Damn, man, that is some high praise - much appreciated.
As far as the Cowboys creating space to sign Wagner they are actually in way better shape than the Rams. According to [
overthecap.com] the Cowboys are nearly $2.6M under the cap while the Rams are more than $20M over the cap.
I think we've all seen the article about how the Rams can create $100M in cap space. (If not, here it is: [
www.spotrac.com] ) None of it is magic and most if not all of it involves converting 2022 salary to a signing bonus. That still lets the team pay the player this year but the cap hit for a signing bonus can be spread out up to 5 years. So if $10M is converted to a signing bonus the player gets the $10M immediately, but the cap hit can be spread out - $2M a year for 5 years ... resulting in a cap savings of $8M.
So what can the Cowboys do?
Demarcus is set to make $19M this year. He's under contract for 2023 and has a void year in 2024. They could convert $17M of that salary to a signing bonus, add 2 more void years so there are the maximum 5 years on the contract where they can spread out the cap hit for that bonus, and create $13.6M in cap space.
There's a persistent rumor that the Cowboys are going to cut Amari Cooper. Let's say they do that: that's a $16M cap savings.
Ezekiel Elliot is under contract thru 2026 and is set to make $12.4M this year. If the Cowboys converted $11M of that to a signing bonus they could gain $8.8M in cap relief.
Tyron Smith is set to make $13.5M this year. He's under contract for 2023 and has a void year in 2024. Convert $12M to a signing bonus, add 2 more void years, and create another $9.6M in cap space.
So there - with only 4 transactions (and not even doing anything tricky) - the Cowboys can be nearly $50.6M over the cap.
AlbaNY_Ram
