The Dallas Cowboys have to juggle the salary cap every offseason, but this year is different. According to Over The Cap, the Cowboys will be $25 million over the cap at the start of the new league year in mid-March.
Signing Dak Prescott to a contract extension will allow them to get under the cap, but they'd still have some uphill climbing to make other moves. Restructuring contracts is always a possibility and an extension for CeeDee Lamb will help in the form of $13.492 million in cap relief.
Just like that, Dallas would be $15 million under the cap with those two moves. That's a great jumping off point, but it's going to take a lot more than $15 million to make enough moves to make this roster a Super Bowl contender.
With that in mind, let's highlight four easy cuts the Cowboys can make to free up a chunk of cap room.
3. Bryan Anger, P
Believe it or not, the Cowboys can save $3 million if they cut Bryan Anger. It might not seem like much, but $3 million can prove crucial in signing an internal or outside free agent or getting a contract extension over the line.
Anger has a big leg, as his 51.4 yards per punt ranked third among punters this season. He only logged two touchbacks in 44 punts, but he wasn't exactly a marksman in terms of pinning teams inside their own 20-yard line. In fact, he ranked outside the top 25 at the position in that category, per NFL stats.
That's not to dismiss Anger's accomplishments in Dallas. He set the Cowboys single-season franchise record for net punting average in 2021 and in 2022 he set the franchise record for gross punting average. He made two Pro Bowls and two second-team All-Pros in three years as the team's punter.
Having said that, punter is a position the Cowboys can afford to cheap out on. They can either bring in a rookie or sign a veteran for half the cost. The offense doesn't punt enough and the cap situation is too tire to justify giving Anger another year.
3. Cooper Rush, QB
The Cowboys have to see what they have in Trey Lance at some point, right? Dak Prescott has suffered some freak injuries in his career, but he's started at least 16 games in two of the last three seasons. Rush has performed admirably in Prescott's stead, but Lance's upside makes him expendable.
Lance spent all of the 2023 season as emergency third-string QB on game days. He was always expected to redshirt after he was traded from the 49ers. The timing of the trade made it impossible for Lance to grasp Mike McCarthy's offense and develop chemistry with Dallas' pass-catchers in time to supplant Rush as the backup.
This year, Lance gets a full offseason to learn under McCarthy to go with a full regular season of learning behind Prescott and Rush.
Cowboys fans have long speculated if the team might use Rush as trade bait. Well, they can save the same amount of cap space if they trade or cut him: $2.25 million, per Over The Cap. Rush has been a good servant, but it's time to promote Lance after Dallas traded a 2024 fourth-round pick for him in August.
2. Leighton Vander Esch, LB
Leighton Vander Esch might be done with football so this decision could be out of the Cowboys hands. The former Pro Bowler has a long history of neck injuries. He was born with a cervical spine condition that increased the probability of bulging, herniated discs and pinched nerves.
Vander Esch missed seven games in 2019 with a neck injury and underwent surgery that bled into 2020 in terms of missed time. He missed three more games last year and was shelved for all but five games this campaign.
Vander Esch's physical presence at linebacker was sorely missed. It's expected that the Cowboys will overhaul the position this offseason. Even if Vander Esch doesn't retire, his injury history alone makes him a prime cut candidate.
The cap savings would be minimal -- $2,147 million as a post-June 1 cut -- but Dallas needs a more reliable player in the second level of its defense. Vander Esch was solid in 2021 and 2022, but he never quite rediscovered his rookie form when he was named a second-team All-Pro after his brutal run of injuries.
1. Michael Gallup, WR
The Cowboys might again look to improve their wide receiver room this offseason. Brandin Cooks is a fine WR2, but he turns 31 in September. Meanwhile, Michael Gallup is coming off a third straight underwhelming season and 2023 might've been his worst year to date all things considered.
By the end of the season, Gallup was playing fewer snaps than Jalen Tolbert. He totaled 74 receiving yards in the final eight regular season games; good for an average of 9.4 yards per game. That stretch included three games without a catch.
Including the playoffs, he only had three games with more than 60 receiving yards. Two years removed from ACL surgery, Cowboys coaches and reporters alike waxed poetic before the season that Gallup's confidence and spring was back. That didn't translate on the field, as he produced fewer yards this year in 17 games (418) than he did last season in 14 games (424) and the year prior in nine games (445).
Making Gallup a post-June 1 cut would free up $9.5 million in cap space. He's regressed beyond comprehension post-ACL and it's time to move on. His breakout season in 2019 when he caught 66 passes for 1,107 yards and six touchdowns feels like a century ago.