The Dallas Cowboys have had the ability to create a ton of cap space whenever they felt like it this offseason. Anyone believing the lack of acquisitions in free agency has been related to them being up against the cap ceiling without making moves on Dak Prescott or CeeDee Lamb have been mistaken. The team has made smaller moves, bringing in Eric Kendricks to help at linebacker and bringing back Jourdan Lewis and C.J. Goodwin to help the defense and special teams, respectively.
Starting the offseason with just under $2 million of space isn’t enough to make all three of those moves official. On Friday, the club announced two of the least surprising decisions, releasing the last two members of their 2018 draft class, linebacker Leighton Vander Esch and wide receiver Michael Gallup. Both players have storied injury history that prevented them from accomplishing the heights they teased throughout their early careers.
Vander Esch was the team’s first-round pick in 2018, hailing from Boise State. A familiar pipeline for the Cowboys, they’ve had many Broncos in their fold, but Vander Esch had the highest draft pedigree among them. His career started out well, earning a Pro Bowl nod and being named second-team All-Pro as a rookie while playing a full 16 games. He made 140 tackles that year with two interceptions.
However a series of neck injuries since a pinched nerve suffered in 2016 limited him to just one more full season over the next five campaigns.
Vander Esch played in just 19 games over the 2019 and 2020 seasons, and after a full slate in 2021, played in just 19 games over the last two seasons. During a Week 5 loss to San Francisco, 49ers OT Trent Williams blocked Vander Esch into Micah Parsons, causing a significant injury where his career was put in jeopardy.
There have been many concerned since last year that Vander Esch would not be able to return to football, and though Friday’s announcement didnt’ say he was retiring, he will not be with the Dallas Cowboys moving forward.
Gallup was a third-round pick out of Colorado State when the Cowboys plucked him in 2018. He would then be paired with Amari Cooper after a midseason trade and had a tremendous sophomore campaign in 2019, hauling in 66 receptions for 1,106 yards and six touchdowns. The following year, CeeDee Lamb fell to the Cowboys in the draft and visions of a three-headed monster at wideout were had by all.
Only it never really came to fruition.
In 2021, Gallup tore his ACL and while he was known as one of the best contested ball catchers in the league, he was never a huge separator. The knee injury exacerbated that shortcoming and his 2022 campaign was lackluster. In 14 games he caught just 39 passes and didn’t surpass 500 receiving yards. The thought process was that a full year removed from the injury would see him bounce back, but despite quarterback Dak Prescott turning in a performance worthy of MVP votes, Gallup’s numbers didn’t escalate.
Vander Esch’s release means the Cowboys save at least $2.15 million against the 2024 cap and that money is available immediately.He was set to make $3 million in base salary and another $147k in roster bonuses. $1 million of his base salary was guaranteed, meaning a release or retirement puts just over $2 million back into Dallas’ cap space. With the team releasing him with an injury designation, perhaps there was an agreement to lessen the $1 million they will need to pay him.
Meanwhile the savings from Gallup’s release will be much greater, they just won’t be immediate.
Gallup was released with a June 1 designation. That allows the team to avoid accelerating the bonus-money allocation that remains from 2025 and beyond onto this season’s cap. Any player released after June 1 impacts the cap in this way and each NFL team is allowed to designate two players such as this in advance of that date.
It allows the player to enter free agency when the other 31 teams have not spent all of their cap space, increasing the odds that player can be signed elsewhere. For the team though, the cap savings do not occur until June 2.
That means the money saved from releasing Gallup, his base salary of $8.5 million plus another $1 million in game-day bonuses, will not hit the cap until later in the offseason. It will be used for signing the draft class and carrying cap space into the season for IR replacement signings and end-of-year incentives.