The Cowboys have several irons in the proverbial fire right now, trying to get multiple pieces of business done in fairly short order as the franchise tag deadline, new league year, free agency, and draft all loom in the very near future.
One of those irons is wide receiver Michael Gallup. After news on Friday that Gallup and the Cowboys front office were “close” on a new deal that would keep the 26-year-old in Dallas, NFL insider Mike Garofalo reported on Monday that an agreement is likely sometime this week. He also revealed that Gallup’s recovery from knee surgery just one month ago appears to be on-schedule enough to encourage the Cowboys front office to pursue a new long-term pact with the Colorado State product.
The deal could be a five-year contract “north of ten million dollars per season,” Garofalo said on NFL Network. And that, of course, will have ripple effects on the other moving pieces that make up the Cowboys’ current financial puzzle.
It was believed early in the 2021 season that it would be Gallup’s last in Dallas, that he’d put on enough of a show during the season to earn himself a massive payday elsewhere for 2022 as the Cowboys moved forward with CeeDee Lamb and Amari Cooper.
Things changed on opening night when Gallup was lost with a calf injury that kept him out for seven games. He returned in Week 10, but then tore his ACL making a touchdown grab versus Arizona in Week 17.
Gallup didn’t have surgery to repair the ligament for another five weeks, a waiting tactic often used to facilitate a speedier rehab by allowing swelling to go down before the procedure.
According to Garofalo, the Cowboys “are confident that the ACL tear that he suffered was a clean one, so they believe medically, he is going to be okay.”
Team officials said even before Gallup’s surgery that they expected him to be ready for the start of the 2022 season. If the two sides can now come to terms on the finer points of a contract, Gallup will not hit free agency on March 16 and remain with the club.
Now it is Cooper who is expected to have a new home next season. After a year in which the veteran didn’t perform up to expectations and seemed to ruffle some feathers around The Star, the Cowboys appear unwilling to pay him the $20 million he would be owed for another season in Dallas.
Garofalo believes the organization could do the deal with Gallup and also re-sign impending free agent receiver Cedrick Wilson “for less than what you were supposed to pay Amari Cooper on that non-guaranteed money.”
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