A realistic look ahead to the Dallas Cowboys’ free agency
By Tyrone Starr
This week kicks off one of the most important periods of the offseason for the NFL. While free agency does not “officially” start until Wednesday, the “legal” tampering window starts Monday. Teams are free to negotiate and come to agreements on deals that will become official just days later. For Dallas Cowboys fans, this is always a contentious period.
As many other teams load up on big names that become available for one reason or another, the Cowboys’ front office usually chooses to let the first big wave pass them by. For whatever reason, Dallas typically does not use free agency as a way to acquire top-shelf talent. Instead, the Cowboys use this time to augment the roster, fill in holes for depth purposes or acquire marginal veteran talents as stop-gap solutions to their starting lineup.
Technically, the Cowboys did give a ton of money (five years, $100M) to receiver Amari Cooper in free agency two years ago. Ironically, that deal has been heavily involved in this year’s salary cap maneuvering as Cooper was traded this weekend to Cleveland, largely to get out from under his $21.4M cap number.
Before that, the last major deal Dallas gave a free agent was the five-year, $50.1M deal to Brandon Carr in 2012. That’s it, two big money deals in a decade. Safe to say, it would be a shock if the Cowboys do anything major in the next couple of days.
So as it stands right now, Dallas has roughly $20M to play with in free agency according to Spotrac. While it’s not a ton of money, it’s good enough for 15th overall in the league with only five NFC teams (Seattle, Chicago, Carolina, Detroit, Philadelphia) having more to spend. It is possible they could get more, as rumors have them looking hard at moving offensive lineman La’el Collins which would get them another $10M.
#Cowboys RT La’el Collins drawing lots of interest: League sources say the #Jags, #Broncos, #Bengals and #Dolphins have inquired about trading for the talented 28-year-old.
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) March 12, 2022
Collins is known for his dominant run-blocking, but has become a super reliable pass-blocker as well.
With needs at WR, OL, DE, LB, and safety, there are a lot of holes for Dallas to fill. I’ve previously mentioned in-house free agents that I feel the Cowboys should prioritize. Dallas also has eight picks in the upcoming draft, including three (24, 56 & 88) in the top 100.
How the Dallas Cowboys will actually fill all these holes remains to be seen. What I can comfortably hypothesize is that if you’re looking for names that fill the popular “top 100” lists, look further down the trough or not on any of those lists at all. Here is one man’s best guess at what a realistic free agency shopping spree looks like for this team.