This was a predictable move for those who followed Cowboys Wire and the Catch This Fade. In order to fit in the several one-year contracts they have agreed to over the past week, the Dallas Cowboys went to the well on Monday morning to free up some salary space. In addition to signing Eric Kendricks, Dallas has signed three or four of its own free agents through 2024. That limits the Cowboys’ ability to carry over cap implications from bonus money into subsequent seasons, but it also keeps them from committing past the current season.
Furthermore, room is still required even when the hauls are tiny to minimize the impact of the cap. Dallas needed to make room, and the best way to do it would be to add more vacant years to Dak Prescott’s last year and gradually convert basic income to bonus, as stated in this video from January and this piece from last week. Dallas started the procedure on Monday.
This hinders or helps the Cowboys in their attempts to reach a long-term deal with Prescott. In order to retain Prescott in the fold for the foreseeable future, both parties have persisted in expressing a wish to find a way ahead. Moving Prescott’s money around is the safest method for the Cowboys to generate the room they need, and that’s all this move addresses.
Due to prior bonus allocations that were postponed, the quarterback already has a sizable cap burden hanging on the presently unpaid 2025 season.
The organization can distribute the cap hit over the course of the five seasons, including the current one, when a player receives a bonus.
Prescott already had two void years (an NFL accounting trick that allows teams to push cap hits beyond the actual length of the contract) and the team added two more, to maximize the savings.
Converting his roster bonus into one that can be allocated was a no brainer move that changes nothing about how Prescott receives his dough. They can do this again with the $29 million base salary that still remains, if they so desire.
The two sides can continue working towards an agreement to keep Prescott in Dallas beyond the current season. On the other hand, it appears the sides are pushing this as an indication of things to come, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case either.
Prescott will probably demand a contract that pays out an average of $55 million to $60 million a year. Similar to restructuring over the vacant years or, in the event of an extension, actual basic salary, his 2024 cap hit would be decreased.
After reorganizing Zack Martin’s final season under his contract in a similar way, Dallas had almost $2 million in cap space at the start of the offseason. All of his base pay, less the bare minimum for a nine-plus-year veteran, was turned into a bonus, and two vacant years were added.
The team also made LB Leighton Vander Esch available in order to free up an additional $2.15 million in space. Michael Gallup was dismissed by Dallas, but it won’t be possible to use his $9.5 million until June 2.
With this extra $4 million, Dallas will have about $8 million in space to accommodate the transactions they reached last week:
DT Carl Davis, $1.07 million
LS Trent Sieg, $ 1.152 million
CB Jourdan Lewis, $1.377 million
ST C.J. Goodwin, $1.152 million
LB Eric Kendricks, $3.5 million
Although the organization has other options for free agency, using Prescott’s scenario rather than other wages seems more sensible and easier. If they do not restructure their contract now, the team will lose all flexibility in later scenarios even if the salary cap is always manipulable.
It might be possible to convert base salaries of players like DeMarcus Lawrence, Terence Steele, Trevon Diggs, and Donovan Wilson into bonuses, which would free up more space. Since WR CeeDee Lamb’s $18 million fifth-year option is already sitting on this year’s cap, extending Lamb would also free up salary space.
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