I'm not saying his motivation is to pocket the savings. Obviously he's already tremendously wealthy and makes a huge salary from the operation regardless of a few million free agency dollars spent or not. He could just be more conservative than his dad. Risk-taking has a genetic component like everything else.
Nor am I saying be the Redskins and sign every big name out there so that you have to cut the good players you have.
But these FA players don't have huge cap numbers in the first years -- it's later on when they do. And our QB has about two years left at most. What are we waiting on? We need to do something soon or it won't matter. What good will it do to have a great cap situation when Tony is watching Netflix on his couch all day and we're running Dak Prescott out there every Sunday?
Im fine with spending if it would work, I just don't see it working that often and I don't have confidence in the "brain" trust that is the Cowboys to find these players that are worth the big bucks.
Admittedly, I'm still reeling from contracts to Carr, Barber, Roy Williams, Ratliff extension, Austin, etc where they would have been better in every case passing on these guys and keeping the roster spot and cap space.
I also think teams need to flip the way the contracts are absorbed. I.e. I think teams would be better off eating the bulk of the guaranteed money in the first 2 years so they can release the player after the 2nd year (if need be). It keeps pressure on the player by giving the team flexibility and leverage which I believe is a good thing. IIRC, Denver has done this with some of their recent high priced FA signings. For example, they can cut Ware and only have 1.7 M in dead cap space to absorb this year. They set up his contract to basically be a 2 year deal they can easily walk away from, yet keep him if they like, which allows them to have leverage in negotiations should they attempt to redo his deal.
