The Dallas Cowboys have done a masterful job of being able to put together a championship contender. They’ve done so with a slew of homegrown talent, mostly through the NFL draft. 22 of the first 25 players in our most recent Player Power Rankings have only ever worn a star on their helmet, with Amari Cooper also being acquired via use of draft picks.
Dallas simply chooses not to invest in outside free agents and the process has culminated in one of the deepest rosters across the NFL. Still, they do sign some outside guys and they do make some mistakes when it comes to handing out second contracts to their own players. Those mistakes can impact the team in multiple ways. For one, the dead weight can be progress stoppers, but more often than not the team realizes the error of their ways and move on from bad investments as soon as financially feasible. Those releases end up as dead money and the 2021 Cowboys have over $23 million of it on their cap.
That matters, regardless of how one feels about the individual decisions, as the Cowboys have just $4.2 million of cap space this year and that may have played into their decision not to entertain bringing in any pieces during the last days before the trade deadline.
Dead money refers to money that is taken up on the current year’s salary cap for players who are no longer on the team’s roster. Sometimes a player gets released, signed to the practice squad and appears as both a current cap hit and also dead money, but normally it’s an indication of a player the club no longer wants.
Here’s a look at the 45 players who have cap hits for contracts that no longer exist. There are more than a few surprising names that are still “with” the team.