Robbing Peter to Pay Paul — and Making a Career Out of College Football | Just Wondering with Norm

It's Friday, January 28th, and today I'm just wondering about another salary cap situation for the Cowboys and making a career out of playing college football. And now a word from our title sponsor. Buying retirement?

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The projected cap in the National Football League for the coming 2026 season is a little over 300 million. That's to pay all your players. Right now the Cowboys are $30 million over that cap.

And that's not counting what they may want to pay George Pickens or Javante Williams or Brandon Aubrey to stay and they want them all to stay. And by the way I should note that with all those players, the Cowboys were $79.1 last year. What this doesn't address also is other free agents they might want to keep.

Javine Clowney, Dante Fowler, Sam Williams. Okay, so what are the Cowboys do? Where do they get the money?

Well, they rob Peter to pay Paul. They take current players' contracts, reduce their cap income this year, but move a lot of money down the line to put further weight on salary caps in years to come. And not far down the road, years to come.

Okay, so where else can you get money? Well, you can cut contracts. You can cut right tackle, tear and steal.

And linebacker Logan Wilson, I think, is gone. And why'd we see Virginia's then mingle? I don't know why he ever got here.

But that will save you just rounding off, I think around $22 million worth of cap room. Of course, when you do that, you don't have a starting right tackle. Which brings us to a salary cap situation.

The Cowboys really need to address. Next year in the Micah Parsons trade, they said that they had to have defensive tackle Kenny Clark in the deal. Then later, they traded for another defensive tackle, Quinn Williams, Clark's contract calls for him to jump from $2 million last year to $21 million this year.

But that simply can't happen. Why? Because if you agree to that contract with Clark, that would mean the tackles, oh, so Diggie Zua, Quentin Williams and Kenny Clark are costing the Cowboys $64 million, $64 million at just defensive tackle.

But then if the Cowboys let Clark go to save all that cap money, imagine the criticism Jerry and the front office would get because they told us they had to have Kenny Clark, had to have him in the deal for Micah Parsons. So the question is, how much can they cut Kenny Clark? If he takes $10 million a year, would he take $10 million a year for two years, totally guaranteed, $12 million a year for two years, totally guaranteed, I don't know if Clark will buy that, and that's up to Clark and his agent.

But I don't think the Cowboys can tolerate Kenny Clark, they can $21 million this year. And that brings us to the way the Dallas Cowboys do salary cap business. At this point, for the 2026 season, these nine players, Dak Prescott, CDLAM, Tyler Smith, Brennan Williams, Kenny Clark, Osso O'Diggy-Zoa, Terrence Steel, Doron Blan and Jake Ferguson.

Those nine players count to $59 million toward a $300 million cap. Let's go back to those three free agents you want to keep. Against Brandon Aubrey, Javante Williams, they're in a cost of about $40 million between the three of them.

That would take you to $299 million for 12 players and the cap is $300 million. That's where we get into it. You got to reduce Clark, you got to cut these people, you got to do all these things.

Now the rule is, you've got to be under the salary cap by March 11th in the afternoon of March 11th this year. Why? Because that date, March 11th, is the date where players can start signing free agent contracts.

So you get below the figure by that date, then you can jump over. But you've got to get below it by that date, which means you're probably redoing that and lamb and Tyler Smith or N. Baby O'Diggy-Zoa all by then.

And you're pushing money down the road. Let's give an example, two examples of what happens when you do that. The Cowboys signed Dak Prescott two years ago to a four year, $60 million a year contract.

But last year to create salary cap space, they redid his contract and pushed money forward. Forward to the point where Dak now, this year and the following two years, counts $74 million against the cap. They did this with Zach Martin, the star guard.

And when Zach Martin retired, the Cowboys still had to carry $16 million a year for two years on their cap because of the money they'd pushed forward redoing Zach Martin. Imagine what they'll have to carry for Dak's contract a few retires. But redoing these players is easy.

You know what's not easy? Dealing with it, two or three years down the road. The Cowboys this year say they'll bust the budget to keep everything together.

Make a big run, a big run to win the Super Bowl. Will that make this a Super Bowl team? I've some pretty grave doubts about that.

But then that's the way the Cowboys have been doing business now for decades and decades and decades. Next, making a career out of playing college football. What do you want from your favorite restaurant?

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Over the last few months, we've been telling you at length about college football's bizarre notes, and they're out of control rules and trends. Now we've got a new one, a fun one. You know, you used to have four years of eligibility in college football, plus a red shirt here.

And then, just five years. But now, solid Miami of Florida linebacker Mohamed Ture, good player, good player, their leading tackler on a team that played for the college championship this year. He's announced he will return to Miami of Florida for his eighth college football season.

That's eight. He'll be 25 years old this year, and still playing college football. He's 25 years old, eight years in college.

He should be close to his doctorate. He started out playing three years at Rutgers. Then he torn ACL in spring practice in 2022, and was granted that medical richer year.

He came back in 2023 and was an honorable mention, all big 10 player. Then in 2024, he tore the same ACL, and in 2025, he transferred to Miami. He played three seasons at Rutgers, had a richer year at Rutgers.

Everybody got that 2020 year for COVID. Then he had two injured years, and now Miami is going to be there for his second season. Why didn't he turn pro if he's just going to play?

Because those multiple ACL injuries worried the NFL a lot, and turning 25 next year would make him an old recruit. So what would he get? Mid-draft pick at best?

Hey, under the NIL, he's better off going back to Miami. He'll make more money than he'd make in the NFL the next year, or maybe even the next two years. But that's what we got now in college football.

It's getting to a point where some players can almost make a career out of just playing college football. And now a word from our title sponsor. Today's episode has been brought to you by Fluent Financial, Retire Earlier Live Better, and by Bob's Steak and Chop House on Lemon and Dallas and in Craig Ranch in McKinney.

Bob's a Dallas tradition for more than 30 years. If you've enjoyed just wondering, please hit follow and a fresh new episode will land in your mailbox early every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. Should you know a sports fan who might like our work, please share our contact information with that person.

Thanks for listening to today's episode of Just One Ring. I'm Norm Hitzkes, and know that every day I'll be just wondering about something. And I'm Mary Hitzkes, and I'll just be wondering too.

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