The Dallas Cowboys have -$29 million in cap space: Here's how they can erase it quickly

The Dallas Cowboys get to play the most fun, grueling and agonizing game most good NFL franchises have to deal with: The money game. The Philadelphia Eagles have set the standard of navigating the modern day cap space issues as the mythical NFL salary cap looms over this offseason. The Cowboys are $29 million over the cap, meaning they have some work to do to free up some space. 

Moreso, they need to be aggressive in cutting some unnecessary dollars to make sure they can not only retain George Pickens, but also beef up this defense. The Cowboys don’t have too many years left of Dak Prescott playing at an elite level. Continuing to waste away his best seasons by missing the playoffs is unacceptable. This offseason, these roster moves will get them out of cap hell and help them build their championship roster. 

Cutting unnecessary players can get the Cowboys closer to the cap

Believe it or not, the Dallas Cowboys have a lot of wiggle room from roster cuts alone. Kenny Clark is the biggest wild card. He was a productive addition as part of the Micah Parsons trade, but he’s owed $20.8 million with no dead money. That’s intriguing, but all signs are pointing toward the Cowboys bringing him back. If he’s off the board, then, who’s next?

Dallas could save themselves about $25.2 million by cutting these seven players. That puts them just $4 million below the cap. Without restructuring any contracts, they’re already in a better position. 

Logan Wilson might be the biggest cut, but at the end of the day, he didn’t really perform that well and between trades, the NFL Draft and free agency, the Cowboys could replenish his loss almost immediately. If Clark gets added into that as well, it would be even more money for the Cowboys to work with. 

Restructuring contracts

Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb signed some massive contracts a few seasons ago that’s weighing heavily on Dallas’ cap space. We’ll start with restructuring Prescott and Lamb’s contracts. That will create about $44 million in cap space alone. We’ll also restructure Osa Odighizuwa and Tyler Smith’s contracts as well. 

With the SticktoTheModel’s format, we’re going to do a standard restructure rather than add void years, which will spread their guaranteed money over the course of the duration of the contract years. In a matter of about 11 moves, we’ve created over $60 million in cap space. Now again, this is a hypothetical move, right. 

Maybe Dallas realizes they don’t have to restructure both Lamb and Prescott’s contracts or make some cuts they wouldn’t have to. This is realistically a perfect scenario, where they have $60-plus million in cap space to work with. Jerry Jones is smart with his money so every move he makes will have intent. He’s only going to restructure and create the cap space if he’s planning to use it. 

Additional moves to cut more cap space if need be

With $63 million in cap space, the Cowboys wouldn’t need to make many more moves but if they did, the most glaring option is to cut Clark. That would make sense because with Odighizuwa and Quinnen Williams, Clark would be good depth, but expensive. So if Dallas wanted to go on a spending frenzy, it would make sense to cut Clark to do so. 

Cutting Solomon Thomas trims unnecessary depth on the defensive line, Malik Davis trims some depth at running back as well. Dallas has quite a few moves they can make to get under the cap. The most important moves are restructuring Prescott and Lamb’s deals. Every move after that is simply adding more room to improve this roster.

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