Cowboys Meet With CB Brandon Carr At Combine, Pay Cut Coming?

According to Rainer Sabin of the Dallas Morning News, the Cowboys met with CB Brandon Carr’s agent at the Combine this past week.

Regarding the meeting, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wouldn’t offer any details regarding what they discussed, but many have said that Carr could be a candidate for a pay cut.

“We’ll see where it goes,” Jones said of the meeting.

Jones, himself, indicated a month ago that Carr could be a cap casualty this offseason.

“Carr played well this year and I’m not as critical of Carr as others,” Jones said, via the Dallas Morning News. “But that’s a lot of money. One thing that we just got to do is we’ve got to make sure that every way we can, we get the value for the money.”

Of course, the Cowboys could consider restructuring Carr’s contract, like they’ve done in the past, in order to free up some cap space for the 2015 season.

Carr, 28, was a marquee free agent signing back in 2012 when the Cowboys locked him up to a five-year, $50.1 million contract that included $25.5 million guaranteed.

He stands to make a base salary of $8 million next season and another $9.1 million in 2016. After Carr reworked his contract in 2013, a voidable year in 2017 was added for salary cap purposes.

Carr’s cap figure for next year will be $12.71 million, but the Cowboys could free up $566,000 by releasing him outright, according to OverTheCap.com. Doing so would also create $12.15 million in dead money.

It would probably make more sense for them to consider designating Carr as a post-June 1 cut, which would create $8 million in cap space. This would allow them to negotiate a long-term contract for WR Dez Bryant if they’re forced to use their franchise tag on him.

In 2014, Carr recorded 54 tackles, one sack, and eight pass defenses over the course of 16 games. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 90 cornerback out of 108 qualifying players.