While there are several stories out there about the Cowboys’ potential problems in getting under the proposed salary cap of the $120 million neighborhood once the new CBA is announced – hopefully by the end of this week.
Certainly there are many factors involved with different stipulations likely making this anything but a black-and-white issue. But once it’s all said it done, the Cowboys could be anywhere from $15 to $19 million over the cap.
Problem? Yeah maybe, especially when you see teams like Tampa Bay being something like $59 million under the cap. And the new rules will likely force teams to spend most of that money. It can be an all-out bidding war for the top-name free agents and I’m not sure how the Cowboys can even compete with that.
For the Cowboys to just keep their own guys and get under the cap, they’re going to have to get creative once again. Expect players such as Tony Romo, DeMarcus Ware and maybe Miles Austin to rework their current contracts. That alone could potentially put the team under the cap for this year. Remember, that’s this year.
These guys aren’t taking less money. Just moving it around where they count less this year. Obviously, it means pushing money back into later years.
We all remember the Cowboys got into trouble doing that in the mid-90’s, redoing deals for guys like Troy, Emmitt, Michael, Deion and several others. It worked for a while but then by the start of the 2000 season, the Cowboys had about one-third of their cap tied up in dead money.
So reworking deals can help, but only if it’s for players that will be around for a while and can still produce at a high level. If the Cowboys stick with guys like Ware, Austin and Romo, then it might not hurt them in the long run. But trying to re-work deals for Terence Newman or Leonard Davis or Andre Gurode might not be in the best interest.
Certainly there are many factors involved with different stipulations likely making this anything but a black-and-white issue. But once it’s all said it done, the Cowboys could be anywhere from $15 to $19 million over the cap.
Problem? Yeah maybe, especially when you see teams like Tampa Bay being something like $59 million under the cap. And the new rules will likely force teams to spend most of that money. It can be an all-out bidding war for the top-name free agents and I’m not sure how the Cowboys can even compete with that.
For the Cowboys to just keep their own guys and get under the cap, they’re going to have to get creative once again. Expect players such as Tony Romo, DeMarcus Ware and maybe Miles Austin to rework their current contracts. That alone could potentially put the team under the cap for this year. Remember, that’s this year.
These guys aren’t taking less money. Just moving it around where they count less this year. Obviously, it means pushing money back into later years.
We all remember the Cowboys got into trouble doing that in the mid-90’s, redoing deals for guys like Troy, Emmitt, Michael, Deion and several others. It worked for a while but then by the start of the 2000 season, the Cowboys had about one-third of their cap tied up in dead money.
So reworking deals can help, but only if it’s for players that will be around for a while and can still produce at a high level. If the Cowboys stick with guys like Ware, Austin and Romo, then it might not hurt them in the long run. But trying to re-work deals for Terence Newman or Leonard Davis or Andre Gurode might not be in the best interest.