Blogging The Boys
A lot has been made about the way that the Eagles go about building their roster.
The Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions. Congrats to them. They did some great things, blah, blah, blah. We’re sure their moms are proud.
For the Dallas Cowboys, it creates opportunities for jealousy. Not just watching a divisional rival hoist the Lombardi trophy, but also enduring another season where they failed to move the needle. It can be rather frustrating. Sometimes the disappointment can be so unbearable that it messes with your judgment.
Recency bias is so powerful that some have suggested the Eagles are now the model franchise. Risk-taking and aggressive spending are the way to go and Jerry Jones should be more like Jeffrey Lurie, even going as far as saying the Cowboys owner should sell some shares of the Cowboys to generate some cash he could then use to acquire free agents.
It’s a crazy proclamation for a handful of reasons. For starters, the Cowboys have money. Without even having any insight into Jerry Jones’ investment portfolio, we know they have the money. There is no shortage of cash flow, and the Cowboys spend money. If you look at the last five years, the Cowboys have spent $1.25 billion in cash, $65 million more than the league average. Twice in that span, the Cowboys have finished in the top three for the year in cash spending. Make no mistake about it, Jerry Jones spends money on this team.
To think a savvy business owner would sell off parts of one of the most profitable organizations in sports to get cash he doesn’t need doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s even more improbable when one expects the Joneses to get wild and crazy with their spending to buy things now, only to push the cap costs into future years. We know that’s not how they operate, but in the spirit of the copycat narrative, is that how they should operate?
We’ve already talked a lot about how the Eagles have pushed an enormous amount of money onto the books of future years in the form of using void years. To see an example of what we’re talking about, check out each team’s most expensive void-year salary cap debts (data courtesy of spotrac.com)
This is what is meant when stating the Eagles are mortgaging their future. Most know they’re doing it, but as you can see, this is quite excessive. Teams are constantly borrowing from the future and the Cowboys are no exception as they will add more to their future debts as they restructure more deals. The real difference between the two teams is that the Eagles are already committed to paying those players and they’re using those pre-determined void years to free up more money to purchase other assets right now. That’s the Eagles way.
Should the Cowboys follow suit? Why not. The Eagles are proven winners and any team who truly values winning is operating in this manner, correct?...
