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The Rams are coming off a great season in which ended with a Lombardi Trophy. The Cowboys are coming off an extremely disappointing end to their season after starting off very strong.
But according to OverTheCap.com, the Cowboys are tied for first place with the Rams in this interesting category...
#Cowboys are currently ted with the #Rams for most players with a $15M+ salary cap charge. Both have 7 players.
— Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) March 4, 2022
The Rams are viewed as one of the most reckless teams in the NFL with their cap, and are extremely aggressive at targeting and paying veteran players on their roster. The Cowboys are viewed as one of the more stingy teams in the NFL with their cap, and do not sign any outside free agents. This isn’t good news for the Cowboys.
The Rams seven players are; Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey, Matt Stafford, Leonard Floyd, Cooper Kupp, Andrew Whitworth, and Robert Woods. Aaron Donald is the best defensive linemen in football, Jalen Ramsey was a huge trade for the Rams and one of the best corners in the game, Matt Stafford was brought in to help get an NFC Championship roster over the hump, Leonard Floyd was a free-agent signing that has been an important piece to their Super Bowl winning defense, Cooper Kupp is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL, Andrew Whitworth, while likely retiring, is playing like one of the best left tackles in football, and Robert Woods was one of the better weapons on the Rams offense before tearing his ACL in 2021.
The Cowboys seven players are; Dak Prescott, DeMarcus Lawrence, Amari Cooper, Zack Martin, Ezekiel Elliott, Tyron Smith, and La’el Collins. Pretty different scenarios, which tells an interesting story. The Cowboys bet on themselves in the Dak Prescott negotiations and lost. The Cowboys bet on themselves in the DeMarcus Lawrence negotiations and lost. The Cowboys let Amari Cooper hit free agency after trading a first-round pick for him, and allowing him to prove his worth to the Cowboys offense. Guess what? They lost. They allowed Ezekiel Elliott to threaten a holdout, and they quickly folded and named him the highest paid running back in the NFL. Not good. The offensive lines deal are some of the few deals the Cowboys have hit on over the last 10 years, and that is one of the biggest reasons the Cowboys are struggling to have any postseason success.
The quarterback market is what it is. They make a ton of money, while also holding most of the responsibility. But if the Cowboys had paid Dak Prescott when they should have, and not played the franchise tag and wait-and-see game, he’d probably be making $10 million less per year than he is now. Same thing for DeMarcus Lawrence who was given the franchise tag before signing a long-term deal.
In the end, this discussion is being brought up because of the rumors that the Cowboys are likely to release Amari Cooper before the start of the league year, placing the blame of his cap numbers on the main reason as to why, but in reality this is all of the Jones for not evaluating their team property and understanding how to build their roster the correct way in the salary cap era. It’s harsh, but there’s no one else to blame here but themselves. They had the opportunity to get ahead of some of these deals and bring cap numbers way down, they have restructures in place to keep these guys on the roster while getting far under the cap, yet they chose to do things “their way”, and that was has a long-tract record of poor success.
The Cowboys aren’t cheap, they just don’t understand how to properly spend their money and build their team.
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