cmd34(work)

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Over on Cowboysunshinezone, I’ve heard every excuse in the book defending these moves. Even GloryDays is on board. I get the financial aspect of cutting Ware but I just don’t see what the team’s “strategy” is going forward. We just signed two average-at-best players for millions of dollars. Here are some of the excuses being tossed around…

WE ARE REBUILDING. This is GloryDays motto and I would be on board with that except we are only 1 year removed from an epic contract given to Tony Romo. We literally cannot afford to cut him until after the 2016 season and that’s assuming we don’t restructure him again next off-season when his base salary jumps to $17M and his cap hit is over $27M. Hard to rebuild when over 1/5th of your Salary Cap is earmarked for one player. Not to mention the biggest problem with the rebuilding idea, Jerry Jones is still the guy making decisions. This is a guy who invested over $65M, a 1st , and a 2nd on two man corners and less than one year later switched to a defense that has almost no need for expensive man corners. Jerry switches strategies every few months. Impossible to rebuild anything that way.

WE ARE SIGNING DEPTH. I have never heard of a football team securing depth before starters. Starting yesterday morning, we needed four new starters on the defensive line. Two free agent signings later, we still need four new starters. These are two guys who have been journeymen (Mincey 5 teams, McClain 4 teams). Both players were waived in the last few years and we made no effort to sign or claim them but now we are paying them millions. McClain was actually Restricted and Houston chose not to tender him. Yet, here we are, snatching them up on the 2nd day of Free Agency. Ware’s release created over $7M in cap room and we’ve already used half of that on two JAG players. Okay, so let’s pretend they are depth. If there is a starter out there we really want that can come in and improve the club, let’s say Melton or even Hatcher. If it gets down to us and another team and we get outbid by a million because we wasted precious cap room on “depth” then what the hell was the thinking? These same two guys would have been available a week from now, possibly even a month. They are the same caliber of players we were scrambling to sign in the middle of last season.

WE ARE LOADING UP FOR 2015. New coach, tons of cap room. I wouldn’t hate that. But again, why sign JAGS to 2 and 3 year deals? Sign them, or equally JAG’ish players, to 1 year deals. However small, cutting them next off-season still creates dead money. Also, sucks to be Jason Garrett to get one final season and the team strategy is not really trying in 2014. Not that I have any faith in Garrett or his coaching philosophy/ability but still, that has to suck getting one last year to prove yourself and the Front Office is already looking past you.

MARINELLI WILL COACH ‘EM UP. This is becoming the stuff of legends. I think Marinelli is a really good defensive line coach but this miracle worker label Jerry and Cowboy fans have put upon him is both ridiculous and unfair. Fans point out that George Selvie is proof that Marinelli can get untapped potential out of players. That’s great but it should not be The Plan. The only thing Selvie and these two guys have in common is that they have bounced around the league and that they once played with Selvie (McClain in college, Mincey at Jacksonville).

I think Jerry is putting way too much faith in Marinelli and in Will McClay, who apparently is going to sign every player that he knew from his time in Jacksonville, the benchmark of great football organizations. Meanwhile, Cowboy fans will go through another year of pain, embarrassment, and agony. The good news is Jerrry is getting older, the fanbase is seemingly growing less tolerant, and fewer if any media outlets are picking us to win anything. Jerry is well on his way to meeting the fate of his good friend and mentor, Al Davis; dying a long-time loser with distant memories of glory.
 

JBond

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We are broke. As soon as we get out of cap purgatory, Jones will back to his usual ways. There is no plan right now except trying to stay under the cap.
 

cmd34(work)

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We are broke. As soon as we get out of cap purgatory, Jones will back to his usual ways. There is no plan right now except trying to stay under the cap.

I get that we are broke but why throw money at career journeymen?
 

dbair1967

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"What is the strategy?"

Your on a need to know basis, and right now you dont need to know.
 

cmd34(work)

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Do teams usually sign players on the 2nd day of Free Agency for millions of dollars that they don't plan being on the roster just a few months later?

I mean besides us.
 

ThoughtExperiment

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Agree that there is no grand plan, other than just staying afloat as best we can.

