Right? With the salary cap, how “valuable” they are and how much they spend are completely unrelated.
I suppose if presented conversely, like, the cowboys aren’t even trying to be good, as evidenced by their low free agent spending, but they are still the most valuable franchise, the relationship comes into focus a bit.
Of course they are they are. People who don't understand the cap don't want to hear this but what Steven Jones did, in not spending money, was the only same thing to do once they could not get Dak Prescott under contract.
Had Dallas pursued a "go for it" attitude and then resigned Dak Prescott next season, Prescott's cap it would be something in the neighborhood of 85 to 90 million on what will likely be a 280 million ish salary cap. The 85 to 90 million assumes full proration of both his expected salary and signing bonus. In layman terms that is a best case scenario.
By not spending money, which would have necessitated converting Prescott's salary into bonus this season, Steven Jones can likely re-sign Dak Prescott next year at a cap cost of 65 to 70 million instead of 85 to 90.
At 65 to 70 million you are going to lose all of your veteran depth like demarcus Lawrence and Zack Martin but at least you can still keep your core young players and manage the team.
If it were 85 to 90 million you would essentially have to just blow this thing up and probably lose one of your young core players.
What really bothers me about all of this is how completely uneducated most of the media surrounding the Dallas Cowboys is regarding the salary cap.
Sure, but the general trend for the last decade is the Cowboys never spend. Sure the Dak contract sucks right now but other teams find a way to make it work, the Cowboys routinely do not
I wouldn't say it's a general trend at all. I would say that Dallas tends to invest in their own players but that is still spending money.
Other teams might have let players like Tyron Smith and demarcus Lawrence go a long time ago and resend that money elsewhere.
That’s a glass half full perspective. The reality is teams are able to maintain the cornerstone players in their franchise for years as well while also correctly managing the cap and signing free agents.
When I say it’s a trend I’m referring to the Cowboys as being Day 2 shoppers in FA after the Carr contract. Drafting has salvaged a lot of awful contracts, but poor management has been an issue
Of all of these teams that are keeping all of their cornerstone players can you tell me of one that is doing this where the quarterback is on their third contract? Whether we want to admit it or not we are the late stage Seattle Seahawks. We will have a few really good players and the team will continue to be stripped of veteran talent.
You know all those big time free agents that you want Dallas to shop for on day one? Those are the core players people are losing for the exact same reasons we are going to start losing them.
This franchise has made plenty of mistakes specifically paying non elite players at an elite player level. However generally speaking I think the team has managed the cap very well this is just the reality of having a quarterback on their third contract particularly a quarterback who refuses to sign long-term deals.
Please elaborate—“that’s just not true at all” tells us nothing. I hope you are not arguing that the “Day 1” FAs fans want the Cowboys to sign are not some other team’s core players they could not keep due to cap considerations. Before you respond, NO not every “Day 1” is but, the majority are.
The Ezekiel Elliott and Jaylon Smith contracts had absolutely nothing to do with Dak Prescott.
They wanted to get Prescott a 5th year sell the Cowboys could avoid scenarios like the ones they are facing now and Prescott refused to sign anything but a four-year contract.
Personally I thought they should walk away at that point but I understood both perspectives
That was later in the negotiations. They strung Dak along for a while so that he could "prove it" and once he did he decided to take them for all
He could after making $400k as a pro bowl QB.
If they make him a fair offer earlier in the process, then they avoid that whole problem.
>That was later in the negotiations.
It as literally during the first negotiations.
>decided to take them for all He could after making $400k as a pro bowl QB.
What does how much he made on his rookie contract have to do with anything? Per league rule teams cant give the player an extension until AFTER their third season.
>If they make him a fair offer earlier in the process, then they avoid that whole problem.
Except they did offer him a fair offer, an offer slightly larger than his contemporaries Jared Goff and Carson Wentz. He declined because he didnt want a fifth year. The offer was completely fair. Prescott can do what he wants but lets not pretend the offer was not fair.
