DC.COM: Ware Likely To Become NFL's Best-Paid defender
Sacks Full Of Cash
Ware Likely To Become NFL's Best-Paid defender
by Josh Ellis
IRVING, Texas - DeMarcus Ware's lucky pick-four lottery numbers are 8, 11.5, 14 and 20. Those are the Cowboys linebacker's sack totals through his first four NFL seasons, the most of any player in the league.
The production all but guarantees the Cowboys will make Ware the league's highest-paid defensive player ever at some point in the not-too-distant future. Now it's just a matter of when the payday comes, just how large it will be, and the two sides clearing the necessary hurdles to strike a deal.
The 26-year-old has one year remaining on his rookie contract, but the Cowboys would like to have their only First Team All-Pro re-signed before the 2009 season begins. That means the club will have to ration its salary cap resources while attempting to re-sign other players with deals expiring March 1, when the free agency period begins. The Cowboys have eight unrestricted free agents, including starting defensive end Chris Canty, linebacker Kevin Burnett and special teams captain Keith Davis.
The Cowboys have yet to begin talks with Ware's agent Pat Dye Jr., according to a source, but have considered what the appropriate timing might be.
Already the club has called a contract extension for Ware its top priority of the off-season. The need to get a deal done before Ware so much as sniffs the open market affects not only which players the team can afford to sign, but also which ones it can afford to lose. When the season ended three weeks ago, owner Jerry Jones was almost immediately asked about the possibility of cutting loose a high-salary player. Jones said a move like releasing Terrell Owens was un-doable because the resulting cap hit would take away the possibility of a new deal for Ware.
On Sunday's episode of "Special Edition with Jerry Jones," team executive vice president Stephen Jones said the league's current fiscal climate will impose limitations on how active the Cowboys can be when the real off-season work begins in six weeks. The Cowboys are expected to have around $10 million in cap space come March, but some of that will be eaten up by signing rookie draft picks.
"We do have some restrictions in terms of bringing on new players from other teams," Stephen Jones said. "We did make sure that we had it covered as far as one of our better players here on this team in DeMarcus Ware, which will be our top priority in the off-season, is to get him under contract for the future . . . I don't know that we have to have it done (before March), but we'll certainly start the process of working toward that."
Even if a deal is not struck before the league enters an uncapped year in 2010, the Cowboys would still control Ware's rights. He would become a restricted free agent, which would give the Cowboys the right to match any offer he received, and hefty compensation in the form of draft picks if they decided to let him get away.
But it isn't likely to come to that. In fact, the Cowboys will undoubtedly save money if they sign Ware before the '09 season begins, as the price of doing business rises every year. In 2007, the Indianapolis Colts gave top pass-rusher Dwight Freeney what was then the richest contract for a defensive player, a six-year deal worth $72 million. Last year Minnesota traded Kansas City for defensive end Jared Allen, and signed him to a deal that topped Freeney's, for six-years and $74 million, with just over $31 million guaranteed.
Since entering the league, Ware has five more sacks than Allen, his closest competition.
"I think most people would agree DeMarcus Ware is one of the best defensive players in the NFL, if not the best, and we're the first ones to acknowledge that," Jones said. "So it shouldn't be a tough negotiation."
The major sticking point of contract talks is expected to be how the Cowboys and Ware's camp can manage the league's "30 percent rule," which says a player's base salary cannot escalate by more than 30 percent from one year to the next after 2009. But the two sides will probably be working together to solve such fine-print problems.
On the Cowboys defense this season it was apparent certain players were at least slightly distracted by their desire for new contracts, but Ware never mentioned his impending deal in front of the media. Unlike some others, that's not really Ware's style, but he also realizes the Cowboys will take care of him.
"We've been very clear with him on that, and of course DeMarcus is not only a great football player, but he is one of the best people on the team as well," Jones said. "He's just of the highest of character and we think the world of DeMarcus, and he's the type of person that we want to have on this team going forward."
So what's a fair wage? There's hardly a question Ware's extension will top Allen's deal, perhaps dramatically, and be the largest sum the Cowboys have ever given a player. Currently, the richest contract the team has handed out is the six-year, $67.5 million extension Tony Romo signed during the 2007 season.
The 11th overall pick in the 2005 draft, Ware received a five-year, $13 million contract with $10 million guaranteed when he signed with the Cowboys two days into training camp his rookie year.
Sometimes you outperform your contract. That rookie check was lucrative, but not anywhere close to the next one Ware will receive.
