Archer: Dez Bryant deal opens up Cowboys' cap options

boozeman

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Dez Bryant deal opens up Cowboys' cap options

9h




Todd Archer, ESPN Staff Writer


IRVING, Texas -- Now that Dez Bryant's contract is finalized, what's next for the Dallas Cowboys?

By signing Bryant to a five-year, $70 million deal that included a $20 million signing bonus, the Cowboys actually gained salary-cap space. Bryant had been counting $12.823 million, the cost of the franchise tag, against the Cowboys’ cap. Now with his $3 million base salary in 2015, Bryant will count $7 million against the cap in 2015.

Before Bryant's deal, ESPN Stats & Information had the Cowboys with $11.665 million in cap space. Add in the $5.823 million gained by Bryant’s deal and the Cowboys are in excellent shape.

Until Greg Hardy's suspension is finalized, the Cowboys can't know for sure how much space they will need for his per-game roster bonuses. He had his suspension reduced from 10 games to four last week but is considering legal action against the NFL to potentially reduce the suspension more. If he is successful with a potential lawsuit and has the suspension reduced to two games the Cowboys would need roughly $1.2 million more in cap space for those roster bonuses.

Whether the suspension is four or two games, the Cowboys would be in position to do whatever they want in either adding a free agent, picking up a player via trade or signing one of their own players to an extension.

Historically, the Cowboys have locked up their core players to long-term deals before their contract expires. Bryant was the exception with the franchise tag.

The most logical target for a possible extension is defensive tackle Tyrone Crawford. He is set to make $675,000 on the final year of his rookie contract. He has just three sacks in his career but the Cowboys view him as a cornerstone piece to their defense. After missing the 2013 season with a torn Achilles, Crawford transitioned quickly to the tackle spot, blending power and athleticism on the interior of the line.

But finding the map to a deal for Crawford could be difficult. The Cowboys would like to buy low now to avoid having to spend high later if he has the type of season they expect. But Crawford could look to choose to cash in now after making relatively little money in his first three seasons.

Of course, the Cowboys don't have to spend the space they gained from the Bryant contract at all.

They can simply choose to carry over their unused space in 2015 to 2016. Why might that be the smarter play? Perhaps the Cowboys would want to look at extending the deal of center Travis Frederick.

Rules prevent the Cowboys from extending Frederick's deal until after he completes his third season. He is signed through 2016, and the Cowboys hold a fifth-year option on his deal that must be exercised next spring. If they give Frederick an extension sooner rather than later, they can space out the effects of the contracts to Tyron Smith, Frederick and Zack Martin and perhaps better manage their salary cap.

Frederick has started every game he has played since the Cowboys took him in the first round and made his first Pro Bowl last season. Like Smith, who signed a 10-year deal last year, Frederick is a cornerstone piece of the offense.

With Bryant's deal, the Cowboys have avoided a potential headache had the star receiver chose to skip training camp and possibly regular season games, but they have also been able to put themselves in better control of their salary cap in the future.
 

Clay_Allison

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I'd sound out Crawford and his agents to see if he wants to be cool with a team friendly extension. If not, well, lets not get ahead of ourselves. I think this guy could pull a Hatcher and do an 11 sack season this year but I don't KNOW that he will, and I feel like in this system a lot of guys can.
 

Simpleton

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Cameron Heyward signed for 6/59.2, although I haven't found how much is guaranteed, I'd guess somewhere around 20.

Heyward had 5.5 sacks in 2013 and 7 last year, with only 2.5 combined over his first two years, I'd imagine that if Crawford puts up at least 6 sacks this year we will be looking at having to pay him around 9 a year, and clearly there is potential there for more than 6. I'd take a shot at locking up Crawford for about 6-7 a year right now, if he just maintains his level of play from last season he's worth it, and we'd potentially be saving a couple million off the cap each year if he blows up this season.

All in all, I'm not that concerned about our cap situation. Our two best young players, Dez and Tyron, are locked up long-term on reasonable deals. By the time we have to pay guys like Martin, Frederick, Lawrence (if deserving), Gregory (if deserving) and Collins (if deserving), Romo, Witten, and Lee's big deals will almost be off the books, and of course Carr's bloated deal will be off the books as well.

Over the next 2-3 years it seems the only big pieces we have to be concerned with signing long-term are Crawford and potentially Hardy if he has a solid year, guys like Williams and Wilcox will come up for deals as well but they clearly won't be expensive, nor are they particularly critical pieces to re-sign if their demands get out of hand.
 
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dallen

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I'd sound out Crawford and his agents to see if he wants to be cool with a team friendly extension. If not, well, lets not get ahead of ourselves. I think this guy could pull a Hatcher and do an 11 sack season this year but I don't KNOW that he will, and I feel like in this system a lot of guys can.
Yeah. We have Hardy to think about resigning too
 

Cowboysrock55

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Yeah. We have Hardy to think about resigning too
Yeah and it's not like Hardy is a 30 year old veteran or something. I mean he is a 26 year old elite probowl talent at DE. We should want to resign him as bad as anyone on the roster after this year as long as he plays well.
 

L.T. Fan

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Yeah and it's not like Hardy is a 30 year old veteran or something. I mean he is a 26 year old elite probowl talent at DE. We should want to resign him as bad as anyone on the roster after this year as long as he plays well.
That's right. At the moment he is a question mark. He has the history but that may or may not translate to success with the Cowboys.
 

Cowboysrock55

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The problem with Crawford is that we have left the depth there so bare. At DE with Gregory, Lawrence, Hardy and Mincey we have great young talent and experienced talent. At DT we basically have Crawford and nothing else. If we lose Crawford we are going to be in scramble mode. Maybe Ryan Russel can shift into that 3 technique role a year down the road but he is basically the only hope. So after this year you either have to pay Crawford, pay a free agent or draft someone high. If I'm paying a free agent, you might as well pay Crawford since he has proven he can produce in this system.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Crawford's asking price will never be better than it is right now.
I agree, and I really wouldn't be surprised if he breaks off a 7+ sack season next year as a starter. Hell he is probably capable of having a Jason Hatcher type season with 10+ sacks. At his age if Crawford does that he could be looking at a really big pay day. I'd like to lock him up before he does that. Or move on just like we did from Hatcher.
 
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