The Dallas Cowboys’ free agency has been a fairly interesting one. As usual, they remained quiet through the first wave of free agents, letting the top talent go elsewhere for big time contracts. Since then, they’ve been able to add pretty good veterans for excellent prices. They’ve been able to address just about every position of need prior to the NFL Draft. While the free agents they’ve brought in are long term answers, some of them will be very important starters and will contribute to the team’s attempts of making a serious run for the Super Bowl.
And the best part of it all? Although they’ve been making a handful of veteran signings, they’ve handed out nothing but inexpensive one-year deals. Let’s take a closer look at each player’s cap number for 2019:
- Jason Witten: $4.25M.
- Christian Covington: $1.68M.
- Kerry Hyder: $887,500.
- Randall Cobb: $4.56M.
- George Iloka: $735,000.
- Robert Quinn: $8M.
Every single one of these players is coming to play to Dallas under a one-year contract. This has truly been a remarkable job by the Cowboys’ front office. They’re helping the team “take the next step.” Because make no mistake about it, this is a Dallas Cowboys team that’s close. They’re really in a position to be a Super Bowl contender when the season begins.
What’s impressive is that despite going after these veterans, they’re not risking their future at all. The Cowboys have a ton of young players waiting for contract extensions. The talk right now revolves around DeMarcus Lawrence but Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, Amari Cooper and Byron Jones are all right there on the waiting list. And after them, Jaylon Smith, and more will follow.
The Cowboys have managed this pretty well. According to Over The Cap, Dallas would be the team with the most cap space in 2020. Estimating the base salary cap to be $200M, OTC has the Cowboys leading the NFL with over 116 million dollars. This will soon change, as the front office will likely address the extensions mentioned and the cap space will go down considerably.
Many have reacted to the Robert Quinn trade with fear of him being a replacement for Lawrence instead of a complement, but the truth is Quinn’s arrival should have no impact at all on Tank’s situation. The Cowboys have the cap space to deal with those deals in the future, and they will. It’s just a matter of being patient.
