And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Free Agency

I read on ESPN.com under the cap update by John Clayton that the Cowboys are 1.2 million over the cap right now?

Clayton is wrong. Right now they are $2 million under and according to the resident cap expert, they should have just a shade less money under the cap than they did last year when certain players are taken off the cap, released, restructured, or traded. So they are looking at being around $12-$18 million under the cap once FA hits.

I hope everyone here is ready to give up on the dream of getting Lecharles Bentley. Its just not going to happen. Its fun to dream, but lets be realistic. I think fabini will be the only serious signing we make for the o-line.

I don’t see how you know that the Cowboys won’t try to sign Bentley.

I don’t put the odds at 50% or anything, but I haven’t heard any news that makes me think it can’t be done.

Our cap space puts us in the ball park, and the move makes sense. It may not happen, but it still might.

Fabini alone does not make our poor line a good line.

If you’re Bentley, who is the only one to have the decision, and three teams are vying for you: Minn, Cleveland, and Dallas…where do you want to go, all things being equal.

But not all things are equal, and without a CBA, the Cowboys will be the only team that can offer him a chance to win a championship.

If it’s only about money, Minn could outbid, but with a new owner knowing that he’ll soon be losing money, will they.

Or go home again to Cleveland.

In my book, Big D has a VERY good case…if they want him.

Fabini is a competent experienced RT.
I have heard many comments on Pettiti`s play last year & even though he was a rookie his performance was horrible at best. Not to mention we had to give him help 70% of the time. Fabini will not make our line 100% but you must start with the weakest link ! That link last year was at RT last year.

Pettiti did ok till he got worn down and injured later on in the season. He will be healthy and stronger this year and with experience. The question is how much better CAN he get. There are those that think his lack of foot speed is just too much of a deficit to make up; if so, moving him inside to guard might be a thought. If Minnie is really serious about Bentley, they will probably get him- they have so much money to spend. The only way that does not work is if they decide to dump Culpepper and go after Brees- THEN they might not want to spend so much on a center.

Fabini is a must sign because he can play RT or LT. That makes him very valuable to the Cowboys since he would take Tucker out of the Tackle rotation.

I would trade a third or fourth round pick for Ramsey in a heartbeat.

Jason
Sorry but big no on Ramsey

I wouldnt give a conditional 7th round pick for Ramsey, hes garbage and thats why they sign old Brunell and pay a ton for Jason Campell. I would rather have Drew Henson than Patrick Ramsey. Bradie Croyle is a 3rd round pick, you are going to take Ramsey over him?

Pettiti wasn’t OK, he was (statistically) the worst OL in the league. Even with the help.

The only reason he looked serviceable during the first part of the year was Flo on the other side not needing any help.

Broncos cut Putzier, Pryce, and Mike Anderson. Panthers cut Davis, Buckner, and Rod Smart.

Now that Will Shields has been released. Would you cut Allen and sign Will Shields for less money? He is old in football terms but still great. What about Sam Adams or Grady Jackson? Both are 330+ and capable of playing the nose.

The Cowboys keep saying that they will face the LaRoi Glover situation when it is the right time, hes owed 1.5 million dollars on Friday, they should have had the talks already. I think he will be cut either today or tommorrow.

Bentley is being chased by more than Dallas, Minny, and Cleveland. I’ve seen reports of him also being on San Diego’s and Miami’s radars. San Diego has about as much cap room as Minny.

it’s starting. denver just cut three starters to make cap room.

Daniel Bullocks (S) must seriously be on the radar. What do you think of Mike Kudla 6’3" 265 as a ILB? He played DT for Ohio State but showed good movement at the combine?

The next 48 hours are going to be a very telling time period in which we will learn where each shall cast his lot.

Will Rome destroy Caesar, or will it let Caesar destroy Rome?

The Ides of March are now upon us.

