Dallas Cowboys 2016 Salary Cap Overview: Potential Cap Savings

Cotton

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[FONT=proxima_regular]Dallas Cowboys 2016 Salary Cap Overview: Potential Cap Savings


[FONT=proxima_extrabold]KD DRUMMOND
Friday at 1:23 PM

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[FONT=proxima_regular]The Cowboys might have the ability to reasonably create almost $48 million in 2016 cap space. Here's how.

How a team maneuvers through free agency is dictated by their approach towards, and flexibility within the salary cap. Some teams, like the Cowboys, prefer to operate near the cap limit on an annual basis. Dallas isn’t a team in dire financial straits, and feels the best approach is to max out on expenditures. The change to the CBA in 2011, allowing teams to rollover unused cap space has altered this approach some, but Dallas is still expected to flirt with the cap ceiling annually, and 2016 should be no different.

Expected NFL Salary Cap: $153 million

In December, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the league told teams to expect a salary cap of between $150 and $153 million. Since last May, CowboysHQ has operated under theassumption the cap would be at least $153 million, up from $143m in 2014. Since then, the league has agreed to the financial bonanza-inducing move of the St. Louis Rams to Los Angeles. We fully expect $153m to now be the minimum level.

Expected Cowboys 2015 Cap Carryover: Approx. $4 million

According to the NFLPA Public Salary Cap Report, Dallas ended the 2015 season with $3.57m left in cap space. That will be slightly altered by the adjustments for incentives that were built into the contracts. These include stat achievements, playing time levels and post-season award bonuses. There are two types of incentives.

First, likely-to-be-earned (LTBE) are benchmarks the player reached the previous season. These are included in the salary cap before the season starts. Not-likely-to-be-earned (NLTBE) are benchmarks the player didn’t reach the previous year, and are added to the cap (if earned) following the season. With such a down year for Dallas, we expect the heavier incentives to be unreached for several players and additional cap space to be earned for the Cowboys.

Current Cowboys “Top 51” 2016 Cap Commitment: Approx. $145 million

The “Top 51” rule means that to start the league year, teams are only held responsible for the cap charges of the Top 51 expensive cap hits. Roster sizes are increased to 90 players, and the Cowboys currently have 61 players under contract for 2016. In addition to the Top 51, players who were released from the team in 2015 (either offseason as “June 1st” or during the season) and had signing bonus money allocated to 2016 and beyond caps, have dead money. For Dallas, they enter the offseason with less than a million in dead money ($901,076). That’s a far cry from previous years and indicates a shift in Dallas’ financial management. That’s not to say Dallas won’t add to the total with cuts this offseason; they most definitely will. Per OverTheCap.com’s calculations, those totals bring Dallas’ current commitment to the above level.

Expected Cowboys Space To Start 2016: Approx. $12 million

With an expected cap of $153 million, $145 million committed to 2016 and rolling over approximately $4m in additional space from 2015, Dallas has an acceptable amount of room to make moves once the league year starts. It is unlikely, however, this is all they have to play with.

Potential Cap Space To Be Added: Up To $35.8 million

Dallas, as always, will decide which players aren’t worth the money they are scheduled to be paid in 2016. These players can either be released, released as June 1st cuts or have their salaries reduced. And as always, the Cowboys will also have the ability to restructure other deals to create additional cap space. It has been bandied about Dallas actually writes these contingencies into their contracts with star players. Here’s a list of players who may fall into either of these categories, and what Dallas stands to save. Please note, we are using OverTheCap.com's salary numbers here. If there are any discrepancies we will adjust accordingly.

PLAYER2016 CAP HIT2016 BASE SALARYADJUSTMENT TYPESGSTD NEW '16 BASECAP SAVINGS
Brandon Carr$13,817,000$9,100,000June 1st Release$0$9,100,000
Jason Witten$8,612,000$6,500,000Restructure$1,000,000$3,666,667
Dez Bryant$13,000,000$9,000,000Restructure$760,000$6,592,000
Tyron Smith$14,000,000$10,000,000Restructure$760,000$7,392,000
Barry Church$4,750,000$4,250,000Release$0$4,250,000
Tyrone Crawford$8,750,000$6,750,000Restructure$760,000$4,792,000
TOTAL$35,792,667.00

Brandon Carr:
Carr hasn’t had an interception in two years. Releasing him as a June 1st casualty will save his entire base salary of $9.1m in 2016. He has a voidable year in 2017 (fictional, only there to spread signing bonus around) and will have a dead money hit of $2.717m that was there already.

Jason Witten: Witten led Dallas in catches in 2015, but is probably no longer an upper echelon tight end. A restructure with a voidable year that converts his 2016 base salary into signing bonus and reduces his 2017 base salary is in order. A restructure of $5.5m over three years would give Dallas the above noted savings of $3.67m.

Dez Bryant: Bryant’s deal seems to be built-in with the trigger, question is if Dallas will choose to pull it. His 2015 season was ruined by the unnecessary holdout (CowboysHQ predicted $14m per year over a year ago) but it must bring into question whether he’ll see the end of the deal. That in turns questions whether a restructure is ideal. Reducing Dez to league minimum base would prorate $8.24m over five years ($1.648m per). $1.648m (restructure bonus)+ $.760m (new base salary) + $4m (signing bonus) = $6.4m cap hit instead of $13m.

