The Cowboys have restructured the contracts of All-Pro left tackle Tyron Smith and All-Pro center Travis Frederick, freeing up roughly $17.3 million, moving them under a proposed salary-cap of $168 million for 2017, according to sources. The total cap will be finalized by March 9 when the league year begins. The Cowboys turned roughly $21 million of the $24 million due Smith and Frederick into signing bonus to create the room. Smith was set to make $10 million in 2017, while Frederick was set to make $14.221 million.
-Todd Archer, ESPN Staff Writer |
Good on Boys part since the cap may very well jump big (10M in 1 year)again in 3 years and they'll be in good shape.
The flip side to that is that JPP could just be unhappy with being tagged, not sign a long term deal, and then simply play for 1 year at an untenable cap number that limits the team in 2017 and then leave.
Can't you just say that about any team restructuring deals to make cap room?
The flip side to that is that JPP could just be unhappy with being tagged, not sign a long term deal, and then simply play for 1 year at an untenable cap number that limits the team in 2017 and then leave.
On top of all that, players take pride in their play and what they built. This defense could be something special. The players not only have played well together but seem to be very close. I don't see why JPP would want to leave. I would believe he would want to stay and I believe the Giants want him to stay. With the franchise tag as an option it just makes too much sense that these two sides come to a deal.
Is this the word out of Dallas' camp or JPP's camp?
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The flip side to that is that JPP could just be unhappy with being tagged, not sign a long term deal, and then simply play for 1 year at an untenable cap number that limits the team in 2017 and then leave.
It won't limit the Giants. At worst, it will mean they have to restructure some contracts that they would prefer not to restructure. But the Giants aren't going to not sign someone they would've otherwise signed just because JPP is tagged.
I don't think it will come to that, though. Restructuring in itself is limiting because you end up paying for it anyway. It's just kicking the can down the road. Eventually you will feel it. If you believe the reports on what the Giants are valuing him at, and you see what the franchise tag rate is for defensive ends, I don't see them doing that unless they feel confident a long term deal is possible. When is the last time the Giants have ever utilized the tag and had the player play on that contract? They just don't make use of it that way.
The franchise tag is designed to push both sides to work out a deal, not to keep one locked up who doesn't want to be there. Players don't want zero long term security, and teams don't want to be hamstrung by a contract that is a cap burden. The advantage to a long term deal is that you can hide tons of money in ways that doesn't limit your flexibility in the short term.
They are either paying them the same or more but the books report less for the current year. Basically, the team guarantees the player some of their base salary. The player will usually get the same amount of money IF they make it to the end of their contract.
Milton. Couldn't agree more with you on JPP. And I'm praying we can get Zeitler.
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have roughly $88M and $49M more cap room than Dallas will have after they cut Romo. Many other teams will have a chance to outbid the Giants (and Cowboys) for JPP.
Nobody will have a chance to outbid the Giants for JPP if he is tagged. Ergo, he will be tagged. It's a no-brainer.
The Giants need to worry about being outbid for Kevin Zeitler and Jack Doyle, not JPP.
You are completely correct, they could use that extra space for draft picks but it will do no good in free agency. Forgot about that detail. Makes these restructures 100% necessary to get under the cap but they will have very little to spend on 3/9.
Dallas has approximately $4,000,000. of CAP space with the recent restructures. The Cowboys CAP estimates vary from $3,900,000 to $6,800,00 for the top 51 players under contract.
So what can they do with this money?
The CAP has to be reduced by set CAP commitments.
Dallas “Rookie Pool” is estimated at $4,559,006. The estimated CAP impact of the "Rookie Pool" ,based upon the top 51 contracts is, $1,514,006
Most teams prefer to have +/- $3,000,000 to work with during the season.
Effectively the “Rookie Pool” and in season cushion reduces the Dallas CAP by $4,514,006.
Therefore, the Cowboys have either (-) $600,000 or + $2,300,000 to fill their roster (the variation is based upon calculating the top 51 contracts and the actual CAP)
Releasing or trading Romo prior to June 1st would free up another $5,100,00.
This would give the Cowboys potentially +/- $5,600,00 - $7,800,000 to spend to fill out their roster.
What complicates the Cowboys spending is that they have 22 of their own free agents. At least (7) of these players were significant contributors in 2016. The $5-$7.8M will not cover these contracts.
Dallas will likely have to restructure other contracts to create more CAP space to sign their own and to sign others.
Sean Lee, Jason Witten, and Doug Free are the likely candidates for extension.
They all come with a risk. Lee, 30, is a great player but he is oft injured, and his contract runs through 2019. Will Dallas consider extending Lee?
Witten is at the end of a great career. It is more likely that Dallas would cut him rather than to extend his contract. Witten is 34 and in the last year of his contract. Do the Cowboys extend him?
Free is 33. Do the Cowboys extend his contract past this year? It would be tough considering how much money they have invested in the offensive line.
Shhhhhhh. This is BBI. We've been fearing the almighty Cowboys every year this site has been in existence. They ALWAYS make the best moves and have the best players. Every. Single. Year.
I'm not sure about you, but I sure am tired of seeing them win the Super Bowl every damn year.
