Cowboys restructure Prescott, Lamb, and Smith deals, unlocking over $66 million in salary cap space for offseason ambitions.
FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys are now cap-compliant and more as on Wednesday they have just executed the first three of a handful of expected moves to become ready for the March 11 start of the NFL business year.
Done is a “flip of the switch’’ restructure of quarterback Dak Prescott’s monster contract.
Done is a re-do on offensive lineman Tyler Smith's deal.
And done is a move on wide receiver CeeDee Lamb's deal.
So for the moment ... Dallas just moved $66 million into the future to get under the cap with some room to spare.
Prescott, who makes an average of $60 million per year - the richest deal in NFL history - was slated to count $74 million in cap space this year. That was never tenable, of course, not even under the increased ceiling of about $300 million.
The all-along plan? Keep pushing that number down the road while shrinking it in the process.
Entering the deadline, Dallas was about $31 million over the cap. A restructure here - with no need for Dak to “sacrifice’’ or even to “negotiate because the “switch-flip’’ is pre-build into his contract, making all of this mostly just an accounting move - opens up about $31 million of room.
The restructuring of the contract of Smith can create $17 million in cap room.
And now doing the same with Lamb can mean more than $19 mil in savings.
And suddenly, Dallas just saved $66 million and is under the cap. ... and "Cap Hell'' is dead.
Of course, this is only the start of a series of such moves … because more room is needed for the likes of George Pickens and Brandon Aubrey, among others.
Our numbers going into the process ...
QB Dak Prescott - $31 million in savings
WR CeeDee Lamb - $19 million in savings
OL Tyler Smith - $17.6 million in savings
DT Quinnen Williams - $14.6 million in savings
DT Osa Odighizuwa - $12 million in savings
A re-do with Quinnen Williams ($14 mil) and with Osa Odighizuwa ($12 mil) are among the many additional options.
Expect Dallas to flip some of those switches soon enough. … because to keep franchise-tagging Pickens they’ll need to have $27.3 million of room, and to tender Aubrey, they’ll need to have $6 million of room.
And that’s before they get to true free agency, when they plan on “busting the bank’’ (Jerry Jones’ words) when it comes to adding outside talent.
The methodology is in place to gain more than $110 million in cap room … and the Cowboys just nudged the first dominoes with the Dak, Lamb and Smith moves.