Cowboys Among 8 Teams To Pick Up Big-Time Cap Space Post-June 1

Highlights

The Dallas Cowboys cleared 2024 salary cap space by designating a June 1 release of WR Michael Gallup.
Dallas faces increasing player salaries, with OLB Micah Parsons expected to get a record-breaking contract.
Forbes magazine estimates the value of the Cowboys at $9 billion.

The Dallas Cowboys find themselves in a situation where they’re going to have to spend big in the near future — bigger than the most valuable professional sports team in the world has ever spent before.

That’s why every dollar counts right now, so clearing up an estimated $9.5 million in salary cap space thanks to cutting wide receiver Michael Gallup in March and designating him as a post-June 1 release, although they will take a cap hit of $8.75 million for Gallup in 2025.

The Cowboys were one of eight teams to exceed $9 million in salary cap space (via CBS Sports:)

During the offseason, each NFL team is allowed to cut up to two players with a post-June 1 designation. When this designation gets used, a team will cut a player, but the team won’t gain any cap space at the time of the cut. Instead, they’ll gain the extra salary cap space after June 1.

Gallup signed a five-year, $57.5 million contract with Dallas and signed a one-year, $1.75 million contract with the Las Vegas Raiders in April.

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Lamb, Parsons, Prescott All in Line for Massive Paydays

Cowboys could set NFL records with salaries for trio of superstar players

The Cowboys are facing the kinds of problem most teams would kill to have with an abundance of star players in line for massive contracts.

Dallas exercised the fifth-year option on outside linebacker Micah Parsons‘ rookie contract, which would pay him an estimated $21.5 million in 2025, but there’s little doubt the Cowboys will have to pay up long before then.

Parsons is a three-time NFL All-Pro through his first three seasons in the league and his deal could exceed the five-year, $170 million contract extension signed by San Francisco 49ers edge rusher Nick Bosa in Sept. 2023, along with the $119.9 million in guaranteed money Bosa received.

Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb will likely be the first of the three stars to receive a contract after the market was set on elite NFL wide receivers on June 3 when Minnesota Vikings superstar Justin Jefferson agreed to a four-year, $140 million contract extension, which Lamb isn’t expected to match or exceed but should get in the ballpark of after earning NFL All-Pro honors each of the last two seasons.

Quarterback Dak Prescott has a contract situation that is a little more complicated. He’s in the final year of a four-year, $160 million contract and the pressure on him to win is more pronounced than the others after seven seasons in Dallas in which he’s yet to advance past the NFC divisional round.

Prescott’s deal could also end up being the most lucrative in NFL history were he to deliver a Super Bowl win in 2024 — something that could exceed the $55 million in average salary given to Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow when he signed a five-year, $275 million contract extension in Sept. 2023.

Source: CBS Sports

All stats courtesy of Pro Football Reference unless stated otherwise. All salary info via Spotrac.