QB Kellen Moore
QB Mark Sanchez
RB Lance Dunbar
RB Darren McFadden
WR Brice Butler
WR Terrance Williams
TE Gavin Escobar
G Jonathan Cooper
G Ronald Leary
DT Richard Ash
DT Jack Crawford
DE Ryan Davis
DT Terrell McClain
LB Andrew Gachkar
LB Justin Durant
LB Rolando McClain
CB Brandon Carr
S Barry Church
CB Morris Claiborne
S J.J. Wilcox
Someone please make the case against the Giants re-signing JPP. I don't want to face Dak twice a year without JPP, but if Dallas also had JPP you would really wonder what management was thinking.
How about converting Eli's next two years salary into a bonus and extending him one year? The Giants could pick up +/- $10M
Or
Extending Pugh and picking up an additional $6M?
Or
Dropping some players (Thomas, Harris ) and saving another $4M)
This could create another $20M and increase the Giants CAP to $52M.
We are literally the only team he can sign with if we choose to exercise our contractual rights to him under league rules.
And why wouldn't we.
QB Kellen Moore
QB Mark Sanchez
RB Lance Dunbar - 13% of offensive snaps
RB Darren McFadden
WR Brice Butler - 41% of offensive snaps
WR Terrance Williams - 70% of offensive snaps
TE Gavin Escobar - 15% of offensive snaps
G Jonathan Cooper
G Ronald Leary - 76% of offensive snaps
DT Richard Ash
DT Jack Crawford - 50% of defensive snaps
DE Ryan Davis - 15% of defensive snaps
DT Terrell McClain - 44% of defensive snaps
LB Andrew Gachkar
LB Justin Durant - 26% of defensive snaps
LB Rolando McClain
CB Brandon Carr - 96% of defensive snaps
S Barry Church - 64% of defensive snaps
CB Morris Claiborne - 38% of defensive snaps
S J.J. Wilcox - 53% of defensive snaps
Some guys with significant playing time as unrestricted free agents. The cowboys currently have enough cap space to cover their draft picks. I guess they will just have to replace the playing time of essentially 7-9 starters in the draft. Easy peazy.
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In comment 13365968 Johnny5 said:
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In comment 13365952 Deej said:
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the bill will come due in Dallas for all these restructurings"
- BBI, for the 11th consecutive year
LOL, thank you, that was funny
If you don't think the bill has come due for the Cowboys, check out how many playoff games they've won in the last eleven years. It's not unrelated to their salary cap situation.
Agree, the Cowboys were at/near the top of the NFL as long as J.J. could buy-up the league's best talent without a Salary Cap to worry about. Since the full impact of the salary cap kicked in, not so much.
In fairness, it's largely exaggerated that the Cowboys kicked ass because there was no cap.
If you recall how that monster dynasty was built, it was built off an idiotic Herschel Walker trade netting them a million draft picks and then a super fortunate trade with SF to get a toxic Haley off the team (where Dallas wasn't viewed as a threat at the time).
If I recall correctly, the only real expensive guys on that team were Aikman, Irvin, Smith and Haley. The rest of the team wasn't that expensive. And while the OL was dominant, they weren't all top 5 picks either.
You find a way to repeat that trade today with a good GM, and you would create a monster in no time.
Instead of asking when was the last time the Giants had a player play under the franchise tag, ask when was the last time the Giants allowed a player to hit free agency who was worthy of a monster contract? There's a reason the Giants only get 6th and 7th round comp picks when players leave for free agency.
Instead of asking when was the last time the Giants had a player play under the franchise tag, ask when was the last time the Giants allowed a player to hit free agency who was worthy of a monster contract? There's a reason the Giants only get 6th and 7th round comp picks when players leave for free agency.
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JPP
Is this the word out of Dallas' camp or JPP's camp?
I think its the word out of Anthony Davis camp...
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a post June 1 cut is useless in free agency. They will bite the bullet this years.
You are completely correct, they could use that extra space for draft picks but it will do no good in free agency. Forgot about that detail. Makes these restructures 100% necessary to get under the cap but they will have very little to spend on 3/9.
Why wouldn't it impact FA? You are allowed to cut someone now (IIRC, you're limited to 2 players) and designate them a June 1 cut. So it would help with free agency.
You can only pro-rate signing bonuses (or the equivalent) over 5 years and Smith and Frederick signed for 7-8 years (IIRC) so they didn't need to add any years. This was basically a planned strategy by Dallas to have large base salaries and continually re-structure to save some current cap $$$.
They did something similar with Romo's latest (still current) deal too which highlights the danger of this strategy. He initially signed a 6 yr/$108M deal in 2013 with $25M guaranteed ($5M per season through 2017). Then in 2014, he restructured and converted $12.5M to a bonus to "save" $10M on the 2014 cap but add $2.5M to his cap hit each successive year. So his total cap hits now had $7.5M "guaranteed" thru 2017 and $2.5M gtd in 2018. Then he restructured again in 2015 to save $12.8M in 2015 cap space at the expense of an additional $3.2M on each successive years cap. So now the gtd portion of his cap hits thru 2017 were $10.7M plus $5.7M in 2018 and $3.2M in 2019. Fast forward to now and he still has 3 years and $19.6M in these prorated bonuses remaining. Which means that the Cowboys will be using ~$20M of their cap dollars between 2017/18 on someone that is unlikely to even be on their roster. Even if they elect to spread the pain over 2 years, you're looking at ~6% of the cap on someone that won't help?
