The Cowboy's Cash Spending 2013-2023 (2024)

NoLuv4Jerry said:

Bobby Wagner comes to mind. That one REALLY bothers me. Especially when we paid Jaylon Smith....

Another recent one is Derrick Henry. Why are we bringing Zeke (who I loved) back and why is Trey Lance here. Henry could be had for what we are paying both players.

I bring up those 2 because both are on RECORD about the Dallas situation. What Dallas wanted to pay them was criminal...which just means they did not really want them. In fact, I think both have stated that there was little to no dialogue and I think it was because of money. But Henry thought the marriage would have been perfect...and Quinn wanted Wagner. I believe Wagner went on to make All Pro. Not Pro Bowl....but All Pro!!!!!!!! We will see what Henry does.

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But Trance is a phenom.

fivetwos said:

The more bad decisions you make, the more dead money you’ll end up with.

The more dead money you have against your cap, the less cash you can spend.

I don’t think “cheap” is the right word. It’s simple bad personnel mismanagement.

It really shouldnt be unexpected from two very unqualified clowns that are obsessed with themselves and making money.

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Well…that about sums it up.

DogFace said:

They never got over Galloway and Roy Williams (Wr)

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That Roy W was a disaster, Jerry and his fogged goggles, LOL .luckily we had drafted Dez soon after.

fivetwos said:

The idea that you’ll avoid a down cycle by constantly sitting out free agency is wrong. The system is such that regular season success will catch up to you eventually….especially when it comes to the draft.

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Excellent point

Bobhaze said:

There are only two options why JJ and SJ refuse to join the modern NFL in building a championship roster with BOTH a great draft and some important FAs:

1. They don’t understand HOW to build a championship roster this way in the cap era. (They don’t know how to manage the cap and contracts)
2. They don’t want to do it this way despite decades of evidence that it works. Believe it’s option 1. The teams competing well in the playoffs have just as many cap issues with star players but unlike the Jones boys they understand how to manage their player contracts creatively. Our FO is undermanned in this area. They don’t know what they are doing. We have three decades of receipts.

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I don't disagree with anything you said here but would offer up a potential third option.... they are more cash strapped than we would think they are given their valuation and revenue numbers that are stated in the media. signing FAs usually requires more guaranteed money which requires setting those dollars aside. I wouldn't be surprised if they were highly leveraged and that is the reason why we are spending less than 70-90% of the league while being the highest revenue generators.

Hawkeye0202 said:

M Spears is exactly right.......lack of free agent spending is the difference between reaching the playoffs and winning in the playoffs. You can't build a championship team via draft alone. Jerry and Stephen's idea of a championship......draft well and add a few bottom-feeders. It's just not working.....Romo, Dak, same results.

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That’s ridiculous. Does anyone in our organization want to win a Super Bowl? I’m starting to believe the answer is no. These guys suck.

Brax said:

Bill Belichick would disagree with the cash spent over cap
“Cash spending isn't really that relevant. It's cap spending," Belichick said on WEEI's Greg Hill Show. "So teams that spend a lot of cash one year probably don't spend a lot of cash in the next year, because you just can't sustain that."
Heck what does he know with his poor SB history. Problem is Jerry holds on to guys based on his evaluation of players not what they actually are. Manage the cap don’t hurt the team with huge dead money down the road is the key as BB looks at it.

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Except we have actual data showing spending over the decade. There's no excuse for the Cowboys to be in the bottom third or so in terms of actual physical cash spent on the team. It's inexcusable. Yes, the cap is important but reality is other teams manage the cap in order to try to spend and improve their team. We seemingly manage the cap to make it look like we max out every year but in reality, we invest less actual resources in the team compared to like 75% of the rest of the NFL.

Now is it because the Jones are cheap? Or do they really now know what they are doing? Or are they uber risk adverse in terms of kicking down the road? Who knows, could be all three. But reality is that the most valuable franchise in sports, the franchise that generates more revenue and profits than any franchise on the planet is 25th or so in actual roster spending over the last decade.

Trying to justify that at this point is a bit strange.

Coogiguy03 said:

Leave it to the people in the organization feeling that you MUST build through the draft. Then they cry about free agency like we as fans are too stupid to know that you can't get every free agent. At least try to get a guy that can help you get over the hump. *Smart fans know this!!!!

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Build through the draft, when it's time to pay ( Tyron Smith, Tyler Biadias, Connor McGovern etc.) let them walk.

Sydla said:

Except we have actual data showing spending over the decade. There's no excuse for the Cowboys to be in the bottom third or so in terms of actual physical cash spent on the team. It's inexcusable. Yes, the cap is important but reality is other teams manage the cap in order to try to spend and improve their team. We seemingly manage the cap to make it look like we max out every year but in reality, we invest less actual resources in the team compared to like 75% of the rest of the NFL.

Now is it because the Jones are cheap? Or do they really now know what they are doing? Or are they uber risk adverse in terms of kicking down the road? Who knows, could be all three. But reality is that the most valuable franchise in sports, the franchise that generates more revenue and profits than any franchise on the planet is 25th or so in actual roster spending over the last decade.

Trying to justify that at this point is a bit strange.

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They care more about making money than winning.

renny said:

Build through the draft, when it's time to pay ( Tyron Smith, Tyler Biadias, Connor McGovern etc.) let them walk.

