On Saturday night, Calvin Watkins from The Dallas Morning News reported the Dallas Cowboys were granting wide receiver Michael Gallup permission to seek a trade. 

The news shouldn't be a surprise as Gallup's role continued to decrease during the 2023 season as struggles persisted for the veteran wideout. Gallup, once known as a contested catch specialist, really stopped winning on one-on-one situations and started seeing the field less and less while Jalen Tolbert took a growing WR3 role. 

With Gallup set to make $8.5 million in salary in 2024, he's a prime candidate to be a cap casualty. That is if he's not traded beforehand.

That being said, the Cowboys likely understand they're highly unlikely to get compensation for Gallup. It would likely take some maneuvering with the contract as the production doesn't justify the current price tag. Even then, the front office would probably be looking only at a late rounder in return. 

Additionally, Gallup has been in a steady decline since his career was hit with injuries and teams trading for him would likely be looking at his floor more than at his ceiling.

With everyone's expectation being that he's going to get cut, a team would really have to love Gallup to give up draft capital for him. 

The unofficial deadline for a deal to happen is March 18th, the day a $4 million injury guarantee vests in Gallup's contract. If no team rings the Cowboys up before then, expect him to be released for cap relief.

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What would a release look like for the Cowboys? 

Last month, I explored what could be a viable solution to move on from Gallup: 

So if the Cowboys want to get rid of No. 13, it'll likely take a straight cut. The problem is if the Cowboys were to cut him, they'd eat $13.05M in dead money while saving no more than $800,000, per Over The Cap.

There's a solution, though: The Cowboys could designate him as a post-June 1st cut, which splits pushes a significant amount of dead money until the following season. Instead of eating $13.05M in cap space now, the Cowboys would just deal with $4.35M. Most importantly, they'd open up $9.5M in cap space for the 2024 season.

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What now at wide receiver? 

The Cowboys still have CeeDee Lamb and Brandin Cooks leading the room and chances are Tolbert emerges as the third starting pass catcher. 

Recently, A to Z Sports' Tyler Browning suggested the Cowboys trade for Denver Broncos WR Courtland Sutton, who he describes as someone who "would be the best contested catch receiver on the Cowboys roster."

Browning lays out a trade compensation package that includes Gallup as part of the proposal. The Cowboys could also add WR depth in the 2024 NFL Draft as there will be solid options every step of the way.

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Early speedbump.