As for whether or not they can, it depends on how they structure the contracts. I just think you are underestimating how far they are under the cap next year. Next year when they cut ware then there is no huge tripling proration acceleration because he is at the end of his contract. Doing the Romo restructure and cutting Ware will have us at $25m or more under the cap. Even if they front load the first years of Dez and Smith I just don't see us cap strapped.
As for what they will do who knows. I don't have a clue.
It would open up $25M (Maybe as much as $28M) in cap space but given the pending restructures that will happen this year and push cap charges to next year, the net is likely to be less than that.
If they restructured the ones you mentioned a bit back, it's $7M deferred to next year. Austin isn't going to be a straight cut because even with those restructures they still don't have enough to get the rookie pool covered this year.
I believe they will defer Austin to June 1st and that will put $5M more onto next years cap total but allow them to get the rookies under contract this year.
Then you have the fact that they'd only have 37 players under contract which would leave room for the 2 drafts between now and then and Dez/Tyron. 2013's draft has a combined cap of $5.4M for the second year (this would be about what 2014's draft will cost in 2015) and 2015's draft will likely have a combined rookie contract of about $4.6M (based on 2013 signing bonuses and 2015's rookie minimum).
The $25M that gets opened up just from restructuring Romo and cutting Ware could be looking more like $3M in cap space.
Of course they'll cut some other guys and have some actually rookie minimums without singing bonuses likely included in the Top 51 but it's not like they have a lot whole bunch of guys with really high base salaries that will allow them to replace with a rookie minimum to free up a bunch of money. Even if they could knock off $400K by filling the bottom of the roster with rookie minimums, how many of these guys do you even want on your roster? No guaranteed money on the rookie minimum, that's pretty much a guy who's undrafted.
I will say this, they do have Doug Free on the cap at $11M, which I don't know about. Looks like there's a club option on that year and cutting him would open up $7M in space.....but I also think he's a UFA which means they don't have to cut him, just decline to pick up the option. I guess if the team spent a decent pick on a RT this year they could groom the guy to be Doug's replacement in 2015.
That would represent some decent savings on the cap. I doubt the team goes with a RT in the draft. I would think they'd need to go with no worse than a 3rd or 4th round player.
And then there's Dez and Tyron, but also there's DeMarco Murray, Bruce Carter, and Dwayne Harris.
If we assume they come out with $3M before declining the option on Doug and Orton, they'd have $11M in space to work with and I don't know if there's much left over for free agents. What are Dez and Tyron going to get in SB alone? $10M? Kinda low IMO but even at that $4M would be prorated to that current year and their base salaries would eat up another $1.5M combined which leaves about $5.5M with a quality back, solid special teams player who may have his role increase this coming year, and Bruce's lazy ass still left to sign.
I just don't see the space to bring in free agents without creating more space. Maybe it will work out differently but doesn't seem to be there.