I do think we want Hatcher back, but I'm sure we don't know what we'll do if he and Melton are gone.

I also think Jerry has a plan to pay Dez insane money when it's time, and we aren't that far away from that time.
 

JBond

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I get that we are broke but why throw money at career journeymen?

According to the Cowboys web site we have developed a great new plan...

The Cowboys are organizing a strength in numbers free agency policy, after past years of extending contracts of declining veterans and doling out cash to pricey free agents.

The new trend began with Mincey, who’s got 20 sacks since joining the NFL in 2006, and McClain, who’s got one sack in his career. It will not end with them.

Jason Hatcher and Henry Melton are still options on the table for the Cowboys, and either one of them could be the biggest name the Cowboys bring in for 2014, but there’s a reason the Cowboys haven’t inked any star free agents to deals yet. They don’t want to overpay veterans, and they’re being patient in their approach to add to the line, perhaps waiting for their asking prices to decrease to a level they’re comfortable with and can afford.

The Cowboys are also prepared to say they’ll pass, content to try to turn younger players or former highly regarded prospects who haven’t reached their peak into viable rotational pieces. At best, they could turn into a George Selvie, who didn’t have a team at the start of the 2013 season and was forced to start. That chance resulted in seven sacks.

These new additions won’t be the next Ware, and they won’t be asked to be.

It doesn’t make for a fun start to free agency, watching the team’s all-time sack leader and a veteran receiver go out the door to make room for two players who haven’t yet fulfilled their NFL potential, while another NFC East team is hauling in Darren Sproles to complement LeSean McCoy in what's sure to be one of the most elusive tandems in the league.

The Cowboys have been criticized for holding onto veterans for too long, from Jeremiah Ratliff to Austin. They've tried the approach of overpaying during this period before without much winning to show. Now, they’re looking to operate a different way early on in this free agency period after watching most of their money pour recently into back-loaded contracts.

Gone are the days of strength in one stud rusher named Ware. The new approach is strength in numbers and focusing primarily on the draft, which means sacrificing the fun of free agent landings and jersey sales for the hope of development and future affordable production with waves of contributors.

But don’t expect any sort of long-term deals for aging veterans, the way the Cowboys might have operated in the past.

http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/a...as-In-FA/0d97c209-f424-4734-8d84-082c356b7b2f
 

cmd34(work)

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IRVING, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys took up only $1.1 million in salary-cap space with their deals to new defensive linemen Jeremy Mincey and Terrell McClain.

Mincey will count $1.25 million against the cap in 2014, and McClain will count $850,000.

According to NFL Players Association figures, Mincey can earn as much as $4.5 million over the next two seasons. Mincey received a $500,000 signing bonus and his $1 million base salary is also guaranteed. He is due a base salary of $1.5 million in 2015 with $200,000 is guaranteed.

McClain signed a three-year deal worth $3.05 million. He received a $300,000 signing bonus and will receive base salaries of $750,000, $1 million and $1 million. The max value of McClain's deal is $3.8 million.

The Houston Texans chose not to give McClain the $1.4 million tender as a restricted free agent, making him an unrestricted free agent. The Cowboys got a potential core backup for $550,000 less against the cap this year with $300,000 guaranteed.
 

cmd34(work)

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The Dallas Cowboys took up only $1.1 million in salary-cap space with their deals to new defensive linemen Jeremy Mincey and Terrell McClain.

Mincey will count $1.25 million against the cap in 2014, and McClain will count $850,000.
That would be $2.1 million not $1.1 million.


Mincey received a $500,000 signing bonus and his $1 million base salary is also guaranteed. He is due a base salary of $1.5 million in 2015 with $200,000 is guaranteed

ummm, dbair?
No guarantees they stay here just because they are on the roster today.
 
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Strategy: Jerry lays out pictures of all available free agents on floor, pulls out penis, furiously masturbates. Whichever players his dusty demon seed splatters, he signs.
 
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Strength in numbers would be a great strategy if every team wasn't limited to 53 players on the roster.
 

cmd34(work)

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We just "added' Will Herring. A linebacker from the Saints.

A 30-year old with 10 career starts in 7 years.
 
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