Uh, which is Dallas, Caesar or Rome? :D

it’s also March 1, not March 15…

but Sterling is correct. Millions and millions of dollars and they can’t figure out a way to cut up the pie so that this can go away and the NFL can get back to (big) business as usual.

maybe Vince Young isn’t the only one with a low score on the Wonderlic in Indianapolis…

biotrek:
The problem with him is that you would have Ware at OLB and he may be more polished in coverage next season. Who would be the other OLB? Another rookie that played DE in College? There’re no certains, if another tweener is signed to play OLB the least thing that I would want is to sign another LB that could be a liaibility in coverage.

Now if Julian Peterson is signed through Free Agency….

Rafael:

LOL. ;P I was referring to each teams decision of whether to cut a player to clear cap space or keep him and possibly cost the rest of the team a shot at improving in FA. Some tough choices to be made. This is the time where it comes down to individuals and teams pitted against one another over money, instead of teams playing against other teams.

New Mock Draft posted on Fox Sports. First since the end of the combine.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/5369094

Looking at this, I don’t know what some of these guys are smoking. Wimbley over Lawson? I have been on Wimbley’s bandwagon since last Oct/Nov, but no way I take him instead of Lawson given the choice.

I do agree with Justice to the ‘Phins if they don’t trade up though. They just cut McIntosh today. Holmes to Eagles seems like a major reach to me. Yadda, yadda, yadda…

I think the eagles would take Chad Jackson, but I like the Wimbley pick. I dont know about him over Lawson but I would be happy either way.

Chandus:

I agree with what you said about Kudla, mainly because you would want more of a true LB to play 3-4 ILB. I do think the coverage thing is somewhat valid, but not so much for the tweeners as has been discussed recently.

The reason is I have been studying up on how Belichick created the back-to-back SB Champion 3-4 defenses. The first SB was not entirely his creation as he was pretty much working with what he had inherited. The two lynchpin player aquisitions in the LB corps Mike Vrabel and Roosevelt Colvin. Both played DE in college and were then converted into OLB’s in the NFL. The Steelers converted Vrabel, and Colvin was converted by Belichick.

So, it caused me to wonder why Belichick would do this with two ‘tweeners’ to bookend McGinest. Wouldn’t they be taking a big risk in coverage? I watched a lot of those games and they always seemed to have a guy in position to make plays on short and intermediate passes. Hoe did they do that with 2 OLB’s that were converted DE’s? The answer is he used zone LB coverages and blitzes. He barely ever put an OLB in man-to-man coverage on TE’s. If the TE got deeper than the zone he became the responsibility of the DB’s. Everything underneath was covered by either 3 LB zone coverage, or a 2 LB zone if they were blitzing two. So this coverage issue may not be as big of a deal as we have been making it out to be if Parcells wants to run a defense similar to the Patriots one that he helped construct.

Where do you suppose Belichick learned from to get former DE’s like Vrabel and Colvin to play LB? I bet it was Parcells. Even if it was the other way around, I think Parcells understands how well it can potentially work.

Rafael,

Did you hear anything about some owners not wanting a salary cap? .. I could have sworn I heard that on Mike and Mike in the morning.

Someone said Fabini alone doesn’t make our poor line a good line. This is true, but don’t forget Flozell will be back. That gives you two good tackles. That makes our poor line a good line.
I say if you can’t trade Glover then cut him tomorrow. We save 6 million in cap space. He’s not worth the 7.5 million cap charge this year. We have Jason Ferguson & Parcells was high on Thomas “Pepper” Johnson before he got injured.

One thing to keep in mind, next year, when the league is not capped….NO ONE is really going to be a free agent, until the training camps open up. Now, if someone wants to pisition for advantage, when the cap becomes a ‘non’ factor…they better be doing it THIS season, when players will be available. The next two days are in fact, a very crucial time for the immediate future of the NFL as it relates to team strengths…both for the cap secure and the cap strained clubs…

Eric R.,

Why would anybody want to go uncapped? Unless they wanted to start a race to the bottom, a la Arizona.

