Is DeMarco To Dallas Financially Viable?
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IRVING (105.3 The Fan) - Dez Bryant - the Cowboys road-trip roommate of DeMarco Murray - wants his old friend to "come home.''
Is is financially feasible to make that happen?
There is a way for Dallas to re-acquire DeMarco, the 2014 rushing champ in a Cowboys uniform who has since become the symbol of the failure of fired Eagles boss Chip Kelly due to the bloated contract Philly gave Murray.
The Eagles can give DeMarco away to Dallas (or anyone else) in a way that, in this scenario, costs the Cowboys $9 million in guaranteed money — $7 million this year and then, in 2017, a $7.5 million salary that can be paid off for just $2 million.
*So the first question: Is DeMarco Murray worth $9 million for one season? Is he worth $14 million for two?
I believe I know the Cowboys' answer here, and they gave that answer to Murray last spring when they reached their threshold offer of $5 million a year. Dallas thinks that 28-year-old heavy-lifting runners are always on the cusp of immediate decline — and indeed, that prediction played out during Murray's almost-invisible season in Philly.
*Second question: But if Dallas wished to absorb that sort of salary, could it? Yes, easily. As we've reported exclusively on 105.3 The Fan, the Cowboys can create $48 million of room. They can afford anything they want.
*Third question: Doesn't almost any sort of Eagles move here destroy their cap? In most scenarios, yes, Philly would be smarter trying to make DeMarco work there rather than give him away to a fellow NFC East foe while at the same time taking its own $10-to-$13-mil hit.
I believe there is a trick Philly could use here to help a transaction: The Eagles could somehow convert some money to "new signing bonus' 's a re-do of Murray's contract. That would ease the new teams burden… but would require Philadelphia to essentially write him a, oh, say $5 million check, to get rid of him.
There are football people in Philly who want to make DeMarco work there. There are football people in Dallas - Dez included - who wish he never had to leave. But there aren't any cap-smart execs in either city who see DeMarco-to-Dallas as financially viable.
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