Tyron Smith: Not that much of a concern here. Smith is underpaid for his skill and position and there’s plenty of wiggle room to keep his cap number from going above market value in future seasons.
Barry Church: Simply isn’t worth the high price tag.

Tyrone Crawford: I highly advised going above $4m a year for an unproven Crawford and he spent the year playing injured. His entire 2016 salary was already guaranteed though, so moving money from year to year might make plenty sense for the number’s guys in the organization.

Notice how Tony Romo’s contract is not included in this list. Based on Romo’s age and injury history, they simply must stop using his contract to create space. No matter how many years they claim to believe he still has left, they don’t need to condemn their future cap based on that pipe dream.

In our next Cap Look, we’ll identify the in-house free agent players Dallas might want to resign and what they’ll cost.

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Rev

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9 mill by releasing Carr? I would want them to do that if that doesn't mean we are guaranteed Ramsey.


I know a lot of us want to get rid of him but with him and Claiborne gone who is left? Scandrick if his knee is ok and that's it.
 
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Cowboysrock55

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9 mill by releasing Carr? I would want them to do that if that doesn't mean we are guaranteed Ramsey.


I know a lot of us want to get rid of him but with him and Claiborne gone who is left? Scandrick if his knee is ok and that's it.
Keep in mind that is as a June 1st cut. Which means we don't get that money until June 1st.
 

dallen

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9 mill by releasing Carr? I would want them to do that if that doesn't mean we are guaranteed Ramsey.


I know a lot of us want to get rid of him but with him and Claiborne gone who is left? Scandrick if his knee is ok and that's it.
No one is going to pay Carr that kind of money any more. If he stays I think it will have to be with a redone contract. Makes losing Sterling Moore for pennies look even worse. Maybe we can bring him back.
 

Simpleton

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Cutting Church and signing a safety is such an obvious move, the cap savings alone could easily pay for the first year of a contract for a guy like Weddle or Gipson.

As for Carr, we could conceivably sign a guy like Casey Hayward for a not too expensive deal and release Carr as a June 1 cut if he doesn't take a significant pay cut.
 

Smitty

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Might be better if you can just get Carr to agree to a serious pay cut like Doug Free did.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Might be better if you can just get Carr to agree to a serious pay cut like Doug Free did.
It's the last year of his contract though. Not sure he would do that without some sort of an extension thrown on it.
 

Rev

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It's the last year of his contract though. Not sure he would do that without some sort of an extension thrown on it.
Think he balked at restructuring last season as well.
 

boozeman

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Cutting Church and signing a safety is such an obvious move, the cap savings alone could easily pay for the first year of a contract for a guy like Weddle or Gipson.

As for Carr, we could conceivably sign a guy like Casey Hayward for a not too expensive deal and release Carr as a June 1 cut if he doesn't take a significant pay cut.
Mark my words, Church isn't getting cut.

When Goof Son refers to someone as a "core Cowboy", they are pretty much Teflon.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Mark my words, Church isn't getting cut.

When Goof Son refers to someone as a "core Cowboy", they are pretty much Teflon.
Yeah I don't get this one. The guy misses tackles, makes no plays in pass coverage and gets burned all the time. I'm just not sure what makes him better then basically any other NFL safety. Yet the Cowboys brass seems to love him and treats him like a top player on this defense.
 

ravidubey

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Keep in mind that is as a June 1st cut. Which means we don't get that money until June 1st.
A June 1st cut makes sense because they will know the outcome of the draft by then, but they shouldn't be afraid to release him earlier. The cap savings drop to 6,383,000 which is fine by me since it reduces his 2017 dead money by over 2 million.

I do like the idea of a restructure though. He's a decent corner and knows the system.
 

Rev

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He will affect the draft, though. I'm sure they are aware of his finances and will draft accordingly. Possibly it could be addressed in free agency I guess.
 

Cowboys2194

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Releasing Carr would make CB a priority in the Draft
We have bigger needs ( d-line,safety and linebacker)
 

UncleMilti

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You can draft a couple CBs in the later rounds to replace Carr and Mo. If the scouting dept does their job, there will be some growing pains but in the end there's not going to be a big drop off. Carr and Mo simply are not that good anymore.
 

townsend

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I think we're going to see more than growing pains if we dump 3 starting DBs. Still I don't see much way around it.
 

VA Cowboy

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9 mill by releasing Carr? I would want them to do that if that doesn't mean we are guaranteed Ramsey.


I know a lot of us want to get rid of him but with him and Claiborne gone who is left? Scandrick if his knee is ok and that's it.
If we don't sign a decent CB in free agency I'll be very concerned come draft day. Right now I'm dreaming of QB/DL going 1/2. But I'd actually be surprised if we did that. DL is so deep we could get a solid one at #34 or even in the 3rd. But I have no doubt we'll take a CB if not in the first then probably in the 2nd. Should have several available in the 3rd-4th range but we'll want to buy high.
 

boozeman

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I think we're going to see more than growing pains if we dump 3 starting DBs. Still I don't see much way around it.
I don't see it as a problem.


We have been working with Ryan corners for a few years.
 

Cowboys2194

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We do get scandrkck back tho but let's see what he's gonna bring after the ACL tear might not be the same
 
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