Jerry Jones Indicates CB Brandon Carr Could Be A Cap Casualty

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones indicated that CB Brandon 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. However, Jones made it sound like this would be a major consideration this offseason.

“There’s an issue of going and borrowing some money, borrowing it in the sense of hedging, taking money from future years,” Jones said. “There’s an issue there. We’ll maximize our dollar.”

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.