So how is this a good strategy?
And while he's been a model of good health for most of his career, Smith did miss a few games due to a back injury in 2016. What if that becomes a recurring issue? Or if he's able to play through it, but his play drops off a bit? The other downside to this strategy is that the team has zero leverage if a player starts under producing because the dead money hit would be crippling if they were to cut them. For example, even before this latest structure, Smith would've cost more (in cap $$) if cut, then if on the Dallas team for 2017. And after the restructure, 2018 will be the same.
QB Kellen Moore
QB Mark Sanchez
RB Lance Dunbar
RB Darren McFadden
WR Brice Butler
WR Terrance Williams
TE Gavin Escobar
G Jonathan Cooper
G Ronald Leary
DT Richard Ash
DT Jack Crawford
DE Ryan Davis
DT Terrell McClain
LB Andrew Gachkar
LB Justin Durant
LB Rolando McClain
CB Brandon Carr
S Barry Church
CB Morris Claiborne
S J.J. Wilcox (primary backup to Church)
With starters highlighted. May not be any stars, but that's a lot of solid depth to (potentially) lose. And there's 0 chance that they are retaining most of that list and stealing JPP.
Just because teams have room to spend does not mean they will lavishly overspend on players - there are long term ramifications on the entire team. You sign top players to huge contracts, everyone else then expects more. It is not as easy as just having the space
I believe they were already at 6 or 7 years, so adding more years wouldn't spread the cost. You can only amortize the bonus over the first (up to) 5 years from when it is paid.
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In comment 13366014 WillieYoung said:
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a post June 1 cut is useless in free agency. They will bite the bullet this years.
You are completely correct, they could use that extra space for draft picks but it will do no good in free agency. Forgot about that detail. Makes these restructures 100% necessary to get under the cap but they will have very little to spend on 3/9.
Why wouldn't it impact FA? You are allowed to cut someone now (IIRC, you're limited to 2 players) and designate them a June 1 cut. So it would help with free agency.
Even though someone is designated a post-June 1st cut, that extra money doesn't come off of the team's cap until June 2nd. Look at this article from Over the Cap. They can save $5M by cutting Romo now but that extra $9M stays on the cap until June either way.
When you designate someone as a June 1 cut the player and his current contract remain on the books until June 1. Going back to the Breaston example has he been designated a June 1 cut his cap charge today would not be $1 million with $2 million on the books in 2014. His cap charge would be $5 million dollars, the same cap charge as if they never cut him at all. When June 1st hits his cap then moves down to $1 million and the other $2 million accelerate into the 2014 season. By that point in time free agency is finished and the extra cap room does not do the team much good. They would have been in a far better cap position during the important time of free agency by releasing Breaston outright as the Chiefs did.
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The total of actual free agents on the Dallas roster last year was 6.
Under Stephen Jones that last 5 years or so Dallas has not been players in free agency. Stephen Jones changed the philosophy of free agency by not going after the big ticket players like Jerry often did. Dallas now waits until the signing frenzy has finished and concentrates on value free agents. These players serve as bridge players till Dallas is able to find their replacement through the draft.
The way the Dallas off season will go is Dallas will resign a few of their own free agents. Then will sign one to two value free agents. The majority of the talent acquisition will happen in the draft. Between these and getting back players that were on IR last year(i.e. Smith and Tapper) Dallas will be able to field another competitive squad for 2017.
Dallas doesn't go after top tier free agents because Jones has changed the Dallas free agency philosophy. It's not about free agency, it's about the draft.
If Dallas wanted they could operate like they did under Jerry and restructure many deals and create the cap space available to go after any player they wish. That's what most posters believe is still happening, but Dallas doesn't operate that way anymore.
The contract that Hardy signed was highly incentive laden and very club friendly. Hardy didn't have the effect on the defense that he was brought in for. He played one year and it didn't work out. Gigantic disaster on Dallas's part of course because Dallas is the only team that has ever had a free agent not play up to expectations.
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got saved by the draft they had last year.
It will only look sweeter if Jaylon Smith returns to form and excels like he did in college.
He's basically a 2017 draft pick. Crazy. He would easily go top 10 in this year's draft, probably before Rueben Foster.
Sick to my stomach thinking about it, thanks for the reminder.
Hardy played 12 games for Dallas and got 9 million.
When Dallas signed Hardy he was considered the top pass rusher in free agency that year. Nine million for the top DE in free agency for one year is below the market average, money wise. Now, that he didn't give Dallas what they were expecting out of him on the field is another story. But in dollars and cents, Dallas got a good deal.
I can't make this up.
I can't wait to see what garbage secondary and defensive line they trot out next year. Hell when Dez invariably is out for a couple of games it can be the incredible Cole Beasley show at wide receiver.
Their team doesn't even have the illusion of depth at most roster positions.