Latest NFL news leaves Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys with even less of an excuse ahead of free agency
NFL teams have been impatiently waiting for a salary cap figure for the 2025 season and though no official number has been set, the league sent a memo to teams on Wednesday providing an expected range between $277.5 million and $281.5 million, per various reports. The range represents a massive leap from last year's $255.4 million […]
NFL teams have been impatiently waiting for a salary cap figure for the 2025 season and though no official number has been set, the league sent a memo to teams on Wednesday providing an expected range between $277.5 million and $281.5 million, per various reports.
The range represents a massive leap from last year's $255.4 million and the reason why is the 2024 salary cap was reduced by $10 million "due to a $9 million smoothing adjustment and an incremental $1 million being added to Performance Based Pay."
Before the news, many analysts projected the cap to sit at $275 million. The popular website Over the Cap was using $272.5M as its projection for 2025. The fact the NFL used $277.5 as the low end of its projected is a surprise. The league clarified in the memo numbers are subject to change pending negotiations with the NFLPA.
What does the projected salary cap numbers mean for the Dallas Cowboys?
For the Dallas Cowboys, the news means Jerry Jones and the front office have even less of an excuse ahead of this year's free agency period. The team went from being a projected $2 million under the cap to $2 million over.
The team's public stance has long been they can't be big spenders in free agency due to long-term deals signed with Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb in 2024 and another superstar deal coming for Micah Parsons, potentially in 2025.
However, the Cowboys could open up significant cap space by simply restructuring Prescott's and Lamb's deals (an automatic transaction that costs players nothing). An extension for Parsons would also lower his 2024 cap hit through signing bonus proration. With those three moves, Dallas is projected to have over $75 million in available cap space.
And that's just the floor. Additional moves like cap casualties could take the number even higher.
NFL teams around the league have made a habit of pushing cap hits further into the future with the hope the salary cap keeps rising as exponentially as it has in recent memory. The Los Angeles Rams took an "all-in" approach to win the Super Bowl for the 2021 season. Though they haven't been able to remain as aggressive, they've remained relevant and hasn't cost them as much in the aftermath of their championship.
The Philadelphia Eagles have been one of the most aggressive teams in the NFL and have been to the Super Bowl twice since 2017. Though their cap situation is going to get more complicated, few doubt GM Howie Roseman will fail to make it work.
This is to say, the Cowboys can be much more aggressive than they currently are. And they tend to use salary cap as a reason for it but as time passes, it's undeniably sounding like an excuse instead.
The latest cap news will give them even less of an excuse to make some moves for a roster that badly needs it ahead of 2025 as they have more space to work with without having to make a single move.
