- Messages
- 4,604
- Reaction score
- 2
Source: Dallas Cowboys exercise fifth-year option on Tyron Smith’s contract
By Jon Machota
11:04 pm on April 17, 2014
Signs were pointing to the Dallas Cowboys excising the fifth-year option on left tackle Tyron Smith’s rookie contract. On Friday morning, a source confirmed that the Cowboys have made that move.
Smith’s contract will now run through the 2015 season, fully guaranteeing $10.039 million in the final year, which is equal to the transition tag for offensive linemen in the 2014 season. Smith’s base salary in 2014 is $2.079 million.
SportsDay’s Brandon George reported on March 25 that a source said it was a “given” that Dallas would tack on the fifth year to Smith’s contract.
Smith, who was the ninth overall pick in the 2011 draft, is coming off of his first Pro Bowl season. The 23-year-old has started all but one game over his three-year career, playing right tackle as a rookie before moving to left tackle in 2012.
Under the NFL’s current collective bargaining agreement, first-round draft picks sign four-year deals with a fifth-year team option.
The move doesn’t prevent the Cowboys from working out a long-term contract with Smith before the fifth-year option goes into effect. In fact, this means the Cowboys plan to sign Smith to a long-term contract and could begin talks on a long-term deal at any point.
The Cowboys don’t have to get in a hurry to give Smith a long-term contract now with their built-in team option in place to extend his deal through 2015. The Cowboys could decide to wait until next off-season to sign Smith to a long-term contract.
The NFL salary cap is expected to continue to rise in 2015 and that will give the Cowboys even more cap space to work with in extending Smith’s contract.
However, the longer the club waits to extend Smith might benefit him more than the Cowboys. Smith is clearly on the rise and if the Cowboys sign him now the market price could come in at somewhere between $10-$12 million a year. If Smith waits another year or two to sign a contract extension, his market value could jump to the $14-$15 million a year range considering other top, young left tackles such as Washington’s Trent Williams and Seattle’s Russell Okung will likely sign contract extensions before the 2015 season (the last year of their current deals).
Regardless, Smith is set to cash-in big-time. And, considering he won’t be 30 until December of 2020, Smith will likely receive big bucks twice in free agency before his career is finished.
By Jon Machota
11:04 pm on April 17, 2014
Signs were pointing to the Dallas Cowboys excising the fifth-year option on left tackle Tyron Smith’s rookie contract. On Friday morning, a source confirmed that the Cowboys have made that move.
Smith’s contract will now run through the 2015 season, fully guaranteeing $10.039 million in the final year, which is equal to the transition tag for offensive linemen in the 2014 season. Smith’s base salary in 2014 is $2.079 million.
SportsDay’s Brandon George reported on March 25 that a source said it was a “given” that Dallas would tack on the fifth year to Smith’s contract.
Smith, who was the ninth overall pick in the 2011 draft, is coming off of his first Pro Bowl season. The 23-year-old has started all but one game over his three-year career, playing right tackle as a rookie before moving to left tackle in 2012.
Under the NFL’s current collective bargaining agreement, first-round draft picks sign four-year deals with a fifth-year team option.
The move doesn’t prevent the Cowboys from working out a long-term contract with Smith before the fifth-year option goes into effect. In fact, this means the Cowboys plan to sign Smith to a long-term contract and could begin talks on a long-term deal at any point.
The Cowboys don’t have to get in a hurry to give Smith a long-term contract now with their built-in team option in place to extend his deal through 2015. The Cowboys could decide to wait until next off-season to sign Smith to a long-term contract.
The NFL salary cap is expected to continue to rise in 2015 and that will give the Cowboys even more cap space to work with in extending Smith’s contract.
However, the longer the club waits to extend Smith might benefit him more than the Cowboys. Smith is clearly on the rise and if the Cowboys sign him now the market price could come in at somewhere between $10-$12 million a year. If Smith waits another year or two to sign a contract extension, his market value could jump to the $14-$15 million a year range considering other top, young left tackles such as Washington’s Trent Williams and Seattle’s Russell Okung will likely sign contract extensions before the 2015 season (the last year of their current deals).
Regardless, Smith is set to cash-in big-time. And, considering he won’t be 30 until December of 2020, Smith will likely receive big bucks twice in free agency before his career is finished.