Dallas Cowboys

Thoughts on the Romo Extension

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

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Big news of the day was the Dallas Cowboys giving Tony Romo a 6 year extension worth $108 million that will keep him in Dallas until 2019. Some people have gotten a little wrapped up in the overall value of the contract but it’s a number I had discussed in the offseason as a realistic point for him so I don’t think it’s surprising. The contract contains $55 million in guarantees of which $25 million come in the form of a signing bonus according to Todd Archer. $57 million will be paid in the first three seasons, though the 3 year new money average is $54 million.

Archer broke down the cap hits in his article which has Romo counting in excess of $20 million in 2014 and 2015 against the salary cap. The contract is clearly designed for the Cowboys to convert his base salaries in those seasons into prorated bonuses. If the Cowboys can keep Romo at those cap charges and not restructure him then the contract will likely end in 2016 when it becomes reasonable to absorb the dead money associated with cutting Romo. Every restructure adds at least 1 season to the real length of the contract so Dallas should only consider restructuring him in the future as a last resort.

I think a question that should be asked of the Cowboys is why did it take so long to get this deal done?  Clearly there was no hard bargaining position being taken by Dallas as evidenced by the guarantees and overall contract value. Had they extended Romo back in February they likely could have done a better job of creating more team friendly restructures or avoided restructuring entirely some older and/or questionable talent who the Cowboys will now be stuck with for at least one more season.

Romo is always a polarizing subject because he is a great statistical QB but has failed to win any meaningful games in his career. QB’s are often paid for winning and Romo’s $18 million APY is the first non-winning QB to really break the barrier. Prior to Romo’s deal the closest would have been Mike Vick’s $16 million per year average with the Eagles and then Phillip Rivers and Matt Schaub both making over $15 million. Romo’s $18 million likely sets a new floor point for players such as the Lions’ Matt Stafford who are younger than Romo but also showing limited team success.

View Tony Romo’s  Cap Page

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Dead Money and the Dallas Cowboys

Posted on by Andrew

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Over the past few weeks we’ve seen, both on this website and throughout the media, articles concerning all the contract restructuring the Dallas Cowboys have done. However, rarely (except for here on OverTheCap.com), has it been pointed out all the dead money accumulation in the future the Cowboys have put together in the process of these restructures. Sure, most places mention how much cap space the team cleared for 2013, and a lot of people will look at it and think it’s a great thing. As we’ve alluded to a million times here, this great news is not always what it’s cracked up to be. Specifically with the Cowboys, Jason has written a bunch about the mess they’re in now and will continue to be in down the line. Based on all that, I wanted to take a look at just where all the dead money is tied up with the Cowboys now and in the future. Keep in mind that the dead money totals in this post do not include amounts from any projections of rookie signing bonuses and/or guaranteed salaries, and so these numbers will be changing soon.

For those who are unfamiliar with the concept of dead money and how it applies to a team’s salary cap (for those who are, just skip this paragraph), dead money doesn’t refer to what it costs on a team’s salary cap to keep a player on their roster for the season. Dead money refers to how much money a player will cost a team on the salary cap if the team cuts ties with that player (or in some cases, trades that player). In a given year, a player’s dead money count can come from a number of things, such as signing bonus proration from future years that have accelerated to the current year due to the player being released, guaranteed base salaries down the line, etc. Calculating dead money isn’t one set formula for every player, many have unique contract structures that will drastically alter that player’s dead money total in a certain year; the specific point in the year when the player is released and/or traded can also have an effect (See Jason’s many posts on some guy named Revis, Darrelle). Dead money totals in the future can become extremely concerning to a team’s salary cap situation; older players who are no longer performing at the necessary level with big dead money hits from contracts negotiated in their prime become prohibitive (due to the money that accelerates to the current year’s cap when an older player with big dead money hits gets released). Thus, the dead money totals you see aren’t what these players are costing the Cowboys today, but instead it is what it would cost against the cap if these players were released in the specific year listed. Keep in mind that if a player is released, his dead money totals in the future no longer apply. This means, if Player X is released in 2013, he no longer has a dead money total in 2014 and beyond. Most dead money totals from future years simply accelerate into the current year’s salary cap.

2013

As mentioned above, we’ve heard a million times about all the restructures the Cowboys have done to free up cap space now. As such, I didn’t want to spend so much time on the dead money this year since, well, 2013 is already here. Regardless, as of today, Dallas has about $168,629,424 in dead money on the roster. The five largest amounts of dead money for the Cowboys in 2013 come from Brandon Carr ($22,300,000), DeMarcus Ware ($15,823,943), Tony Romo ($13,499,835), Morris Claiborne ($13,307,320) and Jason Witten ($12,060,000). Safe to say these players aren’t going anywhere this year, so their dead money totals as of right now are an afterthought.

2014

As of now, the Cowboys have 30 players on the roster whose contracts carry dead money totals into 2014. The total amount of dead money for 2014 is currently $97,616,072. The highest dead money players may be in their 20’s at this point (Carr wth $16.868 million and Claiborne with $9,610,842), but the average age of the next 6 players is 31.8:

Witten (32):    $8,648,000

Ware (32):       $8,571,500

Romo (34):      $8,181,000

Austin (30):    $7,855,600

Free (30):        $7,000,000

Ratliff (33):     $6,928,000)

The 6 players listed directly above account for 48.3% of all potential dead money on the Cowboys cap in 2014.

