into next season which is 12MM Dez plays for a cap hit of 13MM next season which means the extra space would cover all but 1MM of what Dez will play for next year. We only have 4 UFA's next year that will hit for potential big bucks in Ro, Crawf, Hardy all others will be low cap hits or are RFA's, not to mention our total cap space used is at 145MM as of now subtract the 12MM of carry over and project a cap of 155MM (about a 10MM increase) next year and you have 22MM in space next season. Take inconsideration that Carr will not be making the near 14MM next season he is scheduled to make and at worse you get a savings of about 6.5MM if you cut him or extend his contract and lower his cap hit by doing the other end of what we for Orlando and you have a total of near 30MM in space. Where is the cap hell so many said we were in or were going to be in, guess it's true that inflation is a bitch lol

 

[es4m11]

The most beautiful thing about this is that if we carry over the extra space that we have into next season which is 12MM Dez plays for a cap hit of 13MM next season which means the extra space would cover all but 1MM of what Dez will play for next year. We only have 4 UFA's next year that will hit for potential big bucks in Ro, Crawf, Hardy all others will be low cap hits or are RFA's, not to mention our total cap space used is at 145MM as of now subtract the 12MM of carry over and project a cap of 155MM (about a 10MM increase) next year and you have 22MM in space next season. Take inconsideration that Carr will not be making the near 14MM next season he is scheduled to make and at worse you get a savings of about 6.5MM if you cut him or extend his contract and lower his cap hit by doing the other end of what we for Orlando and you have a total of near 30MM in space. Where is the cap hell so many said we were in or were going to be in, guess it's true that inflation is a bitch lol

If Dallas had that much money to play with next year, assuming the cap does jump up another $10mil, if Hardy keeps his head on straight I could see him being re-signed. As long as Dallas continues to draft well and get good production from young cheap players, they may be able to afford all the huge contracts on the roster without sacrificing any key players. But if Hardy plays up to his 2013 level he will be VERY expensive. And Crawford may play himself into some big bucks as well.

Would it be worth it to throw a long term deal at Crawford now? Maybe if Dallas did it now they can save some money in the long haul. They have made gambles like this before with Scandrick, Church, and Ratliff, those gambles have paid off (to various degrees).

 

[jarntt]

The most beautiful thing about this is that if we carry over the extra space that we have into next season which is 12MM Dez plays for a cap hit of 13MM next season which means the extra space would cover all but 1MM of what Dez will play for next year. We only have 4 UFA's next year that will hit for potential big bucks in Ro, Crawf, Hardy all others will be low cap hits or are RFA's, not to mention our total cap space used is at 145MM as of now subtract the 12MM of carry over and project a cap of 155MM (about a 10MM increase) next year and you have 22MM in space next season. Take inconsideration that Carr will not be making the near 14MM next season he is scheduled to make and at worse you get a savings of about 6.5MM if you cut him or extend his contract and lower his cap hit by doing the other end of what we for Orlando and you have a total of near 30MM in space. Where is the cap hell so many said we were in or were going to be in, guess it's true that inflation is a bitch lol

I don't know about "cap hell". I keep reading that term more from those that disagreed with us having a cap problem than those that said we did. Our Cap problem: Demarco Murray, Demarcus Ware, Jason Hatcher and,,,wait for it...Tony Romo's current dead money is $46M. So after a couple of years of already being under contract, instead of chipping away at his unallocated cap we have actually INCREASED it. Who does that with an injury prone older QB??? Teams with a cap problem, that's who. What happens if Romo hurts his back and retires this season? How does the cap look then? How would we have done last year if we had Hatcher or Ware to help out our pass rush? We were a bobble away from the NFC Championship game. Say what you want about Ware and Hatcher aging and I was fine with both moves because of our cap problem and them hiting hte downswing of their careers, but a little more pressure on a gimpy Rodgers gets us to the NFC Championship game. How will we do this year without Murray? I know a lot say that we don't need him and our OL made him. Perhaps the problem is I don't agree with that thought process, but I know we would be a better team with him than without him. With better cap management the last few years (Carr, Romo) Murray could have been a Cowboy for at least one more year.

