Cowboys rumors: 3 players who won’t be on the roster after NFL Draft

The Dallas Cowboys have been active this offseason and still have the NFL Draft coming. Some players won’t make it through the draft still on the roster. 

Fans have finally gotten to see the aggressive side of Jerry Jones in building the Dallas Cowboys roster this offseason and it’s been a welcomed sight. No, free agency wasn’t particularly lucrative as perhaps the team’s biggest move was to cut running back Ezekiel Elliott. However, trading for both Brandin Cooks and Stephon Gilmore while re-signing key players more than made up for that.

With the moves that the Cowboys have made thus far, they are set up beautifully for the 2023 NFL Draft. Dallas doesn’t have any glaring needs that will force their hand in the draft to reach at a position. In fact, it’s perhaps the best the franchise has been up to take a best-player-available approach in to the draft at every pick in quite some time, especially while still having a selection in all seven rounds.

Because of the moves that the club has made in the 2023 offseason and the players that they could add in the draft, though, there are some players on the Cowboys roster who won’t be holding that spot very long and, by the time the draft is over, could end up being a cap casualty. Three players, in particular, stand out as not being long for Dallas.

Cowboys rumors: 3 cap casualties who will be gone after NFL Draft

Antonio Callaway doesn’t have a place in the Cowboys WR room

Amid the team’s highly publicized and ultimately ill-fated pursuit of Odell Beckham Jr. at the end of the 2022 regular season, the Cowboys made two moves at wide receiver, one you definitely saw and one you might not have. The former was landing veteran TY Hilton, who made some big plays for Dallas down the stretch. The latter was signing 2018 fourth-round pick Antonio Callaway.

Callaway was initially drafted by the Cleveland Browns and had some real flashes out of Florida as a rookie. Playing in all 16 games at the time, he caught 43 balls for 586 yards and five touchdowns in Cleveland, seemingly showing real potential.

In the two years after, though, Callaway all but fell off the planet as he only played in nine games for the Browns and Dolphins combined, catching just 10 total passes for 109 yards. There still might be a future in the NFL for the wideout, but the situation dictates that it probably won’t be with Dallas.

Prior to the Cooks trade, most people projected wide receiver being a priority for the Cowboys in the draft as the Amari Cooper trade left the team thinner than they’d hoped at the position. Now with Cooks in the building, I still expect Dallas to draft a wide receiver, but it definitely improves the depth chart dramatically. With the franchise able to save just over $1 million by cutting Callaway, I don’t see his place on the roster moving forward past the draft.