Fisher: Cowboys have leverage with Free's contract

boozeman

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Cowboys have leverage with Free's contract



MIKE FISHER |

Published: Sunday, May 05, 2013

IRVING – One of the moving pieces in the Dallas Cowboys' right tackle equation is moving.

Does it mean another piece is staying?

Tyson Clabo, Dallas' top-ranked free agent tackle and an upgrade over incumbent Doug Free, is signing with Miami, according to his agent. That transaction removes some of the leverage the Cowboys may have had over Free, who as of a few days ago "anticipates not being with the Cowboys" as of June 1, a source close to Free told FOX Sports Southwest.

But here's another puzzle piece: The Cowboys are involved in a charity effort this upcoming Wednesday. Among those scheduled to attend on behalf of the club?

Doug Free.

Free is trying to play hardball with the Cowboys by suggesting an unwillingness to accept Dallas' proposal that would substantially reduce his $7 million salary but allow him to likely retain his job starting at right tackle.

June 1 is the day Dallas can release Free and suffer the least amount of cap damage, as his $10-million impact will be allowed to be spread over two seasons. It is clear Dallas prefers to retain Free (but at its desired price). That's not just a matter of correcting an overpayment on him; it's also a matter of freeing up cap space that can be used, for instance, to lock up linebacker Sean Lee with a rich extension.

We think that (Jermey) Parnell and Free ... put us in great shape at our tackles," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said last week, citing the two players who rotated at right tackle at the end of last season. "We have a way here that Doug could flourish …"

That "way" is to cease overpaying him.

The Cowboys still have leverage in the form of at least two other veteran tackles on the market. They include Texas native Eric Winston (who is on-record as saying he'd sign for one year and $3 mil) and Winston Justice. The Cowboys personnel department tells me neither of them represent true upgrades over Free.

It's been suggested to me that Free will be made to know that Dallas wants a response before Monday.

"We want him back," Dallas exec Stephen Jones said of Free. "We'd love to have him here. I think he'd love to be here."

Maybe by Monday, Doug Free will be a Cowboy. Certainly by Wednesday he will be … in the form of being a charity-minded Cowboys volunteer.
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So...umm...how do we have leverage?

Now we have Eric Winston and ~snicker~ Winston Justice? Really? What if they want more than Clabo? And on what planet are they anywhere near Clabo's league?

Fact is, we screwed the pooch with Clabo...we really did. Now this guy wants to believe that these two represent leverage?

We have no leverage. Clabo took the last of that away, as did our reluctance to pony up a couple of million dollars.
 

Hawkeye19

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Fact is, we screwed the pooch with Clabo...we really did. Now this guy wants to believe that these two represent leverage?

We have no leverage. Clabo took the last of that away, as did our reluctance to pony up a couple of million dollars.[/QUOTE]

They were never serious about signing Clabo or upgrading RT... They were hoping he'd sign with Miami so they'd be "stuck" with Free and keep the status quo. Sure-- they're hoping he'll take a pay cut-- but why would he? They're willing to ride it out with him for another year and hope that either he or Parnell steps up and delivers.

It's gonna be awesome...
 

BipolarFuk

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it's also a matter of freeing up cap space that can be used, for instance, to lock up linebacker Sean Lee with a rich extension.
Shouldn't we be waiting to see if Mr. Glass can finish a full season first?

~remembers fucktarded front office~

Nevermind.
 

boozeman

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But hey, we've got Barry Church locked up.
There isn't a team in the NFL with more screwed up priorities than Dallas.

Even shitty teams like Jacksonville don't extend second year UDFAs coming off an Achilles injury.

All of these stupid little signings...Church, Costa, McCray...they add up and thanks to crap like that, we end up not being able to afford a measly 3M contract for a solid veteran.
 

ravidubey

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There isn't a team in the NFL with more screwed up priorities than Dallas.

Even shitty teams like Jacksonville don't extend second year UDFAs coming off an Achilles injury.

