The Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones have not come close to capitalizing on their investment in 2024. After spending the entire offseason telling fans that they had to protect the books, the financials are kicking their tails on the way to a lost season.
Thanks to a myriad of offseason decisions and untimely injuries, the Cowboys are going to take the field Sunday with barely 50% of their cap space in use against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Dallas sits at 3-5 through nine 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.
How much?
$105.7 million worth; over 41% of 2024’s salary cap of $255.4 million..
When combined with their $21 million in available space, that brings the total to $126.7 million of space that won’t be on the field in Week 10.
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.
Led by Dak Prescott’s $40 million and DeMarcus Lawrence’s $20 million cap hits, Dallas has over 20 entries in their ledger of players who will not be able to contribute to the team against the Eagles. Prescott is opting for season-ending hamstring surgery, while 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 Prescott and All-Pro CB DaRon Bland. Here’s a look at the total rundown of cap space that won’t see the field in Week 10.
| Player | 2024 Cap Hit (millions) | Reason |
| Dak Prescott | $44.6 | injury |
| DeMarcus Lawrence | $20.4 | injury |
| Brandin Cooks | $10 | injury |
| Ezekiel Elliott | $6 | Dead Money |
| Tyron Smth | $6 | Dead Money |
| Michael Gallup | $4.3 | Dead Money |
| Leighton Vander Esch | $2.5 | Dead Money |
| 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 |
| Available Cap Space | $20.9 | unallocated |
| TOTAL | $126.61 million |