The Restructuring Thread...

Report: Cowboys restructure Orlando Scandrick, Sean Lee

Posted by Curtis Crabtree on March 3, 2014, 10:48 PM EST



Several teams will enter free agency next week with money pouring out of their pockets to spend.

The Dallas Cowboys are not one of those teams.

Despite the salary cap being higher than initially anticipated, the Cowboys are still on the wrong side of it. They need to clear up cap space before the start of the 2014 league year on March 11 and have already planned to release Everette Brown and Phil Costa as a means of freeing up some space.

In addition, they are also restructuring the contracts of other veteran players. According to Mike Garafolo of Fox Sports, the Cowboys have restructured the contracts of cornerback Orlando Scandrick and linebacker Sean Lee. The reworked deals convert base salary into bonuses that can be prorated over the length of the contracts, thus lessening the cap hit for this season and deferring it to future years.

Per Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the restructured contracts freed up $8.5 million in cap space – $3.75 million from Scandrick and $4.75 for Lee.

Dallas had just given Scandrick a two-year extension in November and already needed to revisit the deal to fix their cap problems for next season.

DeMarcus Ware’s contract remains an issue that Dallas may have to deal with as well. His cap hit is the second highest of any player on the roster and releasing him would free up over $7 million in space. However, there still hasn’t been any movement on either a pay cut, restructure or release at this point.

Supposedly restructuring Romo and then cutting Jeremy Parnell and Justin Durant will put Dallas around even with the cap according to the "Stephen is a genius" cap nerds.

Given the increased cap, and the cap space we are carrying over from last year does anyone know how much we are over the cap anymore? I'm starting to get a sickening feeling that we aren't going to deal with that horrendous contract Ware has.

Kick the can down the road.

Irving Cowboy said:

Kick the can down the road.

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That's about all they can do at this point. The alternative is to release some players who have high salary structures against the cap. For some reason they are holding back on this approach but I expect it to happen by June.

L.T. Fan said:

That's about all they can do at this point. The alternative is to release some players who have high salary structures against the cap. For some reason they are holding back on this approach but I expect it to happen by June.

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Doing it in June does nothing additional for the team unless you're needing to sign guys in June or after.

Cowboysrock55 said:

Given the increased cap, and the cap space we are carrying over from last year does anyone know how much we are over the cap anymore? I'm starting to get a sickening feeling that we aren't going to deal with that horrendous contract Ware has.

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I think the cap hike (which I am sure Jerry knew about well in advance) will keep Ware safe. I doubt he takes a pay cut and given the state of the DL, we probably convert salary to bonus and continue to push dead money into the future. It is just what we do best.

Cowboysrock55 said:

Doing it in June does nothing additional for the team unless you're needing to sign guys in June or after.

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June will be Miles Austin's reckoning and we use his money to sign the draft picks.

Cowboys rework deals, near cap


Updated: March 4, 2014, 8:54 AM ET

By Todd Archer | ESPN.com




IRVING, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys will be less than $1 million over the salary cap after restructuring the contract of quarterback Tony Romo on Tuesday.

According to a source, the Cowboys will rework Romo's contract to create $10 million in salary cap space. The Cowboys will convert $12.5 million of Romo's $13.5 million base salary into a signing bonus, dropping his salary-cap figure from $21.773 million to $11.773 million.

Tony Romo, who signed a six-year contract extension last year worth $108 million, will receive a $12.5 million signing bonus this season as part of a restructured deal that will save the team $10 million against the salary cap.

Romo signed a six-year contract extension last year worth $108 million that included $55 million in guaranteed money. The Cowboys designed the contract to be restructured in the second year of the deal to create the room.

Romo is rehabbing from back surgery performed last December, but the Cowboys anticipate he will be able to take part in the full offseason program that begins April 21.

In addition, the Cowboys will finalize the restructured contracts of linebacker Sean Lee and Orlando Scandrick on Tuesday, which created $6.8 million in room, according to sources. The Cowboys signed Scandrick to a two-year extension late last season that guaranteed him $9 million. Lee signed a six-year extension worth as much as $51 million last summer.

The three restructured deals create $16.8 million of room, leaving the Cowboys less than $1 million from being under their $134.55 million cap. The Cowboys carried over $1.55 million in cap space from 2013.

The Cowboys do not plan to restructure the contracts of more players unless they need to find space to add players in free agency. At the NFL scouting combine, executive vice president Stephen Jones said the Cowboys will be "efficient" spenders in free agency.

The Cowboys have yet to decide the futures of DeMarcus Ware and Miles Austin.

Ware is set to count $16.003 million against the cap but the Cowboys would save $7.4 million by releasing him. It is possible they work out a new deal with Ware, which would also save money against the cap.

Austin is set to count $8.249 million against the cap, but the Cowboys can save $5.5 million by designating him a post-June 1 cut when the new league year starts next week.

The Cowboys attempted to get center Phil Costa to take a pay cut but he has refused. Despite reports, the Cowboys have not yet decided to release Costa, but that move would save them $1.5 million.

Now, it looks like we will have a little bit of play money in FA. Too bad Stephen says they would rather fill holes in the draft and not FA.

WTF?

Why is Costa still lingering around...especially after refusing a pay cut when he's already worthless?

Iamtdg said:

Now, it looks like we will have a little bit of play money in FA. Too bad Stephen says they would rather fill holes in the draft and not FA.

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Archer is vindicated.

Deuce said:

Archer is vindicated.

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You mean Fisher? Not really. Because the point still stands that all we are doing is kicking the can down the road, which inevitably causes you to push more dead money to future by signing aging players like Ware when we really shouldn't. Plus, we won't have much to spend, so the point still stands that we wouldn't be able to do much in FA.

Here is my point:

Iamtdg said:

Here is my point:

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YES!

We're #1!

NoDak said:

YES!

We're #1!

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#1 in salary cap numbers and defensive records. We kick ass.

That's great, but what is Restructing?

Iamtdg said:

You mean Fisher? Not really. Because the point still stands that all we are doing is kicking the can down the road, which inevitably causes you to push more dead money to future by signing aging players like Ware when we really shouldn't. Plus, we won't have much to spend, so the point still stands that we wouldn't be able to do much in FA.

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Fisher was ragging on people who really don't get the cap. The cap issues create unnecessary albatrosses that we will wear around our necks for years. That is just what we do.

What ultimately happens is that we cannot use the free agency period to plug holes prior to the draft, nor can we use it to sign top talent to overcome draft mistakes.

That would not be a bad thing if we drafted well, but we do not.

Deuce said:

WTF?

Why is Costa still lingering around...especially after refusing a pay cut when he's already worthless?

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"We like what we have in Costa." - Jerry Jones two camps ago.

Thankfully he is too stupid to take Jerry's money and run.

Costa will be converted to TE