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Dallas gets caught paying their own guys. Michael Gallup and Jaylon Smith come to mind as guys they should have let walk. Zeke's contract was no good either.

Brax said:

Bill Belichick would disagree with the cash spent over cap
“Cash spending isn't really that relevant. It's cap spending," Belichick said on WEEI's Greg Hill Show. "So teams that spend a lot of cash one year probably don't spend a lot of cash in the next year, because you just can't sustain that."
Heck what does he know with his poor SB history. Problem is Jerry holds on to guys based on his evaluation of players not what they actually are. Manage the cap don’t hurt the team with huge dead money down the road is the key as BB looks at it.

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Bill knows his stuff.

sunalsorises said:

Dallas gets caught paying their own guys. Michael Gallup and Jaylon Smith come to mind as guys they should have let walk. Zeke's contract was no good either.

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They re-signed those guys because they got a good "deal". If they recovered from injury the Jones would have struck "oil" with the price they got them for. That is what makes Jerry's engine rev....the art of the deal!!!!

Signing a top tier free agent to a top flight contract is way too obvious and does not allow for "wheeling and dealing"....which gets Jerry adrenaline going. He told you himself why he had to part ways with Parcells...he missed being in on the action.

His son is not going to be any better....what are we going to do as Cowboy nation to put a stop to this

I live in the DC area and I want to give a shout out to Commanders fans....who also had a terrible owner (who tried to emulate Jerry I might add). They stopped showing up...the booed, they let their displeasure be known EVERY chance they got...and eventually, they got him out of here. One could dream.....

Hawkeye0202 said:

+1.......THIS is the straw to our post-season issues. You can't win a Super Bowl with draft and bottom feeders. You have to sign a couple of QUALITY free agents to close the gap. I challenge anyone to name a Super Bowl winning team that DID NOT add at least 1-2 quality free agents.

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I totally agree, I think we feel we have a few top players, they should be fine to do it on their own, they don't be any help

Sydla said:

Except we have actual data showing spending over the decade. There's no excuse for the Cowboys to be in the bottom third or so in terms of actual physical cash spent on the team. It's inexcusable. Yes, the cap is important but reality is other teams manage the cap in order to try to spend and improve their team. We seemingly manage the cap to make it look like we max out every year but in reality, we invest less actual resources in the team compared to like 75% of the rest of the NFL.

Now is it because the Jones are cheap? Or do they really now know what they are doing? Or are they uber risk adverse in terms of kicking down the road? Who knows, could be all three. But reality is that the most valuable franchise in sports, the franchise that generates more revenue and profits than any franchise on the planet is 25th or so in actual roster spending over the last decade.

Trying to justify that at this point is a bit strange.

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To me giving the money as bonus so in effect is kicking it down the road, no matter what happens teams must spend 90% on players salaries period Dak was the cash king at 153 million the last 4 years as I stated dead money costs cap space. The money is spent but not how some like it, it all on how you want to manage the cap Jerry being the smartest person on the planet (just ask him) kicks it down the road because every year he has a SB team of n his eyes, BB says pay cap dollars and he did very well doing that, know why he dumped high cost players now you know, best team using the cap not paying high cash to pay players and paying for it down the road.
If a team spends more cash, will the team win more games? Based on cash spending alone, the answer is No. There is no correlation to the amount of teams wins compared against cash spending.

This plot covers the 2011 through 2022 league years, comparing regular season team wins against the total amount of cash spent. If you wanted to drop a trend line on this chart, it will be flat indicating no correlation

Brax said:

To me giving the money as bonus so in effect is kicking it down the road, no matter what happens teams must spend 90% on players salaries period Dak was the cash king at 153 million the last 4 years as I stated dead money costs cap space. The money is spent but not how some like it, it all on how you want to manage the cap Jerry being the smartest person on the planet (just ask him) kicks it down the road because every year he has a SB team of n his eyes, BB says pay cap dollars and he did very well doing that, know why he dumped high cost players now you know, best team using the cap not paying high cash to pay players and paying for it down the road.
If a team spends more cash, will the team win more games? Based on cash spending alone, the answer is No. There is no correlation to the amount of teams wins compared against cash spending.

This plot covers the 2011 through 2022 league years, comparing regular season team wins against the total amount of cash spent. If you wanted to drop a trend line on this chart, it will be flat indicating no correlation

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The problem with this as pointed out by a few on twitter is that not all teams are the same. Some teams are just bad teams that try to spend their way to a winner. Some horde cap space and they spend like drunken sailors. As pointed out by a few, the Cowboys have typically had a pretty strong core roster that with a few tweaks in FA, they could have been legitimate contenders. But instead, Dallas went cheap and decided to pour little to no resources into FA (and maybe keeping a player they let walk) to their own detriment.

And even look at the list. Look at some of the teams that spent the most cash. Philly - two SBs, won one. SF has been in the last 4 NFC Champ games and been in two SBs. Rams won a SB and played in another. TB won a SB by spending money that year with Brady. KC is an outlier as they are below the league average in cash spending and have won but they also have the best combo in football with the best QB and arguably the best HC.

There is no excuse for the Cowboys to be where they are in cash spending. None. It's a conscious decision that started really when Stephen started to exert more influence.

DogFace said:

They never got over Galloway and Roy Williams (Wr)

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Thats because they didnt and dont have a GM.