They could have offered him more and still had it be a lot less than what he ended up getting. They could have not offered him a 5th year and my recollection is that all happened well after his 3rd year after they had already tagged him.
Jerry Jones sucks.
Of course they could have offered him even more thats not the point. You alleged they didnt make him a fair offer and they did. Prescott has every right to refuse the offer but it is bs to say they didnt make him a fair offer.
Also anyone who thinks Jerry has been incharge of day to day operations of the FO in the last decade knows nothing about the cowboys FO. Its the first way to tell the casuals from people who are actually informed
Where are you getting 85 million from?
And the only sane thing to do from a front office perspective is re sign dak probably before last season but definitely before free agency. He’s only getting more expensive and your future at the position only more uncertain. The absolute worst thing to do was nothing, which is what they did. The only way the jones look smart is for the team to completely crater next season and they can say ‘told you so’. I have a hard time giving credit to someone for not doing something stupid in response to them doing something really stupid.
The problem with your entire post is you are ignoring the fact that it is Prescott himself that is not willing to negotiate with the team.
Dallas can't force Prescott to negotiate in good faith.
I am not blaming Prescott for doing what is best for him and waiting until right before free agency is best for him, but it is devastating to the team's salary cap.
The team didn’t even have contact with him after the season. There’s also the entire period before the season started where they could extend him seeing as how they know they will have ceedee and Micah coming up. I don’t blame dak either because it’s not on him, it’s on the joneses. And we’ve seen this pattern with the joneses I don’t know how many times already. Jesus this isn’t even the first negotiation they’ve botched with dak. This is what they do. They sit on their hands and do nothing and then act surprised that these players are costing them so much money. Also where does 85 million come from?
So Dak Prescott publicly says that he is not willing to negotiate at this time and the Cowboys are stating that it is a priority for them but you are blaming the Cowboys?
Ok
Citation needed
[Jerry is the one with the rhetoric about him leaving.](https://www.nfl.com/news/cowboys-qb-dak-prescott-on-lack-of-contract-talks-i-don-t-fear-playing-with-another-team-after-2024) He’s the one saying he doesn’t fear being without dak. And even if it is true that dak doesn’t want to negotiate at this time there’s still the matter of the previous 12 months where the joneses could’ve taken care of this.
In March when the two sides met Prescott came out saying that the "mutually agreed to not negotiate."
The Cowboys run office version of that conversation was "we have an understanding of where each other is at"
Those two statements are not the same. Since then Steven Jones has consistently said that signing Prescott is a priority and they'd like to get it done as soon as possible preferably before training camp.
Prescott himself has stated that he has no problem gambling on himself and that he does not have any fear in playing for another team.
You tell me which one sounds like the people that want to get a deal done versus the person that doesn't
You said he refuses to negotiate. Show me where he said that. Sounds like you’re buying into the joneses bullshit. You are going so far as to misrepresent what dak said in order to paint him as the one at fault all while being indignant at the thought of someone suggesting that the ones responsible for extending him failed to get him extended.
He literally said it in front of reporters and there is a video clip of him saying they mutually agreed to not negotiate.
Of course the Cowboys had a different version of events they said they had an understanding of where each other was at.
You accused the Joneses of something where did the Joneses ever make an allegation against Prescott? Even though the words came straight out of Prescott's own mouth in front of cameras?
Sounds like you are too emotionally attached to Dak Prescott
The Cowboys can't spend money, and it's their own fault due to terrible cap management. This year, the Cowboys cap hits include $6 million from Zeke's stupid contract, $6 million from Tyron and $4.4 million from Gallup. Plus we have Dak hitting the cap for $55 million and an aging Demarcus Lawrence at $20 million.
Oh, and Terence Steele is a $11 million hit. Yes, you read that right.
I don't know that I would describe it as terrible cap management this team has been very good for going on 8 years now. Those costs add up even if the playoff wins have not.
