Post-Super Bowl mock offseason for the Cowboys (Part I)

Another season has come and gone for the Dallas Cowboys, and we all head into year 31 looking for the next Lombardi Trophy. As frustrating as the drought" (shoutout Stephen Jones) may be, the front office members and players have no time to dwell. Like any of us who work the ol' 9-to-5, after a bad day, week, month, or year at work, we have to strap on our boots and get to work.

That is exactly what the Cowboys will be doing here over the next few months.

A little bit of work started over the weekend, as Adam Schefter reported that the Cowboys plan on placing the franchise tag on star wide receiver George Pickens. For starters, this is a procedural move by the Cowboys that will allow them to maintain control of Pickens as they work towards a long-term deal. The use of the franchise tag is likely being used as a place holder as of now, but if a deal is not worked out before free agency, that could seriously hinder the Cowboys ability to bust the budget" (shoutout Jerry Jones) in free agency.

Today we are going to do a mock offseason for the Dallas Cowboys to take a look at some of the different route's they could go this offseason to improve their team heading into 2026. In part one, we are going to look at internal free agents, restructures and things of that sort. In part two coming tomorrow, we'll look at outside free agents, the draft and a potential starting lineup on both sides of the ball.

Part I

As of today, the Cowboys are not in a great space in terms of cap space, ranking 30th in the NFL in cap room at roughly $29M over the cap. The good news? The cap is very easily manipulated and with a few simple moves they can generate over $80M in cap space at the snap of a finger.

Team Cap Space (as of today): - $29MReleases

The releases of aging veterans who have either been on the decline, or have larger cap figures with little guaranteed money left on their deal, is the beginning. Logan Wilson is probably the easiest move to be done this offseason from a release standpoint. The Cowboys had a dreadful season at linebacker in 2025. They made a last ditch effort at the trade deadline to improve the linebacker play in Dallas by trading for Wilson. Fortunately for the Cowboys, they only traded a 2026 seventh-round pick to the Cincinnati Bengals for the 29-year old linebacker. Unfortunately for the Cowboys, Wilson really struggled in his limited time on the field for Dallas.

While that hurt the 2025 season, it ultimately helps the 2026 season as moving on from Wilson saves the Cowboys $6.5M on the cap.

A tougher decision comes with safety Malik Hooker who is due $8.8M in 2026. The Cowboys can save $6.8M by releasing Hooker with a pre-June 1 designation. Hooker has been a solid player for the Cowboys over the last few seasons, but you can start to see some decline in the 30-year old safeties play over the last two seasons. Given his large cap figure and decline in play, the Cowboys would be wise to move on from Hooker and look to replace him in a rather deep safety draft class and free agent pool.

Jonathan Mingo is another player to release.

LB Logan Wilson - cap savings $6.5MS Malik Hooker - cap savings $6.8MWR Jonathan Mingo - cap savings $1.9MRestructures

Some of the easier switches to flip to save large chunks of cap space are similar contract restructures. Please do not get restructures confused with players taking a pay-cut. Restructures are accounting triggers placed in large contracts that allows teams to convert a player's current base salary or roster bonus into a signing bonus to gain immediate cap relief. Think of this as a credit card. The Cowboys can take money now, but have to pay it back later.

The three big ones we should expect to see are Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and Tyler Smith.

QB Dak Prescott - 2026 cap savings $31MWR CeeDee Lamb - 2026 cap savings $19MOL Tyler Smith - 2026 cap savings $17.6MExtensions

Another question mark for the Cowboys this offseason is will they elect to extend Quinnen Williams now or wait another year or two. Like we always seem to talk about with this team, the longer they wait, the more they pay. The Cowboys went all-in for Williams at the trade deadline this past season. Extending him now will not only save money on the 2026 cap, but it will also save money down the road as the interior defensive line market value continues to rise. The Williams extension is a pretty easy decision, but the Kenny Clark conversation is where things get interesting.

Kenny Clark is due $21.5M in 2026. That is a massive number for a 30-year old interior defensive lineman who played just okay" for the Cowboys in 2025. The Cowboys have the ability to release Kenny Clark and save $21.5M or they could look to do an extension (which will likely end up looking like a pay-cut from an average per year perspective, but guarantee him more money upfront). It's hard to imagine Jerry Jones releasing Clark after speaking so highly of him during the Micah Parsons trade debacle, but the cap savings, while not tying anymore years or guaranteed money to Clark's contract is extremely intriguing.

DL Quinnen Williams - 2026 cap savings $15.5MDL Kenny Clark - 2026 cap savings $15.3M

After making a few accounting moves to improve the Cowboys ability to spend this offseason, the team now has roughly $85M in cap space to improve their roster during free agency.

Cap Space After Roster Moves: $84.6MIn-House Free Agent Signings:

In most cases, the Cowboys are very active re-signing their own right before or just as free agency starts. While it is being reported that the Cowboys will place the franchise tag on George Pickens, that is likely a placeholder until they can workout a long-term deal with Pickens. Similar to the Kenny Clark conversation we had above, Jerry Jones has too much pride to speak so boldly about how he traded Micah Parsons so he can improve his roster for the short and long-term, to not follow through with locking up Pickens long-term.

WR George Pickens - Pickens signs a four year, $136 million contract.

2026 Cap Hit: $24.4M

As we have seen, Jerry has no problem paying big money to his own players, even if the process or thought process behind makes very little sense. We should expect Pickens to reach a long-term agreement with the Cowboys and a four year, $136M deal should get it done. While it's tough to project guarantees, a $34M average annual salary would rank third in the NFL tied with Cowboys' WR CeeDee Lamb. The Cowboys could realistically backload the contract making Pickens cap figure extremely small in 2026, but we rarely seem them do those sorts of accounting gymnastics with big money deals.

RB Javonte Williams - Williams signs a three year, $24M extension.

2026 Cap Hit: $5.8M

For Javonte Williams, both Jerry and Stephen have already talked about how much they would like to have Williams back and have even hinted at negotiations already starting with his agent. We should expect this to get done at or around $8M annually, unless Williams market is well above his projected market value that OverTheCap.com and Spotrac.com has projected.

K Brandon Aubrey - Aubrey signs a four year, $26.5M extension.

2026 Cap Hit: $7.3M

Brandon Aubrey is another interesting case to be studied this offseason. There's no denying Aubrey's ability, but paying kickers big money is often a risky move, especially for a team that has had little playoff success in the last three decades. We should expect Aubrey to be back, but there is some risk with the deal given the figure and the quicker decline of kickers when over the age of 30.

EDGE Jadeveon Clowney - Clowney signs a one year, $7M contract.

2026 Cap Hit: $7M

Similar to JaVonte Williams, Clowney has already hinted at wanting to return and the Cowboys' brass has hinted at wanting him back. Dallas signed Clowney to an extremely team-friendly deal after the start of the 2025 season, but we should expect to see Clowney get a bigger deal this year after impressing in 2025. Clowney is still likely to sign a one-year deal this offseason and a $7M fully guaranteed deal is beneficial for the Cowboys and Clowney.

That concludes much of the internal work that needs to be done. In part two, we'll go over adding players through free agency and the draft. At the end, we'll have our new offensive and defensive lineups.