Now, it IS possible to make this work. Think of the ‘92-’93 Cowboys. Youngest team in the league when they won a title. No cap them either.

If you have six years with players, you build a base, then keep it intact. Because without a cap, you’re not penalized if you draft extremely well.

So go back to ’94, when the cap started. Jerry could have kept that team intact, if he had the credit line and no cap.

Now, what the league has never seen is an uncapped world without free agency. But again, if you have good players and like them, you assess the market and sign them to big-time long term deals after their fourth or fifth year and avoid the free for alls.

You know, Eric., the more I think about it, the more it would work, IF you have a top notch personnel department and steady revenue.

I imagine after a year or two of shuffling, teams will adapt and find a way to keep their young players.

In that case, the teams with strong YOUNG cores right now will be in good shape under the new system. I’m looking at the Dallas defense right now and feeling pretty good.

No cap you say? Bring it on baby. The Cowboys are one of the highest revenue teams in the league and I can see the perennial Redskins v. Cowboys NFC championship games. Jerry is the kind of guy who wonâ€â"¢t skimp on personnel. I am all for it.

Personally I lie having a cap, but I think there should be some exceptions. Kind of like the NBA, if you sign your own player it counts less towards the cap. Maybe the NFL could just add a clause in the CBA that if a team signs a player that had X numbers of years of service for them, then it only 50% of his salary counts towards the cap. Players like Abraham would be much easier to sign. Also it would close the 4.8% difference some.

Woops 3.8% .. sorry.

The only thing I really heard regarding the Cowboys with the whole CBA is that if not signed Roy Williams will not become a free agent after next season and will be under contract. We shouldnt even let it get to that point and sign him, Witten, and James this season. Thats why I dont want to overspend this offseason.

lou c:

Plus T-New the year after, and you know CB’s get BIG money. Most of these guys would be close to 30 if UFA doesn’t start until after 6 years. Roy came out early because he was a phenom, but most guys come into the league around 22 or 23, some at 24 if they had a redshirt year.

It’s going to be hard for a lot of players to sign as big a FA deal around 30 years of age as it would if they were 2-3 years younger. Plus it will affect the FA market by having less younger talent available in UFA.

dave: you are the man i also agree about rel glover believe it or not we would be ok and coud take a chance on watson in the second round i dont think we will pick up a lb in the 1st round we need a experienced guy like peterson even though he’s a lil undersized for that position or Mcginest wouldnt be bad if we kept Fujita and Singleton some one who we know will make teams pay if they play Ware like they did towards the late part of the season i see us either trading our 1st to get more in the second or picking up a safety …as far as the cba is concerned we wont really be affected by it that much i dont believe we were going to spend big any way this year so we should be ok

If Ferguson and Rivera do in fact redo their contracts…that will give the cap approximately an $8M dollar boost…eliminating the incentive part of this year’s contract, and only giving them the allowed 30% increase allowed by the current cap status…now, with the retirement of Nguyen, and the release of Al Singleton, that would be an additional $4M to add to the current cap, which already was increased by about $2M, to a figure of $94.5M by the NFL…that money is mounting up very quickly. At this point, if La’Roi Glover and Larry Allen are NOT paying attention to the dynamics that will be affecting the league at work in the NOW, and that their specific salary status could be very adversely affected by an outside change, due to this year’s volitility and next year’s uncapped status, then they might take heed in a similar fashion that Washington’s Brunell and Portis, and give the Cowboy’s even more flexibility in this buyer’s market during what may be one of the last? true free agency periods as seen from the present…that would give the Cowboys a potential $7M to throw into the current cap status…IF, they are just not cut outright, and the Cowboys take the same savings, and forge a newer direction in the offensive line, as well as use the draft to get replacement pieces that add in better on both offense and defense….

Couple questions…

Biotrek,
Where did you hear Will Shields has been released? I haven’t found anything definitive yet.

Sterling,
Wasn’t Colvin a LB with the Bears before he injured his hip and was signed by NE or am I thinking of someone else?