The NFL announced on Friday its new salary cap numbers for the 2024, and it’s a big, fat $255 million – about $9 million higher than anticipated.
As every team needs to be cap-compliant by March 13 (the start of the NFL business year), a higher cap ceiling is to be celebrated (thank you, Taylor Swift?!) certainly by teams like the Dallas Cowboys, who are presently over the cap.
So what does it mean, specifically, to Dallas? Three negotiations are central to the future of the roster … and worthy of discussion here. So … what can and will the Cowboys now do with Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons? Here goes three guesstimates …
DAK – If the Cowboys were previously anticipating they’d be $18 million over … and now they’re just $9 million over? Obviously, that’s helpful.
But Prescott’s bloated $59.4 million cap hit is problematic, and this news doesn’t change that. Dallas has three basic options as we outline here … with “The Band-aid Approach” – which will give the Cowboys about $18 million of room while requiring no “negotiation” with or “permission” from the player – very much in play.
CEEDEE – The beauty of the Cowboys’ setup here is that a new deal for the record-breaking Lamb should end up saving Dallas cap space. He’s presently due about $17 million; the monster extension he’s earned can make his cap hit in 2024 about half that.
It’s been written that the added cap funds will help do the Lamb deal. That’s false. Lamb’s deal is destined to reduce his cap hit. A higher ceiling does not change that.
MICAH – This is a tricky one. Parsons has just become eligible to begin contract negotiations for his second NFL deal. … which might end up at $30 million APY, possibly making him the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history.
But before we get there? The Cowboys will (by the May 2 deadline) execute his fifth-year option for 2025. That’s a placeholder … but it is directly impacted by this new cap number, and as a perennial Pro Bowler, that salary figure appears to be $24 million for Parsons.
And really, of the three, that’s the only number that “changes” here.
By the way: It’s being written that the increase helps Dallas sign its own free agents as well as outside-the-building stars. That is in fact not true. Consider Dallas’ collection of unrestricted free agents …
O-Linemen Tyron Smith, Tyler Biadasz, Chuma Edoga and (long-snapper) Trent Sieg …
Running backs Tony Pollard and Rico Dowdle …
Tight end Sean McKeon …
Defensive backs Stephon Gilmore, Jourdan Lewis, Noah Igbinoghene, Jayron Kearse, C.J. Goodwin …
D-lineman Dorance Armstrong, Dante Fowler, Johnathan Hankins and Neville Gallimore …
In a linear-thinking way, Dallas “just got more room to sign guys!” But in reality? Other teams that want to poach Tyron or Pollard or Biadasz or Gilmore or Hankins or Armstrong just got more room, too.
