As the Cowboys close in on a new deal for receiver Michael Gallup, there’s a potential source of cap space unrelated to dumping veteran contracts.
We’re hearing that the Cowboys are in the process of trying to restructure the four-year, $160 million contract signed last year by quarterback Dak Prescott. The easiest approach would be to convert a major chunk of his $20 million guaranteed salary for 2022 into a signing bonus, pushing many of those cap dollars into future years.
Of course, that will serve only to kick the cap can down the road. This year, he has a cap number of $34.45 million. Next year, it’s $45.45 million. In 2024, the last year of the deal, it’s $48.45 million.
A restructuring would drive up the numbers in 2023 and 2024, and it would add to the dead money due to hit the books in 2025, of $14.45 million.
When it comes to pushing cap dollars to future years, here’s the thing to remember. The cap will keep going up and up, especially with the pandemic in the rearview mirror, new TV deals kicking in, and gambling money constantly increasing. As the cap goes up, the relative impact of each cap dollar shrinks as it moves from one year to the next.
Thus, $1 million in cap charges now means less than $1 million will mean in 2023, and so on. With each passing year.
Regardless, the contract that Prescott signed in 2021 eventually will cost $160 million in total cap dollars. Eventually, another contract will take its place. And the dollars will go up. Because the cap will go up. Because, but for the unexpected hiccup brought about by having few fans in the 2020 season, it always does.