With NFL free agency right around the corner, the Dallas Cowboys have found a way to give them a little bit of extra cap space.
The Cowboys and Zack Martin have reworked their contract to free up about $13 million for 2024.
According to ESPN, Martin's contract was set to expire after this season, but he had three voidable years through 2027.
What This Means
With this news, Dallas is now under the $255 million cap before the start of the league year next.
Last summer, the Cowboys gave Martin an $8.5 million raise in 2023 and 2024 after he held out for a portion of training camp, going from $27.5 million to $36 million guaranteed.
Martin is the best guard in football, and with the changes on the Cowboys offensive line over the last month in losing Tyron Smith to free agency, keeping Martin around and making room to make the team better will help.
Martin turns 34 in November. Only Hall of Famers Bob Lilly (11), Larry Allen (10), and Mel Renfro (10), plus 11-timer Jason Witten, who is not eligible for the Hall of Fame yet, have been selected to more Pro Bowls than Martin in Dallas history.
With all the moves on the offensive line, a player I have been high on since the Cowboys signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2023 is T.J. Bass.
Standing at 6-4, 325 pounds the Oregon Ducks product was an absolute steal for the Cowboys last year.
In his second start near the end of the year in January, Bass had his best game of his career. He looked like he could be a starter in this league for a long time.
He played in all 17 games this year. He finished with 343 offensive snaps – 20 per game – and another 91 on special teams.
From it looks like right now, Tyler Biadasz could be on his way out also. He was the Cowboys starting center for the last couple of years. So with him possibly gone, we will need Martin to stay great, and Bass continue to show how good he can be.
Use The Money, Jerry!
Jerry Jones is once again blowing smoke about going “all-in,” this season, he made some good moves last year in March by trading for Brandin Cooks and Stephon Gilmore.
Cooks has another year on his contract, so as long as Dallas doesn't cut him or trade him, he will be back.
Gilmore only had one year left when they traded for him, so Dallas would have to resign him if they wanted him to come back.
I would take that chance. He showed up big time when Trevon Diggs tore his ACL.
Dallas still needs to do more work even after the 2024 season. CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons very well could reset the market next year with a contract.
Parsons has already shown he is a top 3 defensive player in football, and Lamb set pretty much every single season Cowboys wide receiver record in 2023.
A Dak Prescott extension is still up in the air, but if they don't extend him, he will have to play on a $60 million cap hit this season.
I would hate for Martin to end his career without even a conference championship appearance.
The Dallas Cowboys as a whole as wasted the careers of so many great players, it's been this way for nearly 30 years.
The next move Dallas should do is cut Gallup as a post-June and gain some money.
Gallup has not been the same since that injury, and signing him rather than Amari Cooper was one of the worst decisions the Joneses have made in recent memory.
The time is running out on this team, they will probably win another 10-12 games and fold in the playoffs.
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