With more than $125 million in cap commitments for just the top 10 players on their roster, the Cowboys have some work to do as they prepare for the start of the new league year.
The Cowboys have long been known as a team that pushes salary cap dollars off as long as possible, and 2017 is no exception. They are one of only two NFL teams that project to be over the 2017 salary cap.
With a large number of free agents, the Cowboys will have to make a number of difficult decisions to start 2017.
Here's an overview of their salary cap obstacles.
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Cowboys salary cap crunch
The Cowboys currently project to be around $13 million over the salary cap, about $50 million worse than the league average. Their problems largely stem from an over-reliance on large signing bonus payments in their contracts, specifically those used to lower cap costs in later contract years in order to be active in free agency.
Eventually, that strategy catches up. If not for Dallas' stellar 2016 draft that provided two impact rookies, we would be discussing the Cowboys' salary cap nightmares this year in a very different way.
Dallas has few cuts it can make to find cap relief, so it will need to get creative if it wants to gain significant cap room in 2017.
Cowboys free-agent question marks
Teams that come off years like the Cowboys' 2016 season typically don't like to make big changes to their rosters, but Dallas faces the potential of large roster turnover in 2017. About 28 percent of Dallas' snaps last season were taken by players who are now free agents, the fourth largest total in the NFL.
The names include guard Ronald Leary, wide receiver Terrance Williams, defensive tackle Terrell McClain, cornerbacks Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne, safeties Barry Church and JJ Wilcox and defensive end Jack Crawford. Given the Cowboys' cap situation, it will be near impossible to bring all these players back, especially if they want to go after a bigger-name free agent.
Leary should have the worst chances of returning. The offensive line is a unit of strength for Dallas, and Leary likely will fetch around $8 million in free agency. Williams also plays at a position of strength for the Cowboys and should earn in the $6 million-plus range. McClain might be the player Dallas would like to retain the most, but a player-friendly contract for Tyrone Crawford would make a McClain deal a hard negotiation for the Cowboys.
Dallas should be able to make a strong case to bring back the other names on the list.
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Tony Romo trade or release: what to do with veteran QB
Romo’s contract arguably has been the worst handled deal in the NFL. Past decisions to constantly go to Romo for cap relief have left Dallas with a $24.7 million cap charge for a backup quarterback.
Releasing or trading Romo would result in a dead money charge of $19.6 million, which would be just $5.1 million in salary cap savings. When you factor in the cost of a new backup quarterback, its possible for the Cowboys to convince themselves that keeping Romo is a reasonable decision for 2017. But that decision would make the Cowboys' 2018 salary cap situation difficult.
By releasing Romo in the offseason, Dallas would save the $5.1 million prior to free agency, which would make the 2017 cap a little easier to manage. If it waited to trade him, Dallas likely would carry the $24.7 million cap charge for at least a few days.
Alternatively, the Cowboys could wait until after free agency begins and designate Romo a post-June 1 release. That would give Dallas no immediate cap relief, but it would split the $19.6 million in dead charges across two years on June 2 and give the Cowboys a salary cap windfall for the regular season.
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Restructures to the rescue
A restructure converts base salary, which counts in full against the cap, into a signing bonus that's split equally among the remaining years of the contract. Teams can create big cap room with restructures, but they add massive amounts of dead money to future years.
And while restructures are exactly what has gotten Dallas into trouble with the cap, they'll be a necessity this year.
The two most logical candidates for contract restructures are left tackle Tyron Smith and center Travis Frederick — Dallas can create around $7.5 million in cap room with Smith and $10.5 million with Frederick. Those two moves would put the Cowboys under the salary cap and allow them to carry Romo’s large cap charge into the regular season if they want to trade him then.
Because linebacker Sean Lee played so well in 2016, $5.5 million in cap relief with him is a possibility, too. Those three restructures and the release/trade of Romo would give the Cowboys about $15 million in cap room. That isn’t much, but it would be enough to bring back a few players.
Dallas' decisions become more difficult from there, and the likelihood of more restructures depends on how much the Cowboys want to spend in free agency. The last time they were coming off a playoff season, they made the bold (and costly) move to acquire Greg Hardy. If they want to do something similar in 2017, they won’t be able to stop with just those three restructures.
Restructuring Dez Bryant’s contract could free up around $8 million in cap room, but given Bryant’s health over the last few seasons, that's a risky move. He already has big bonus money in his contract, and such a move could lock Dallas into years on Bryant's contract they may not want to honor by 2019.
Nearly $6 million could be created by restructuring Crawford’s contract, but that deal is already overvalued. Restructuring overvalued players for cap relief should always be a no-no — Dallas should have learned that lesson with Carr — but we can't discount the possibility of the Cowboys doing it again.
Working with those two contracts would put Dallas in the $30 million-range, enough to target a big free agent or two this year.
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Will Jason Witten retire a Cowboy?
Witten is entering the final year of his contract with a $12.2 million cap charge. Expect Dallas to find some salary cap savings by negotiating a two- or three-year contract extension for a bit more than Antonio Gates’ recent $5.5 million-per-year contract.
That would be a win-win for both sides, as the Cowboys would get between $4 million and $5 million in cap space and allow Witten to finish his career in Dallas.