The National Football League (NFL) is in the middle of the most awkward part of the calendar year – the off-season. Yet, many of these NFL teams love this time. With the draft set for April 24-29, many teams are taking advantage of this “downtime” to scout new players, shop for needs with already seasoned pros, and to adjust the cap.
The Dallas Cowboys haven’t gotten that message.
For the 2023-2024 season, the NFL Salary Cap is coming in at $224.8 million per team. With options like deferred salary being on the table, many teams can work magic with that kind of salary cap. Yet the Cowboys are coming in at $24,024,557 over the cap as of March 7th. This hole comes from a variety of places, but their running backs core needs some serious help.
Ezekiel Elliott is tipping in with a $16,720,000 contract, with just over $10 million of it as a base pay rate. The other $6,720,000 counts against the cap hit, but they are performance-based. Tony Pollard was eyeing up free agency, but got hit with the Franchise Tag, and was forced to stay in Dallas for at least another season. At the $10,091,000 price tag, he has a high cost, but his production is worth it. Malik Davis is bringing up the train of the running backs corps and is “only” making $870,000.
While Dallas isn’t the only team who needs to make some serious cuts to get under the cap, they have some of the most dead cap space, and they are taking high cap hits on people who aren’t performing enough for what Dallas is handing over. Expect some huge changes in the next 60 days.
