As teams look to get under the 2014 cap in advance of the NFL’s league year beginning on March 11, several players with large cap numbers will be worth watching. In his latest piece for CBSSports.com, Joel Corry examines the players with the top five biggest cap numbers in the league, two of which come from the NFC East: Tony Romo of the Cowboys and Eli Manning of the Giants. While the Cowboys have the discretionary right to convert Romo’s base salary into a signing bonus, the Giants don’t have the same flexibility with Manning, so lowering Eli’s cap hit may mean signing him to an extension.
Besides Romo and Manning, DeMarcus Ware represents another interesting case, writes Corry. Ware’s $16MM+ cap number probably needs to be addressed to help the Cowboys’ slip under the cap, but it’s not clear if the veteran pass rusher would be willing to accept a pay cut. Here’s more on Ware, along with a few other NFC East notes:
- Ware tells Todd Archer of ESPNDallas.com that his agent has yet to be approached by the Cowboys about Ware’s contract, though that figures to happen soon. “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Ware said. “I’m going to let the guys run the numbers and handle that. My mentality is that I’m going to do what I need to do to try to help the team out the best I can where they’re going to win and I want to win.”
- John Keim of ESPN.com takes a snapshot of the Redskins’ cap breakdown by position, revealing that well over half of the team’s current commitments are on the offensive or defensive line.
- In a photo gallery, the Dallas Morning News identifies 10 wide receiver prospects who the Cowboys could target in this year’s draft.