No one ever said it can't be done in the short term. The argument I always made was we will need to let players go because of our poor cap management and we did. So, I'm not sure how you can say we didn't have a cap problem to be honest. The only reason we have that cap space is because of Tony Romo's contract. If you think what we did there is smart than you and I have vastly different ideas of what smart is.

 

[jarntt]

[QUOTE="es4m11, post: 6907501, member: 6301"]If we have that much money to play with next year, assuming the cap does jump up another $10mil, if Hardy keeps his head on straight I could see him being re-signed. As long as Dallas continues to draft well and get good production from young cheap players, they may be able to afford all the huge contracts on the roster without sacrificing any key players. But if Hardy plays up to his 2013 level he will be VERY expensive. ANd Crawford may play himself into some big bucks as well.

Would it be worth it to throw a long term deal at Crawford now? Maybe if Dallas did it now they can save some money in the long haul. They have made gambles like this before with Scandrick, Church, and Ratliff, those gambles have paid off (to various degrees).[/QUOTE]

Ding ding ding. Give that man a chicken dinner. There is only one way to assure long term cap health and still sign FAs. DRAFT WELL. That is what we have done differently lately, and that is why this team's future looks so bright.

I think in the back of their minds the Cowboys always saw Hardy as a guy they want to keep long term if things work out. Elite pass rushers aren't easy to find and once you get one you try to keep them if possible.

They have also made gambles that did NOT pay off. IMO you sign Crawford long term right now if the dollars make sense. I have no problem giving him a long term contract because I expect big things from him going forward, but he really hasn't done anything yet to demand a big salary. It's a big gamble on how this year goes. The best thing about Crawford is his position flex. If we find a better 3 tech he can still be a valuable player on this team. I've always thought his best spot was SDE anyway. But he can play all 4 spots on the DL. Not many guys can do that.

 

[es4m11]

I don't know about "cap hell". I keep reading that term more from those that disagreed with us having a cap problem than those that said we did. Our Cap problem: Demarco Murray, Demarcus Ware, Jason Hatcher and,,,wait for it...Tony Romo's current dead money is $46M. So after a couple of years of already being under contract, instead of chipping away at his unallocated cap we have actually INCREASED it. Who does that with an injury prone older QB??? Teams with a cap problem, that's who. What happens if Romo hurts his back and retires this season? How does the cap look then? How would we have done last year if we had Hatcher or Ware to help out our pass rush? We were a bobble away from the NFC Championship game. Say what you want about Ware and Hatcher aging and I was fine with both moves because of our cap problem and them hiting hte downswing of their careers, but a little more pressure on a gimpy Rodgers gets us to the NFC Championship game. How will we do this year without Murray? I know a lot say that we don't need him and our OL made him. Perhaps the problem is I don't agree with that thought process, but I know we would be a better team with him than without him. With better cap management the last few years (Carr, Romo) Murray could have been a Cowboy for at least one more year.

No one ever said it can't be done in the short term. The argument I always made was we will need to let players go because of our poor cap management and we did. So, I'm not sure how you can say we didn't have a cap problem to be honest. The only reason we have that cap space is because of Tony Romo's contract. If you think what we did there is smart than you and I have vastly different ideas of what smart is.

I think you're on point here. But I can see the rationale behind structuring Romo the way they have. Without Romo this team isn't going to win, regardless of the other pieces on the roster. So Dallas is all in on Romo's last few seasons. If he plays it out the cap hit is no issue. If Romo gets hurt and has to retire (knock on wood that doesn't happen) cap hell isn't going to matter too much as Dallas won't be a real contender -- start the rebuild process. In that event Dallas does what's necessary to hang on to the young valuable commodities (O-line and a few pieces on D) and jettisons the rest of non essentials.

 

[PDay8810]

Maybe it's me, but a 20 year drought of any real team success has me thinking ONE Super Bowl trumps all other concerns about cap, future cap and all that other bookkeeper stuff

 

[es4m11]

Ding ding ding. Give that man a chicken dinner. There is only one way to assure long term cap health and still sign FAs. DRAFT WELL. That is what we have done differently lately, and that is why this team's future looks so bright.