And it's already in the mail.
Ware Likely To Become NFL's Best-Paid defender
by Josh Ellis
IRVING, Texas - DeMarcus Ware's lucky pick-four lottery numbers are 8, 11.5, 14 and 20. Those are the Cowboys linebacker's sack totals through his first four NFL seasons, the most of any player in the league.
The production all but guarantees the Cowboys will make Ware the league's highest-paid defensive player ever at some point in the not-too-distant future. Now it's just a matter of when the payday comes, just how large it will be, and the two sides clearing the necessary hurdles to strike a deal.
The 26-year-old has one year remaining on his rookie contract, but the Cowboys would like to have their only First Team All-Pro re-signed before the 2009 season begins. That means the club will have to ration its salary cap resources while attempting to re-sign other players with deals expiring March 1, when the free agency period begins. The Cowboys have eight unrestricted free agents, including starting defensive end Chris Canty, linebacker Kevin Burnett and special teams captain Keith Davis.
The Cowboys have yet to begin talks with Ware's agent Pat Dye Jr., according to a source, but have considered what the appropriate timing might be.
Already the club has called a contract extension for Ware its top priority of the off-season. The need to get a deal done before Ware so much as sniffs the open market affects not only which players the team can afford to sign, but also which ones it can afford to lose. When the season ended three weeks ago, owner Jerry Jones was almost immediately asked about the possibility of cutting loose a high-salary player. Jones said a move like releasing Terrell Owens was un-doable because the resulting cap hit would take away the possibility of a new deal for Ware.
On Sunday's episode of "Special Edition with Jerry Jones," team executive vice president Stephen Jones said the league's current fiscal climate will impose limitations on how active the Cowboys can be when the real off-season work begins in six weeks. The Cowboys are expected to have around $10 million in cap space come March, but some of that will be eaten up by signing rookie draft picks.
"We do have some restrictions in terms of bringing on new players from other teams," Stephen Jones said. "We did make sure that we had it covered as far as one of our better players here on this team in DeMarcus Ware, which will be our top priority in the off-season, is to get him under contract for the future . . . I don't know that we have to have it done (before March), but we'll certainly start the process of working toward that."
Even if a deal is not struck before the league enters an uncapped year in 2010, the Cowboys would still control Ware's rights. He would become a restricted free agent, which would give the Cowboys the right to match any offer he received, and hefty compensation in the form of draft picks if they decided to let him get away.
But it isn't likely to come to that. In fact, the Cowboys will undoubtedly save money if they sign Ware before the '09 season begins, as the price of doing business rises every year. In 2007, the Indianapolis Colts gave top pass-rusher Dwight Freeney what was then the richest contract for a defensive player, a six-year deal worth $72 million. Last year Minnesota traded Kansas City for defensive end Jared Allen, and signed him to a deal that topped Freeney's, for six-years and $74 million, with just over $31 million guaranteed.
Since entering the league, Ware has five more sacks than Allen, his closest competition.
"I think most people would agree DeMarcus Ware is one of the best defensive players in the NFL, if not the best, and we're the first ones to acknowledge that," Jones said. "So it shouldn't be a tough negotiation."
The major sticking point of contract talks is expected to be how the Cowboys and Ware's camp can manage the league's "30 percent rule," which says a player's base salary cannot escalate by more than 30 percent from one year to the next after 2009. But the two sides will probably be working together to solve such fine-print problems.
On the Cowboys defense this season it was apparent certain players were at least slightly distracted by their desire for new contracts, but Ware never mentioned his impending deal in front of the media. Unlike some others, that's not really Ware's style, but he also realizes the Cowboys will take care of him.
"We've been very clear with him on that, and of course DeMarcus is not only a great football player, but he is one of the best people on the team as well," Jones said. "He's just of the highest of character and we think the world of DeMarcus, and he's the type of person that we want to have on this team going forward."
So what's a fair wage? There's hardly a question Ware's extension will top Allen's deal, perhaps dramatically, and be the largest sum the Cowboys have ever given a player. Currently, the richest contract the team has handed out is the six-year, $67.5 million extension Tony Romo signed during the 2007 season.
The 11th overall pick in the 2005 draft, Ware received a five-year, $13 million contract with $10 million guaranteed when he signed with the Cowboys two days into training camp his rookie year.
Sometimes you outperform your contract. That rookie check was lucrative, but not anywhere close to the next one Ware will receive.
And it's already in the mail.
posted by The Gryphon at 7:20 PM
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