All of these stupid little signings...Church, Costa, McCray...they add up and thanks to crap like that, we end up not being able to afford a measly 3M contract for a solid veteran.
It's Jerry signing deals because he's lazy and can't stand the constant search and grind being an NFL GM really is on top of wanting credit for finding supposed diamonds in the rough. Jerry likes to sit back and admire his team, not constantly pick, prod, and tear it down like good NFL GM's do.
 

boozeman

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It's Jerry signing deals because he's lazy and can't stand the constant search and grind being an NFL GM really is on top of wanting credit for finding supposed diamonds in the rough. Jerry likes to sit back and admire his team, not constantly pick, prod, and tear it down like good NFL GM's do.
Compare what he does to what the Falcons do.

They were in the NFCC last year. What do they do?

Rest on their laurels like Jones does after a playoff appearance?

Say publicly nobody can make the team and take 12 ST guys in a draft?

Hell, the Falcons are actually talking about signing Richard Seymour once they clear cap space.
 

ravidubey

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Compare what he does to what the Falcons do.

They were in the NFCC last year. What do they do?

Rest on their laurels like Jones does after a playoff appearance?

Say publicly nobody can make the team and take 12 ST guys in a draft?

Hell, the Falcons are actually talking about signing Richard Seymour once they clear cap space.
I like how they are merciless with their WR corps. Mike Jenkins was a 1st round pick? Tough shit, CUT. Jerry would have resigned him to a blockbuster deal making him the league's highest paid WR.

Two third round picks are fighting for the right to be RT and the competition is good enough to kick Clabo to the curb. Their only problem is Matt Ryan is kind of a pretender and their DL is too light, but there's little they can do about the #1 pick overall.
 

boozeman

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Ian RapoportVerified account‏@RapSheet
#Cowboys playing hardball with Doug Free. Pay cut they're asking for is "substantial." Not $1-2M. Trying to draw it out, time on their side

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I still don't get it.

They are playing "hardball" with him....how?

They have no leverage. The only real thing in Free's mind is will he play for the outrageous money he's due for Dallas or take something from someone else. He's gotta know deep down he's ripped off these bumpkins for several seasons.

If they are playing hardball, he can just sit back and take a modest deal somewhere.

There are still teams that would give him a couple of million a year. He could probably take a deal right now with San Diego.
 

boozeman

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Free’s cap charge complicates Cowboys’ decision
Posted by Mike Florio on May 8, 2013, 8:44 AM EDT

For weeks, the Cowboys have been dancing around the issue of squeezing right tackle Doug Free to take less money in 2013.



The problem for the Cowboys comes from the money they’ve given him in the past.

For 2013, Free’s contract puts $3.02 million in prepaid bonus money against the cap. With his $7 million base salary, Free accounts for over $10 million in cap space this year.

Cutting him either after June 1 (or cutting him now with their one remaining post-June 1 designation for the year) would prevent future bonus allocations from hitting the current cap. Still, the Cowboys would carry $7.08 million in dead money on their 2014 cap, if Free is cut loose.



A pre-June 1 release becomes the equivalent of tearing off the Band-Aid in one motion, with the future cap charge exceeding by $80,000 the base salary Free would have earned this year. While it would save $7 million in cash and also clear him off the books, it’s not the best way to deal with a season in which the Cowboys have had $5 million in cap space stolen from them because they treated the uncapped year of 2010 as, you know, an uncapped year.




The delay likely is driven by a genuine desire to keep Free around at a lower salary, and to ensure that, if/when he becomes a free agent, there will be no one left to pay him anything close to what the Cowboys are offering.



With each passing day, the Cowboys’ leverage grows. At some point, that reported pay cut of $2 million will look like a bargain, because Free likely will have a hard time finding $5 million on the open market — especially since former Falcons right tackle Tyson Clabo, a 2010 Pro Bowler who has missed only one game since the start of the 2008 season, recently got only $3.5 million on a one-year deal from the Dolphins.
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I think Florio is misunderstanding the market. San Diego, if a game were to be played tomorrow, would be choosing between King Dunlap and Kevin Haslem as a starting left tackle. He can get a couple of million out of them, rather easily.

Carolina has Byron Bell at RT, Detroit has Corey Hilliard at RT.

If Gosder Cherilus can get a nice FA deal, Free pretty much can too. He's on that level, despite how negative we are about him.

My point is, there are still quite a few teams that are just as uncertain at tackle and didn't get answers in the draft.
 
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