2015

In 2015, the Cowboys have 20 players with dead money totals for a sum of $56,492,180. Of the 11 highest dead money hits on the team, only 3 will be in their 20’s:

Carr (29):        $12.151,000

Claiborne(25): $5,175,069

Scandrick(28): $3,602,500

The other 8 highest dead money totals come from players who are age 31 and over:

Ware (33):       $5,317,750

Witten (33):    $5,236,000

Austin (31):    $5,106,200

Romo (35):      $4,908,000

Ratliff (34):     $4,196,000

Free (31):        $3,980,000

Orton (32):      $2,000,000

Livings (33)     $1,400,000

The average age of those 8 players is 32.75, and they would account 56.89% of the potential dead money on Dallas’ cap that year (as constructed today).

2016

As of now, the Cowboys have 13 players carrying dead money into 2016 for a total of $22,079,050. The problem here is that the top 5 are all age 30 and over, with the only one in the top 8 (dead money of $1 million or more) under 30 is Orlando Scandrick.

Carr (30):        $7,434,000

Austin (32):    $2,356,800

Ware (34):       $2,064,000

Witten (34):    $1,824,000

Romo (36):      $1,635,000

Scandrick(29): $1,501,250

Ratliff (35):     $1,464,000

Orton (33):      $1,000,000

While most of these figures for 2016 obviously aren’t huge, the Cowboys are a team that haven’t exactly left themselves in the best salary cap situation year after year, and so every available dollar counts. The point of this post isn’t really to say that they’re absolutely doomed down the line, or that they can’t get out of it, because I’m sure there are ways they can at least ease the burden. The point is, the Cowboys certainly do have a large amount of dead money tied into aging players and, unless they are extremely confident these players will play at a high level throughout the life of their contracts, this is just not a great practice. It’s more than likely a lot of these players won’t be on the team this long; most will probably be released at some time and so this team is going to see a large accumulation of dead money onto their salary cap at some point. Whether or not the Cowboys can find a way to balance the likely hits their cap will take remains to be seen, but what we can say as of right now is that we wouldn’t want to be them when it happens.

Twitter: @AndrewOTC

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Miles Austin to be released?

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

Though I think this was as much Adam thinking it makes sense versus an actual rumor it would certainly make sense for it to happen:

Dallas signed Miles Austin to a terrible contract worth $54.1 million dollars back in 2010 with just over $17 million in guarantees off of one season of high level play where his receiving yards spiked to 1320 received yards. Austin never has come close to approaching those numbers again and it is really no surprise. Part of the reason Dallas signed Austin to this contract was due to the uncapped year in which they thought they could outsmart the system by dumping $17.078 million dollars into the 2010 season. That would eliminate all of the guarantees in the contract and give Dallas the chance to cut him free and clear in the future.

But once the cap returned in 2011 and Dallas found themselves in a pinch they converted base salary into a signing bonus and thus added dead money into Austin’s contract. The Cowboys were then handed a large cap penalty for their treatment of this contract by the NFL which they are still paying of this season. Dallas had never given a contractual structure to a player before like they had given to Austin and clearly were using the uncapped season in a manner not normal for their team. The fact that they turned around and converted salary into a prorated bonus the following year was just more evidence pointing to the Cowboys though process as it pertained to this contract.

Due to the decision to prorate his money, cutting Austin will now cost the Cowboys $4.713 million in dead money. This represents $3.59 million in cap savings over his current cap number, the largest savings on the team. Dallas is currently well over the salary cap with little room to maneuver.  They are one of the most poorly run franchises in the NFL in terms of cap management often overpaying players to become Cowboys and leaving them little leverage to renegotiate deals downwards for cap relief. The Austin deal looks even worse when you consider that they had invested so much into Roy Williams in 2008, an epic failure at the same position, and learned nothing from that situation. Slowly but surely the Cowboys are turning into the Oakland Raiders of the last decade when it comes to cap management.

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NFL.Com Reports Cowboys Barry Church Receives $3.9 million Guaranteed

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

Ian Rapoport of NFL.com has some more details on the contract extension signed by S Barry Church with the Dallas Cowboys:

The Dallas Cowboys signed safety Barry Church to a four-year contract extension worth $12.4 million with $3.9 million guaranteed, a source who has been briefed on the deal said Friday.

The contract would seem to be an example of why players enjoy playing for Jerry Jones and why the Cowboys often find themselves in tight cap positions most seasons. Church is currently on IR with an Achilles injury and has started a total of 4 games in his 3 year career.  Set to be a restricted free agent the Cowboys would have essentially controlled Church’s right for the next season at a price tag no higher than about $2.5 million, none of which would have been guaranteed.The Pittsburgh Steelers for instance refused to give their star wideout Mike Wallace, a far superior talent, an extension this year instead forcing him to play on the RFA tag for $2.742 million.

While the full details are not known of the base value of the contract or structure of the guarantees, an annual value of about $3.1 million would seem to be a big win for an injured player that had no leverage in his negotiation. S Eric Smith of the NY Jets received a $2.18 million per year extension with $1.5 million in full guarantees in 2011, starting 10 games for the club in the prior two years. Smith is older than Church, but that would seem to be closer to the market than what the Cowboys decided to do here.