Friday 28 February 2014

Disheveled in Dallas: Salary cap purgatory

By a Dallas Cowboys fan from T.O., not that T.O. But I did get tired during the Super Bowl

It's nice to hear that Henry Melton would consider Dallas as a possible free agent destination.

As a high-motor defensive tackle, he'd be a great fit for the Cowboys' low-revving defence. Plus, he's from Dallas, had a great run under defensive co-ordinator Rod Marinelli when they were both in Chicago, and would probably sign at a discount seeing as how he's coming off a serious knee injury.

There's just one thing.

The Cowboys haven't any money for free agents. At the moment, and probably not for the next few months. The cash window, as they often say, is closed. Barred shut.

Not only are the Cowboys unable to sign anybody, they likely have to jettison their best defensive player last season, free agent Jason Hatcher, and also perhaps, the franchise player on the defensive side of the ball, DeMarcus Ware.

Jerry Jones hinted at releasing Ware in an interview this week, stating the prospect has to be considered given the number of games Ware has missed in the last two seasons.

Depending on where the league-mandated cap lands, the Cowboys, with their current roster, will be some $20 million over the cap. That is they have to shed that much worth of salary cap in contracts by March 11 or face further penalties.



Ware is scheduled to make $16 million in 2014, if he is a cap casualty, he'd save the club some $7.5 million in cap space, with the remaining $8.5 million considered dead money. If he's cut by June 1, his salary can be spread over two years, creating $12.75 million in cap savings.

Jerry could be sabre-rattling in order to once again extend a Cowboy player's contract and renegotiate at a lower figure. But even the Generalissimo has to see that this strategy is just prolonging the agony. As of Friday, the two sides had not met, according to reports.

Certainly Miles Austin has caught his last pass for the Cowboys. As a June 1st cut, his projected earnings of $8.25 million this upcoming season would be reduced in salary cap dollars by $5.5 million.

On Friday, the team released Everette Brown, Ray Dominguez, Corvey Irvin and Jeff Olson, saving more than $2 million in salary, but less than $1 million in cap space.

Just $19 million to go.

And don't forget about having some $3 to $4 million set aside to sign draft picks.

So no, Henry Melton. There likely won't be a homecoming deal for you. Just the same, I imagine this is your agent's ploy to squeeze more money on a one-year, incentive laden deal from the Bears.

This what happens in Big D now. What else can you expect out of a franchise that has been overestimating its own talent for the better part of a decade and then signing them only to headline-worthy deals. Where have you gone Roy Williams, Marion Barber III?

You have to love Jerry's largesse.... If you're a player.

As a fan, I'm not that enthused that in a salary cap league, Tony Romo and Brandon Carr will make $34 million between them -- add Ware and that's an even $50 million.

With the cap expected to land around $133 million, that's a big slice for two or three players. But it's just par for the course in Dallas.

In 2012, more than $14 million was counted as dead money due to contracts given to Terrence Newman, Barber and Leonard Davis.

Last season, $11.6 million worth of salaries, for Jay Ratliff, Gerald Sensabaugh, Nate Livings, Newman and Dan Connor counted as dead money.

This year, Dallas will carry $12 million in dead money, led by the $7 million to account for Ratliff -- the guy who filled in for Melton's injury in Chicago, after his release from Dallas.

So Henry, yeah. About that deal...

To be continued

Thursday 27 February 2014

Disheveled in Dallas: Drafting mediocrity

By a Dallas Cowboys fan from T.O., not that T.O. But that is my quarterback

No executive has ever batted 1.000 at the NFL Draft. Not even St. Jimmy.

And yes, hindsight is 20/20.

Give Dallas Cowboys owner/GM Jerry Jones some credit. The Generalissimo has fared rather well in early rounds recently, scooping up blue chippers Dez Bryant, Sean Lee and Tyron Smith. Last season’s daily double of Travis Frederick and Terrance Williams also looks promising.

But…

Those are the picks you’re supposed to hit on. They’re batting practice fastballs. Whiff on them and you’re the Raiders.

A Super Bowl contender hits on picks early in the draft consistently and gets “lucky” with some late rounders.

The Super Bowl may be won in February but it is most often lost in May, at the NFL Draft. Teams that draft the best are the ones jumping on the podium with confetti raining on their heads.

In 2010, one team drafts safety Akwasi Owusu-Ansah in the fourth round. The next defensive back off the board is Kam Chancellor.

A year later, one team drafts DB Josh Thomas in the fifth round. Eleven picks later, that same other team takes Richard Sherman.



The Seahawks net two Pro Bowlers, including the self-proclaimed best cornerback in the game, while the Cowboys get 10 games out of Owusu-Ansah.

What are the chances the Seahawks hit the jackpot on both picks and the Cowboys crap out?

