Conversations about the Dallas Cowboys almost inevitably center around the topic of money. Despite three decades without sniffing a championship, owner Jerry Jones has used his extreme marketing savvy and business acumen to sit atop the list of rich sports franchises year after year. When talk of building a better team comes up, his son is always crying broke about the limitations of the NFL salary cap and how it’s impossible for the team to spend on free agency because of money earmarked to pay their megastars.
The reality is Dallas looks at contracts as internal rewards for previous performance instead of speculation on future contributions and it keeps them from entering the market as true participants.
As for 2024, Dallas sits at 3-4 through eight weeks, hardly getting the expected bang for the buck from the players they’ve paid. Injuries are mounting and for various reasons they have a ton of cap space being taken up by players who won’t take the field in Week 9.
How much?
$82.6 million worth; barely under a third of the 2024 salary cap.
When combined with their $21 million in available space, that brings the total to $103.6 million of space that won’t be on the field in Week 9.
Led by DeMarcus Lawrence’s $20 million cap hit, Dallas has over 20 entries in their ledger of players who will not be able to contribute to the team against the Atlanta Falcons. Lawrence is IR, along with names like Brandin Cooks and Sam Williams.
There are known names who are on the active roster but will be made inactive on Sunday, including Ezekiel Elliott, DaRon Bland, and more than likely Trevon Diggs.
If Diggs (calf tear) plays, the number drops to $68 million, still a ridiculously high percentage of 2024’s salary cap of $255.4 million.
| Player | 2024 Cap Hit (millions) | Reason |
| DeMarcus Lawrence | $20.4 | injury |
| Trevon Diggs | $14.1 | Injury |
| Brandin Cooks | $10 | injury |
| Ezekiel Elliott | $6 | Dead Money |
| Tyron Smith | $6 | Dead Money |
| Micah Parsons | $5.4 | Injury |
| Michael Gallup | $4.3 | Dead Money |
| Leighton Vander Esch | $2.5 | dead Money |
| Ezekiel Elliott | $2 | Inactive |
| Other dead money | $1.8 | dead money |
| Dorance Armstrong | $1.5 | dead money |
| Sam Williams | $1.5 | injury |
| Jordan Phillips | $1.25 | Injury |
| Marshawn Kneeland | $1.24 | Injury |
| DaRon Bland | $1 | Injury |
| Kelvin Joseph | $0.75 | dead money |
| Chuma Edoga | $0.7 | Injury |
| John Stephens | $0.6 | Injury |
| Amani Oruwariye | $0.6 | injury/dead |
| Nathan Thomas | $0.5 | injury |
| Earl Bostick | $0.47 | injury |