Cowboys Contract Change on Zack Martin; New ‘Flip of Switch’ To Salary Cap

Transcript

00:00 Your Dallas Cowboys have made a major cap compliance move.

00:05 This just happened, so it's breaking news.

00:07 I'm Mike Fisher on the Cowboys report here, the Fish Report and CowboysSI.com.

00:13 Salary cap, of course, this year now, somewhat of a surprise, jumps up to $255.4 million.

00:20 That's about $10 million more than was originally anticipated.

00:25 So that, in theory, gives teams a little more elbow room in which to work.

00:29 Now keep in mind, all the teams get the same leap.

00:32 So if we're running a race, a competitive race, it's kind of like it's a 100-yard dash.

00:38 Well, they moved it to 99 yards.

00:39 Yay, I'll be faster.

00:40 No, all the other teams are going to be the same speed.

00:43 But this does help the Cowboys in this sense.

00:46 They did not have to make a lot of moves to get under the $255.4.

00:50 They just flipped the switch.

00:52 That's the vernacular we like to use.

00:55 And the Zach Martin contract now has been altered.

00:58 He doesn't negotiate this.

00:59 He doesn't lose any money.

01:00 The Cowboys don't spend or lose any money.

01:03 It just moves from one pocket to another base to bonus.

01:06 They have moved $13 million of Zach Martin's money.

01:09 According to Over the Cap, they entered the day $10 million over.

01:13 They need to be cap compliant by the start of the business year, which is March 13th.

01:18 And by doing this, they are now technically cap compliant.

01:21 Now in fact, they're $3 million under.

01:24 There's much more to do because you can't do other business if you just have $3 million

01:28 worth of room.

01:30 We know that the Dak Prescott contract, which has been the Cowboys' goal all along, is one

01:35 that could save them $18 to $20 million per year if they can get that done.

01:39 We know that the C.D. Lamb contract, which absolutely is in the plan, I don't think there's

01:43 any change there, get that done, that's a $7 million change.

01:47 And then there's flip of the switches that you can do with Terrence Steele and Trayvon

01:54 Diggs and on and on and on.

01:56 And they'll do a bunch of those things in order to get some more room to do business.

02:01 If however, you're going to establish that you're all in, you can't just make just enough

02:06 rooms, just enough rooms so you can conduct your normal business.

02:11 If you want to be a buyer, the Cowboys are going to have to do much more than what they've

02:15 just done.

02:16 This is a start, cap compliance is important too, so they flip the switch on Zach Martin

02:21 and they are now under the NFL salary cap.

02:24 On the Cowboys, Fish out.