Drafting is not an exact science but it’s not a game of chance either.

The Cowboys’ draft history under Jones, without the assistance of Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells, is underwhelming, and astonishingly poor in the later rounds.    

In the past five years, Dallas has chosen 27 players in rounds 4 through 7. There’s not a pick that comes within sniffing distance of what the Seahawks unearthed in 2010 alone.

The best of the lot may be linebacker Victor Butler or on special teams, kicker David Buehler.

In 2010, Seattle came away with K.J. Wright (4th), Sherman, Byron Maxwell (6th) and Malcolm Smith (7th). Four Super Bowl starters, including the MVP. Seattle’s other recent drafts produced similar quality.

Not only have the Cowboys failed miserably to find diamonds in the rough, most of their later picks are no longer with the team or the NFL, leaving the franchise with little or no depth. It’s why an unsigned free agent like George Selvie can come in off the street during training camp and start 16 games at defensive end.

The Seattle comparison is one-sided but useful because that’s your competition in the NFC. That’s the top dog you have to punch in the mouth. Do the Cowboys have the guns to do it?

The answer is no.

Given the team’s draft record, there’s not much hope that franchise players are suddenly going to start popping out like popcorn. And there are no extra picks to increase those chances.

Moreover, the team’s core of Pro Bowl players is getting older and the team is in salary purgatory, so not only are free agent fixes unavailable, the Cowboys have to shed a portion of their mediocre amount of talent to meet the league’s cap.

To be continued.

Wednesday 26 February 2014

The disheveled state of Big D


By a Dallas Cowboys fan from T.O., not that T.O. But pass the popcorn.

My buddy Melo, a Giants fan, was trying to cheer me up after the Dallas Cowboys’ third straight regular-season ending loss with the NFC East title on the line, a loss that also meant no entry to the post-season for the umpteenth time since the Triplets retired.

I would have none of it.

I don’t need sympathy from a Giants fan. EVER, EVER, EVER.

Did I mention Melo was my best friend.

Ah, he still is.
 
That’s because that 'title' game really didn’t matter.

Win or lose, the Cowboys have become irrelevant in the NFL pecking order.




Had Dallas won, they would’ve been summarily dumped in the post-season by the New Orleans Saints, just like the Philadelphia Eagles did, only more spectacularly so. Exhibit A would be the regular-season beatdown by the team coached by the Cowboys’ former assistant. 

The Cowboys have fallen so far below the elite squads that a late-80s depth charge to 1-15 seems only a couple of seasons away. 

Too harsh?

Can Dallas play on a level field against the Seahawks and 49ers? 

Not even on any given Sunday.

Their paper-thin roster has been perennially exposed. The window on an aging roster is closing rapidly and with a lengthy salary-cap jail term in the offing, there isn't an easy way out. There are no Herschel Walkers to trade.

As I told Melo then:

When I started watching this team, they were in the Super Bowl or NFC championship game almost every year. Then when I knew better, they stomped off with three Super Bowls in four years – should`ve been four if not for Coach 501.

Now my hopes ride on a division title game for a playoff ticket that’s going to be shredded the next week?

Don't think so.

Yes, I was emotionally detached by the end of the season, which featured pull-your-heart through-the-toilet  losses to Denver, Detroit, Green Bay. Did I miss any? It was such a methadone-inducing blur.




But at some point during the gut-punching session season, there was that moment of clarity, sober second thought that crystallized where the franchise stood: At the precipice of the Steve Pelluer / Quincy Carter eras -- although with Generalissimo Jerry at the tiller, the Carter era seems so much more appropriate.

Look it up:

BP – Before Pelluer, from 1984 to 1987: 9-7, 10-6, 7-9, 7-8 – 33-30

BC – Before Carter, from 1997 to 2000: 6-10, 10-6, 8-8, 5-11 – 29-35

From 2010 to 2013: 6-10, 8-8, 8-8, 8-8 – 30-34

A one-game gap in the pre-Carter era and today.

Two seasons ago, one could argue the Cowboys could've beaten the Giants and perhaps gone on a Super Bowl run like New York but those would be pipe dreams now. The NFL balance of power has shifted and it's tilted far, far away from the NFC East.

If not for hapless Washington, New York and Philly (5-1), the Cowboys would be looking at a top-10 draft pick. Outside of the division last season, they could only beat St. Louis, Minnesota and Oakland.

Here's what else is frightening: Cue The Exorcist intro.



Both of these fall-from-grace eras were, not suprisingly, preordained by historically weak drafts.

In the BP period, it was Gil Brandt losing his touch – after two and a half decades of glory.

In the BC era, like now, the Generalissimo had assumed total control, then from Jimmy Johnson, and most recently, from the association with Bill Parcells.   

To be continued