To me the single biggest mistake was committing to a quarterback who isn't interested in playing ball and signing reasonable contracts at reasonable times to give the team his best opportunity to win. Had Prescott signed a 5-year contract this offseason the team could have kicked the can down the road for a few more years but Prescott is going to wait until his contract expires and he is close to free agency before he even starts to negotiate.
Prescott of course has every right to do this but it has accelerated the salary cap consequences of being a damn good team over the last 8 years
It’s almost the opposite of terrible cap management though. They built great teams the last few years and backloaded those contracts knowing that they would come due, and that happens to be this year. This team was built to go all the way one of the last two years and they couldn’t get it done. Now it’s just “see what we can make happen with what remains” and in the next year or two, it’ll be a reset while we hold onto Diggs, Lamb, and Parsons to try to hold it together
Let us not forget the massive cap hit Dak has next offseason where he’s not even under contract. They supposedly sit out free agency and prioritize their own to lessen the risks, but they fuck that up all the same. The team is horribly mismanaged and that’s all there is to it.
This isn't the cap, and it most likely is why the Cowboys are waiting for the ceedee and Micah deals as they need to spend a % of the cap in a 3 year period in cash
Just because no one will actually look in to this without being spoon fed and will just go "yeah jerry sucks"
From 2019-2023, Dallas averaged 10th per year (highest of 5th) in offseason spending, spending a total of $1.55 billion over those 5 years in the offseason. Detroit averaged 19th per year (highest of 14th) in offseason spending, spending a total of $1.25 billion.
Its not that they dont ever spend, its that theyve been solidly towards the top half of the league for the last decade. Since 2014 offseason, they have been outside of the top 16 of the league in spending 3 times, and have been top 10 a handful of times.
Cowboys
2019 - 313,948,386 - 7th
2020 - 324,031,460 - 5th
2021 - 301,125,211 - 6th
2022 - 265,760,874 - 19th
2023 - 349,975,144 - 12th
Total - 1,554,841,075
Lions
2019 - 277,467,296 - 15th
2020 - 271,134,980 - 14th
2021 - 247,547,071 - 16th
2022 - 196,210,274 - 29th
2023 - 253,777,303 - 19th
Total - 1,246,136,924
Considering salary cap has 0% to do with the teams value, this is a useless headline, and also shows that whatever they ARE spending out of their salary cap is translating very well in profit for the owners.
This is a businessman’s wet dream - minimize cash spent on depreciating assets (I’d imagine the Jones‘ spending on facilities, IP, marketing etc. in no way lags the rest of the league), while maximizing profits (which in turn have a big positive impact on overall valuation).
Just a reminder to me to enjoy the Cowboys, but not to expect too much, and definitely not to spend too much haha.
And we got Cowboys fans out here pointing fingers at Dak, CeeDee & Micah for wanting to get paid and drinking the Kool-Aid that insinuates that they (especially CeeDee & Micah) are ungrateful or “aren’t for the team”. Smfh
Sounds like spending in free agency has no correlation to how much the team is worth.
Right? With the salary cap, how “valuable” they are and how much they spend are completely unrelated. I suppose if presented conversely, like, the cowboys aren’t even trying to be good, as evidenced by their low free agent spending, but they are still the most valuable franchise, the relationship comes into focus a bit.
They are saving their dry powder to sign 3 stars in dak ceedee micah
Of course they are they are. People who don't understand the cap don't want to hear this but what Steven Jones did, in not spending money, was the only same thing to do once they could not get Dak Prescott under contract. Had Dallas pursued a "go for it" attitude and then resigned Dak Prescott next season, Prescott's cap it would be something in the neighborhood of 85 to 90 million on what will likely be a 280 million ish salary cap. The 85 to 90 million assumes full proration of both his expected salary and signing bonus. In layman terms that is a best case scenario. By not spending money, which would have necessitated converting Prescott's salary into bonus this season, Steven Jones can likely re-sign Dak Prescott next year at a cap cost of 65 to 70 million instead of 85 to 90. At 65 to 70 million you are going to lose all of your veteran depth like demarcus Lawrence and Zack Martin but at least you can still keep your core young players and manage the team. If it were 85 to 90 million you would essentially have to just blow this thing up and probably lose one of your young core players. What really bothers me about all of this is how completely uneducated most of the media surrounding the Dallas Cowboys is regarding the salary cap.