I think in the back of their minds the Cowboys always saw Hardy as a guy they want to keep long term if things work out. Elite pass rushers aren't easy to find and once you get one you try to keep them if possible.

They have also made gambles that did NOT pay off. IMO you sign Crawford long term right now if the dollars make sense. I have no problem giving him a long term contract because I expect big things from him going forward, but he really hasn't done anything yet to demand a big salary. It's a big gamble on how this year goes. The best thing about Crawford is his position flex. If we find a better 3 tech he can still be a valuable player on this team. I've always thought his best spot was SDE anyway. But he can play all 4 spots on the DL. Not many guys can do that.

I guess my biggest question is, will we really have $30 million to spend next year? I know Nets is pretty good with cap figures, but $30 million sounds a little high. Do we know the cap is going up $10 million next year?

In regards to Crawford, I think now would be the time to sign him to a team friendly deal. I have to imagine coming off an achilles injury that Crawford would appreciate the financial security. And Dallas would be wise to lock him down now before Crawford gets expensive. Last year was just the tip of the iceberg with this guy, I expect to see a lot more quickness out of him this year, and as often as he was in the backfield last year that extra quickness is going to be very disruptive. Terrell Suggs was night and day better in year 2 of recovery from his achilles injury -- I expect similar results from Crawford.

 

[jarntt]

Maybe it's me, but a 20 year drought of any real team success has me thinking ONE Super Bowl trumps all other concerns about cap, future cap and all that other bookkeeper stuff

I actually agree with this. Now should be the time we start pumping up the salaries and taking chances to win since the core is in place and if there is a future cap hit, so be it. The problem was that we started this line of thinking a few years ago. So we made a less than average team average at the expense of cap dollars today. We really haven't given out many big FA contracts the last few years because we couldn't. I'd love to have been able to cut Carr and sign a guy like McCourty if we hadn't pushed Carr's dead money back to the point where we couldn't do that.

 

[es4m11]

I actually agree with this. Now should be the time we start pumping up the salaries and taking chances to win since the core is in place and if there is a future cap hit, so be it. The problem was that we started this line of thinking a few years ago. So we made a less than average team average at the expense of cap dollars today. We really haven't given out many big FA contracts the last few years because we couldn't. I'd love to have been able to cut Carr and sign a guy like McCourty if we hadn't pushed Carr's dead money back to the point where we couldn't do that.

McCourty was at the top of my wish list this year, but he wasn't leaving NE anyway

 

[jarntt]

I guess my biggest question is, will we really have $30 million to spend next year? I know Nets is pretty good with cap figures, but $30 million sounds a little high. Do we know the cap is going up $10 million next year?

In regards to Crawford, I think now would be the time to sign him to a team friendly deal. I have to imagine coming off an achilles injury that Crawford would appreciate the financial security. And Dallas would be wise to lock him down now before Crawford gets expensive. Last year was just the tip of the iceberg with this guy, I expect to see a lot more quickness out of him this year, and as often as he was in the backfield last year that extra quickness is going to be very disruptive. Terrell Suggs was night and day better in year 2 of recovery from his achilles injury -- I expect similar results from Crawford.

We have no idea what the cap will be next year. People like to use a high number because it allows them to create all these scenarios to build a SB winner. The only reason we have cap space now is because we let Murray go and restructured Romo.

 

[jarntt]

McCourty was at the top of my wish list this year, but he wasn't leaving NE anyway

Probably not, but he was just an example.

 

[UK Cowboy]

I wonder if Minnesota would trade AP...

Somebody tell Jarntt that Greg hacked his username

 

[UK Cowboy]

Maybe it's me, but a 20 year drought of any real team success has me thinking ONE Super Bowl trumps all other concerns about cap, future cap and all that other bookkeeper stuff

That's why I think Jerry deserves a little(very very little) slack for some of the mind numbingly stupid moves he made in the mid 90's. Going for it can blow up in your face, but I have to admit, we've been stuck on 5 for a while