{"id":518472,"date":"2026-03-04T16:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518472\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T16:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:36:10","slug":"dak-prescott-ceedee-lamb-smith-reportedly-restructure-cowboys-contracts-updated-nfl-salary-cap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518472\/","title":{"rendered":"Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Smith Reportedly Restructure Cowboys Contracts, Updated NFL Salary Cap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Dallas Cowboys needed to create salary cap space this offseason, and they reportedly did just that Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">ESPN&#8217;s <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AdamSchefter\/status\/2029214444228579670\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Adam Schefter and Field Yates<\/a> reported they restructured the deals of quarterback Dak Prescott and offensive lineman Tyler Smith in moves that created $47 million in cap space. <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/toddarcher\/status\/2029217368451305653\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Todd Archer<\/a> of ESPN later reported that CeeDee Lamb also restructured his deal to get the Cowboys under the salary cap.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">According to <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/overthecap.com\/salary-cap-space\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Over The Cap<\/a>, the Cowboys were last in the league in available cap space at -$56.6 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Spotrac provided more details on the transaction:<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">While Dallas had to make some moves to become cap compliant, it also needed to free up available space so it can make additions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">After all, it was just 7-9-1 last season and missed the playoffs in large part because of a defense that was last in the league in points allowed and 30th in yards allowed. Prescott, Lamb, George Pickens and others led an offense that was second in yardage and seventh in scoring, but that wasn&#8217;t enough to overcome the defensive struggles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">It certainly didn&#8217;t help that the Cowboys traded away star pass-rusher Micah Parsons before the 2025 campaign began, and they never fully recovered from that move on the defensive side of the ball.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">That will necessitate some outside additions this offseason if the team hopes to avoid a similar fate in 2026, which made it all the more notable when team owner Jerry Jones <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/48058858\/jerry-jones-envisions-cowboys-spend-more-money-free-agency-have\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">told reporters<\/a>, &#8220;I would bet that we will spend more money in free agency than we have.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The front office already made one major change when it hired Christian Parker to be the team&#8217;s new defensive coordinator, but he will likely need some better players either through free agency or the draft if the defense is going to make enough strides to reach the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Free agents can sign with new teams starting March 11 at 4 p.m. ET, but the legal contact period opens on March 9 at 12 noon ET.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Dallas will now have some more cap space available when that time arrives after restructuring multiple deals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Cowboys needed to create salary cap space this offseason, and they reportedly did just that Wednesday.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-518472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}