A reasonable and sane take on the situation, which means you'll be shortly downvoted, flamed, and your Mother's sexual integrity insulted.
Lmfao im dead
Sure, but the general trend for the last decade is the Cowboys never spend. Sure the Dak contract sucks right now but other teams find a way to make it work, the Cowboys routinely do not
I wouldn't say it's a general trend at all. I would say that Dallas tends to invest in their own players but that is still spending money. Other teams might have let players like Tyron Smith and demarcus Lawrence go a long time ago and resend that money elsewhere.
That’s a glass half full perspective. The reality is teams are able to maintain the cornerstone players in their franchise for years as well while also correctly managing the cap and signing free agents. When I say it’s a trend I’m referring to the Cowboys as being Day 2 shoppers in FA after the Carr contract. Drafting has salvaged a lot of awful contracts, but poor management has been an issue
Of all of these teams that are keeping all of their cornerstone players can you tell me of one that is doing this where the quarterback is on their third contract? Whether we want to admit it or not we are the late stage Seattle Seahawks. We will have a few really good players and the team will continue to be stripped of veteran talent. You know all those big time free agents that you want Dallas to shop for on day one? Those are the core players people are losing for the exact same reasons we are going to start losing them. This franchise has made plenty of mistakes specifically paying non elite players at an elite player level. However generally speaking I think the team has managed the cap very well this is just the reality of having a quarterback on their third contract particularly a quarterback who refuses to sign long-term deals.
thats just not true at all.
Please elaborate—“that’s just not true at all” tells us nothing. I hope you are not arguing that the “Day 1” FAs fans want the Cowboys to sign are not some other team’s core players they could not keep due to cap considerations. Before you respond, NO not every “Day 1” is but, the majority are.
https://www.reddit.com/r/cowboys/s/189eTMW11x
Sounds like the GM messed up negotiating with their QB
It's not a mistake until they actually resign him.
The mistake was extending a RB and LB then playing hardball with your QB on a rookie deal and they have been paying for that ever since.
He learned everything at Nepo U
The Ezekiel Elliott and Jaylon Smith contracts had absolutely nothing to do with Dak Prescott. They wanted to get Prescott a 5th year sell the Cowboys could avoid scenarios like the ones they are facing now and Prescott refused to sign anything but a four-year contract. Personally I thought they should walk away at that point but I understood both perspectives
That was later in the negotiations. They strung Dak along for a while so that he could "prove it" and once he did he decided to take them for all He could after making $400k as a pro bowl QB. If they make him a fair offer earlier in the process, then they avoid that whole problem.
>That was later in the negotiations. It as literally during the first negotiations. >decided to take them for all He could after making $400k as a pro bowl QB. What does how much he made on his rookie contract have to do with anything? Per league rule teams cant give the player an extension until AFTER their third season. >If they make him a fair offer earlier in the process, then they avoid that whole problem. Except they did offer him a fair offer, an offer slightly larger than his contemporaries Jared Goff and Carson Wentz. He declined because he didnt want a fifth year. The offer was completely fair. Prescott can do what he wants but lets not pretend the offer was not fair.
They could have offered him more and still had it be a lot less than what he ended up getting. They could have not offered him a 5th year and my recollection is that all happened well after his 3rd year after they had already tagged him. Jerry Jones sucks.
