Where do the Cowboys stand in NFL salary cap moving forward?

The Dallas Cowboys found themselves active at the trade deadline on Tuesday afternoon, trading for Logan Wilson and Quinnen Williams, a player that they hope can not only get them back in track in 2025, but 2026 and 2027 as he is signed through both of those years.

So with Jerry Jones deciding to trade Micah Parsons and not pay him what he is making now in Green Bay, what does that mean for Williams, a player that Dallas will now have to pay, but it will be nearly 20M under what Parsons is making?

Take A Look

• Kenny Clark, DT: $21.5 million
• Quinnen Williams, DT: $21.8 million
• Osa Odigizuwa, DT: $20.8 million
• Logan Wilson, LB: $6.5 million

Now let me be very clear, this is for 2025. They are going to have to create space heading into 2026, because if you take a look at over the cap, linked here.

The Dallas Cowboys are in the red, way at the bottom, so they have to make up some money somewhere.

My guess would be that they do some type of restructure to Osa Odighizuwa and save around 10 million, but then look for them to do some heavy lifting on Kenny Clark and Quinnen Williams and that could boost it by $25 million plus.

Williams, like Clark, has two years remaining on his deal. Half of his 2025 base salary of $15,650,000 comes with him, as does around 50% of his per-game bonuses.

He adds around $8.4 million of cap hit onto the team’s 2025 ledger. Along with LB Logan Wilson, who was acquired earlier in the day and added $2.8 million himself, the Cowboys used around a third of the cap space they had remaining entering the week.

Quinnen Williams on joining the Cowboys: "It's an unbelievable honor that they traded for me to help them do things they aspire to do, especially when it comes to building a winning culture. I definitely want to be part of a winning culture."

— Todd Archer (@toddarcher) November 5, 2025

I don’t run the Dallas Cowboys, so lord only knows what this front office is going to do, but they have the guys now that are locked up for at least the next two years, and maybe they will give this a shot one last time in 2026.

I would love nothing more than to win now, but with that loss to the Arizona Cardinals it is going to make it tough in the NFC.

After the bye week, they play the Raiders on the road, the Eagles and Chiefs at home. Then they play the Lions. So let’s be honest here, this team is two games under .500 and with the Eagles, Chiefs and Lions three out of the next four games, this move has to be for 26 and 27.