4-year, $17m ($9.5m guaranteed) "$5M signing bonus and $$9.5M guaranteed to stay in Dallas. Basically 2yrs/$9.5M, then pay as you go from there" -
Thats refreshing to see, I think this is a better way to manage the cap. Stop pushing the cap hit into the future and take the hit early so you have leverage over the player and can cut him if he doesn't perform but you need a big chunk of cap space to begin this process.
I really wish they would have used the 8-8 and 3-13 years to clear out the roster of dead weight and dead cap money so they could get a nice chunk of cap available (50+ million). Then they could spend it on bonuses each year (& have a big chunk again the next year) that can be completely absorbed in the first 2 years of a players contract so there is little to no dead or guaranteed money beyond year 2.
Wish I had time to do the math on this to show whether its doable. Seems like once you get ahead of the cap, you can stay ahead or you can stay behind like the cowboys always seem to be. When you're ahead, a team has cap room, flexibility and leverage over a player, when you're behind, you have none of the above.