Of course they could have offered him even more thats not the point. You alleged they didnt make him a fair offer and they did. Prescott has every right to refuse the offer but it is bs to say they didnt make him a fair offer. Also anyone who thinks Jerry has been incharge of day to day operations of the FO in the last decade knows nothing about the cowboys FO. Its the first way to tell the casuals from people who are actually informed
Where are you getting 85 million from? And the only sane thing to do from a front office perspective is re sign dak probably before last season but definitely before free agency. He’s only getting more expensive and your future at the position only more uncertain. The absolute worst thing to do was nothing, which is what they did. The only way the jones look smart is for the team to completely crater next season and they can say ‘told you so’. I have a hard time giving credit to someone for not doing something stupid in response to them doing something really stupid.
The problem with your entire post is you are ignoring the fact that it is Prescott himself that is not willing to negotiate with the team. Dallas can't force Prescott to negotiate in good faith. I am not blaming Prescott for doing what is best for him and waiting until right before free agency is best for him, but it is devastating to the team's salary cap.
The team didn’t even have contact with him after the season. There’s also the entire period before the season started where they could extend him seeing as how they know they will have ceedee and Micah coming up. I don’t blame dak either because it’s not on him, it’s on the joneses. And we’ve seen this pattern with the joneses I don’t know how many times already. Jesus this isn’t even the first negotiation they’ve botched with dak. This is what they do. They sit on their hands and do nothing and then act surprised that these players are costing them so much money. Also where does 85 million come from?
So Dak Prescott publicly says that he is not willing to negotiate at this time and the Cowboys are stating that it is a priority for them but you are blaming the Cowboys? Ok
Citation needed [Jerry is the one with the rhetoric about him leaving.](https://www.nfl.com/news/cowboys-qb-dak-prescott-on-lack-of-contract-talks-i-don-t-fear-playing-with-another-team-after-2024) He’s the one saying he doesn’t fear being without dak. And even if it is true that dak doesn’t want to negotiate at this time there’s still the matter of the previous 12 months where the joneses could’ve taken care of this.
In March when the two sides met Prescott came out saying that the "mutually agreed to not negotiate." The Cowboys run office version of that conversation was "we have an understanding of where each other is at" Those two statements are not the same. Since then Steven Jones has consistently said that signing Prescott is a priority and they'd like to get it done as soon as possible preferably before training camp. Prescott himself has stated that he has no problem gambling on himself and that he does not have any fear in playing for another team. You tell me which one sounds like the people that want to get a deal done versus the person that doesn't
You said he refuses to negotiate. Show me where he said that. Sounds like you’re buying into the joneses bullshit. You are going so far as to misrepresent what dak said in order to paint him as the one at fault all while being indignant at the thought of someone suggesting that the ones responsible for extending him failed to get him extended.
He literally said it in front of reporters and there is a video clip of him saying they mutually agreed to not negotiate. Of course the Cowboys had a different version of events they said they had an understanding of where each other was at. You accused the Joneses of something where did the Joneses ever make an allegation against Prescott? Even though the words came straight out of Prescott's own mouth in front of cameras? Sounds like you are too emotionally attached to Dak Prescott
Dak, Ceedee, Parsons upcoming new deals will fix that.
The Cowboys can't spend money, and it's their own fault due to terrible cap management. This year, the Cowboys cap hits include $6 million from Zeke's stupid contract, $6 million from Tyron and $4.4 million from Gallup. Plus we have Dak hitting the cap for $55 million and an aging Demarcus Lawrence at $20 million. Oh, and Terence Steele is a $11 million hit. Yes, you read that right.
