Dallas Cowboys follow up $80 million signing with chess move with significant salary cap impact

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones introduces former player Demarcus Ware into the Ring of Honor during halftime of the game against the Los Angeles Rams at AT&T Stadium.

The Dallas Cowboys rolled their sleeves up and got to work on Tuesday. There’s no denying that.

In a span of a couple of hours, the team beat the franchise tag deadline by re-signing Osa Odighizuwa to a four-year, $80 million contract, secured pending free agent C.J. Goodwin on a one-year deal, and opened up a healthy chunk of salary cap space with a follow-up move.

According to ESPN’s Todd Archer, the Cowboys are restructuring CeeDee Lamb’s contract to open up $20 million in cap space.

A contract restructure is nothing but an automatic conversion that turns base salary into a signing bonus for bookkeeping purposes and should not be confused for a pay cut. Signing bonuses can be prorated over the length of a contract and as such, cap hits are pushed into the future and spread out.

Though it’s a solid start, the Cowboys still have a long ways to go to prove they’re changing the tone ahead of this year’s free agency. A Dak Prescott restructure is likely to follow in the next few days and if the front office manages to pull off an early extension for Micah Parsons, Dallas would have no shortage of salary cap space, opening the door for impactful free agent additions.

Stephen Jones said the Cowboys would be “selectively aggressive” in this year’s offseason and while that’s a very ambiguous description of the team’s plans, the above moves would set the table for higher free agency spending than last year, when the Cowboys ranked 32nd in the league.

For now, things are off to a decent start. It’s the follow ups that will truly matter, however. Let’s see what they do moving forward.

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