At long last, the Dallas Cowboys have finally addressed their salary cap situation.
Sitting significantly in the red after franchise-tagging George Pickens, the Cowboys restructured the contracts of Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and Tyler Smith to free up roughly $66 million in cap room. They are now $9 million under the cap, but there is still work to be done if they intend to be active in the first wave of free agency next week.
Kenny Clarks' $21.5 million cap hit sticks out like a sore thumb, and there's been plenty of chatter since the season ended on whether the Cowboys should cut Clark. With no guaranteed money left, Dallas would save $21.5 million without a penny of dead money.
However, Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram revealed on the Cross Chop podcast that the Cowboys are actually working to extend the three-time Pro Bowler.
"Kenny Clark is also working on an extension. That one I am comparing to DeMarcus Lawrence in 2022. If you remember, he was heading into a similar situation where he didn't have any guaranteed money left on his deal, but he had a big contract number that was set to hit.
And so, they just put that contract number in a signing bonus and gave him a three-year, $39 million deal ... I think you'll see something similar for Kenny Clark here ...," Harris said.
The Dallas Cowboys are reportedly in talks to extend Kenny Clark
How's that for a response to the nonstop speculation?
Clark was widely circled as a potential cap casualty because of the terms of his contract. Much like Lawrence four years ago, though, it wouldn't make sense to cut the veteran defensive tackle.
This is a defense that needs to be adding good players, not subtracting them, and Clark is a perfect fit in Christian Parker's scheme.
Just because the Cowboys would have two star-caliber defensive tackles in Quinnen Williams and Osa Odighizuwa doesn’t mean they should kick Clark to the curb. Does it make him expendable? Sure. But Dallas should lean into its biggest strength — not subtract from it.
Beyond that, it would be shocking if Dallas offloaded the player they acquired in the Micah Parsons trade. The optics would be horrible, especially after Jerry Jones also hyped up Clark as one of the best defenders in the sport while trying to justify the deal.
A Clark extension would create $15.36 million in cap space, per OverTheCap. A restructure would save $9.6 million, but an extension makes a lot more sense.
While the Cowboys want to keep Clark, it isn’t wise to restructure every big contract on the books. They could do it if necessary, but why pull that lever if the 31-year-old is open to an extension?
Thankfully, the “cut Clark” discourse can finally be put to rest.