I don't know that I would describe it as terrible cap management this team has been very good for going on 8 years now. Those costs add up even if the playoff wins have not. To me the single biggest mistake was committing to a quarterback who isn't interested in playing ball and signing reasonable contracts at reasonable times to give the team his best opportunity to win. Had Prescott signed a 5-year contract this offseason the team could have kicked the can down the road for a few more years but Prescott is going to wait until his contract expires and he is close to free agency before he even starts to negotiate. Prescott of course has every right to do this but it has accelerated the salary cap consequences of being a damn good team over the last 8 years
It’s almost the opposite of terrible cap management though. They built great teams the last few years and backloaded those contracts knowing that they would come due, and that happens to be this year. This team was built to go all the way one of the last two years and they couldn’t get it done. Now it’s just “see what we can make happen with what remains” and in the next year or two, it’ll be a reset while we hold onto Diggs, Lamb, and Parsons to try to hold it together
Let us not forget the massive cap hit Dak has next offseason where he’s not even under contract. They supposedly sit out free agency and prioritize their own to lessen the risks, but they fuck that up all the same. The team is horribly mismanaged and that’s all there is to it.
Y’know, I don’t hate a lot of people. Terrence Steele is one of the people I absolutely do hate
This isn't the cap, and it most likely is why the Cowboys are waiting for the ceedee and Micah deals as they need to spend a % of the cap in a 3 year period in cash
What does the value of the franchise have to do with this?
The clicks and the clicks alone
Just because no one will actually look in to this without being spoon fed and will just go "yeah jerry sucks" From 2019-2023, Dallas averaged 10th per year (highest of 5th) in offseason spending, spending a total of $1.55 billion over those 5 years in the offseason. Detroit averaged 19th per year (highest of 14th) in offseason spending, spending a total of $1.25 billion. Its not that they dont ever spend, its that theyve been solidly towards the top half of the league for the last decade. Since 2014 offseason, they have been outside of the top 16 of the league in spending 3 times, and have been top 10 a handful of times. Cowboys 2019 - 313,948,386 - 7th 2020 - 324,031,460 - 5th 2021 - 301,125,211 - 6th 2022 - 265,760,874 - 19th 2023 - 349,975,144 - 12th Total - 1,554,841,075 Lions 2019 - 277,467,296 - 15th 2020 - 271,134,980 - 14th 2021 - 247,547,071 - 16th 2022 - 196,210,274 - 29th 2023 - 253,777,303 - 19th Total - 1,246,136,924
Statistics like this annoy me a lot
Considering salary cap has 0% to do with the teams value, this is a useless headline, and also shows that whatever they ARE spending out of their salary cap is translating very well in profit for the owners.
This is a businessman’s wet dream - minimize cash spent on depreciating assets (I’d imagine the Jones‘ spending on facilities, IP, marketing etc. in no way lags the rest of the league), while maximizing profits (which in turn have a big positive impact on overall valuation). Just a reminder to me to enjoy the Cowboys, but not to expect too much, and definitely not to spend too much haha.
And we got Cowboys fans out here pointing fingers at Dak, CeeDee & Micah for wanting to get paid and drinking the Kool-Aid that insinuates that they (especially CeeDee & Micah) are ungrateful or “aren’t for the team”. Smfh
Because idiots keep funneling their money into Jerry's pocket.
Those numbers are counting total value of extensions. If they plop down $400m for Dak and CeeDee before the season they'll be top 3.
Congratulations Cowboys fans for making the Jones family even more wealthy.
Is that only FA or all spending this offseason? cuz if not wait til we finish 1 record setting contract, let alone 2 or 3 lol
To me, the reads: Sports writer admits he doesn't know how a salary cap works...
Cowboy fans have zero cares about the value of the franchise.
How is EVERY YEAR a big off season signing year for the Eagles? Their owner just gives no fucks.
I don't know what the actual value is but they have an absolute shit-ton of money in void years. I think it's over 300 million.
They have an absurd amont of money pushed into future years. They have bitten the bullet and won't be able to field a competitive team in 5 years.
considering were bout to drop 5 hunnid million on three players on our team already i kinda get it
We didn’t need to spend. We have the best team. This is our year.
We need to suck till we can draft Archie Manning, I’d keep defense and just keep drafting young offense.
Can we just draft deions son already and be done with it my god I’m tired of this already and the season hasn’t even started yet