The Dallas Cowboys are just two days away from kicking off the 2021 season against the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and they’re doing some financial maneuvering before they take the field. According to ESPN insider Field Yates, the Cowboys have restructured Dak Prescott’s contract and converted $6.25M of his base salary into a signing bonus, creating $5M in cap space.
Prescott’s $9M base salary for this season is now $2.75M. The Cowboys will carry over the $5M in cap space for 2021 over to 2022, creating a $3.75M figure in added cap space.
The Cowboys have restructured the deals of several of their key offensive players this offseason. Tyron Smith, Zack Martin, and La’el Collins added about $18M in cap space back in March when their deals were reworked. Also, less than two weeks ago, Ezekiel Elliott had his deal restructured to create around $7M in cap space.
The team made it known last month that they were not going to give new deals to impending 2022 free agents Randy Gregory and Michael Gallup. In addition to this, Linebacker Leighton Vander Esch had his fifth-year option declined back in May. This move could have been made to bring these players back next season or to have added room to sign free agents during the next offseason.
