Did the Dallas Cowboys plan on taking these calculated offseason risks?
More easy cuts the Cowboys could make
The Cowboys have already restructured the contracts of quarterback Dak Prescott and guard Zack Martin creating almost $22 million dollars to get under the cap. Those aren’t the only moves that we could see coming soon. Dallas has three more players that they can release to create more salary-cap space.
Those players are cornerback Anthony Brown, kicker Greg Zuerlein, and tight end Blake Jarwin. Taking a deeper look, it seems like the Cowboys have already prepared for these cuts with moves made last season.
For Brown, the Cowboys used a second-round pick on Kelvin Joseph who was out most of the season with a groin injury. You aren’t spending that high of a pick on a player if you don’t plan on playing him. It also didn’t help that Brown was beaten quite a bit last season and had a high volume of penalties. Dallas also has Nashon Wright who they really like.
Cutting Brown would save the Cowboys $5 million.
Zuerlein dug his grave deeper and deeper with each extra point and field goal missed last season. So much so that right after the season ended the Cowboys brought in kicker Chris Naggar to compete with him next season. The Cowboys also have the luxury of having a pretty deep kicker market in the draft so they should be able to find a replacement if they want to go that route. Cutting Zuerlein would save the Cowboys almost $2.5 million
The last one is just bad luck as Jarwin was really starting to come along for the Cowboys before his ACL injury that forced Dalton Schultz into the spotlight and made Jarwin expendable. It also didn’t help that Jarwin was hurt again in 2021 with a hip injury. The Cowboys recently decided to franchise tag Schultz to keep a target that Prescott favors, but don’t expect the Cowboys to stop there with a very deep tight end class in this draft. Jarwin isn’t what he used to be and could be an easy cut.
Cutting Jarwin saves the Cowboys almost $4 million.
This is all speculation of course. But it almost seems as though Jones and his team were planning on some of these decisions far ahead of February.