KD Drummond - How Jaylon Smith, Randy Gregory lost seasons affect Cowboys contracts

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K.D. Drummond | January 28, 2017 6:00 pm ET

Control.

Over the past 12 months, Cowboys fans debated endlessly over two players who, in reality, barely made a dent on the 2016 season. Jaylon Smith and Randy Gregory were heavily searched names during the season, but that’s about it. Smith didn’t play a down for Dallas, recovering from January knee surgery. Gregory played the final two games of the regular season, and neither were meaningful contests as Dallas wrapped up the No. 1 NFC seed before he stepped foot on the field.

The fate of the two players for the 2016 season did have impact on the Cowboys situation in future years. The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) has some specific rules as far as players who don’t suit up for most of the season.

Jaylon Smith

If this were college, we’d consider 2016 as a medical redshirt year for Jaylon Smith. In fact, that’s essentially what happened. Smith received full pay for his season spent on the non-football injury list. The Cowboys didn’t have to do that, they could have negotiated a lesser payment.

Rookies not drafted in the first round all receive standard four-year contracts. The signing bonus changes from year to year, but each season the base salary increased by $15,000 over the same draft slot of the previous year. In 2015, Mario Edwards, Jr. was the third pick of the second round. His base salary was $435,000. Jaylon Smith’s base salary was $450,000.

When it comes to the parameters of his rookie deal, nothing changes for Jaylon Smith. His pay will equal what is already outlined. It’s when his contract expires, following the 2019 season, that things are affected by this redshirt year.

NFL free agency status is determined by what the league calls accrued seasons. If a player’s contract is over, and they have four or more accrued seasons, then that player is an unrestricted free agent. This is the case for most drafted rookies who remain with their club the duration of their rookie deals. Teams have a fifth-year option clause for first rounders, which is why so many teams want to move into the bottom of the first round each year.

If a player is released from his rookie deal, or if he’s an undrafted free agent who only signed a three-year deal, that’s when the stipulations come into a play.

A player out of contract with only three accrued seasons is a restricted free agent (RFA). If a player is out of contract with just two accrued seasons, then he’s an exclusive rights free agent (ERFA).

Per Article 8, Section 1 of the CBA, a player who spends the season on the NFI list like Smith did, does not accrue a season. There was confusion during the year when the Cowboys opened the three-week window in case Smith was ready to play. Some thought this, combined with Smith receiving full pay for the season, qualified 2016 as an accrued season, but that was not the case.

Per former agent Joel Corry, nothing changed about his status as he never made it onto the Cowboys 53-man roster.


Joel Corry
‏@corryjoel

Joel Corry Retweeted K.D. Drummond

Jaylon Smith isn't getting a year of service for free agency because of full pay by Dallas while on NFI. He's still on reserve/NFI.


This means if Smith returns in 2017 and plays in full for the duration of his rookie deal, he’ll be a restricted free agent at the end of his deal in 2019.

Teams retain a modest level of control on RFAs. At the beginning of the new league year, teams can submit qualifying offers to their RFAs. Based on the level of their tender, the club would receive compensation from another team should they sign said player to a new deal. The original club also has seven days to match this offer.

If Dallas doesn’t sign Smith to an extension prior to the expiration of his deal following the 2019 season, these are there options.

Randy Gregory

Gregory’s situation is pretty similar to Smith’s. As he was active for less than six games (and only paid for the two he played in), he will not accrue a season towards free agency either.

In fact, while many in Cowboys Nation cursed at the league for waiting so long to hear Gregory’s appeal (into the playoffs), maybe it was a favor to Gregory.

If the league had heard the appeal during the season and prior to Week 16, Gregory would have been suspended all 16 games. Players don’t get paid while suspended, meaning Gregory would have received no game checks from the last game of 2015 until late December 2017, at the earliest.

That’s right, the NFL actually did Gregory a favor.

One has to consider a wink-wink deal may have been made with the NFLPA and that’s why they dropped the appeal of the 10-game suspension which wiped him out from games 5-14 after the initial four-game ban.

As far as his contract, Gregory’s year-long ban will keep him from accruing a season in 2017 as well. In fact, if the ban holds and Gregory misses the entire regular season, his contract would toll for a season.

That means that whatever was in place for 2017 (base salary of $781,812) will move to his 2018 contract. His 2018 base will move to 2019, a year he currently isn’t under contract for.

As everything currently stands, the Cowboys will have full control of Gregory through the 2019 season, and at it’s conclusion, Gregory will be a RFA, not unrestricted.

The contract tolling actually just happened with the Cowboys and LB Rolando McClain. McClain was suspended for all of 2016, so his one-year deal carries over to 2017. It is currently unclear how Dallas possibly pursuing compensation for McClain’s signing bonus affects this status, or their plans.
 
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