Frisco, Texas — as the NFL's offseason calendar begins to take hold after the 2024 NFL Combine in Indianapolis. Which players will the team declare? If it exists, use the franchise tag to officially end it. For the Dallas Cowboys, at least this time, the 14-day deadline didn't matter.
As expected, the organization Choose not to use team tags As such, the 16 pending unrestricted free agents will actually hit the open market unless a deal is reached by March 13th.
Once legal tampering begins on March 11, each player will be able to receive an offer from any of the other 31 teams.
Below is a list of Cowboys talent with expiring contracts.
- Stephon Gilmore, CB
- Jordan Lewis, CB
- Jaylon Kearse, S
- CJ Goodwin, CB
- Noah Igbinoghene, CB
- Tyron Smith, OT
- Chuuma Eduga, OT
- Tyler Biardash, C
- Tony Pollard, RB
- Rico Doodle, RB
- Dorrance Armstrong Jr., Delaware
- Dante Fowler Jr., Delaware
- Jonathan Hankins, DT
- Neville Gallimore, DT
For your reference, below is the latest cost per position for this year's franchise tag. Newly announced explosive 2024 salary cap That's $255.4 million.
- QB: $38.3 million
- lb: $24 million
- DT: $22.1 million
- W.R.: $21.8 million
- D.E.: $21.3 million
- OL: 21 million dollars
- C.B.: $19.8 million
- S: $17.1 million
- T.E.: $12.7 million
- R.B.: $12 million (note: this is the first tag amount, not the second)
- ST: 6 million dollars
This offseason, the Cowboys decided not to use one for the first time since 2016, following Dez Bryant's one (2015) and DeMarcus Lawrence's two consecutive runs (2018, 2019). That means you did it. Since then, they have applied this tag every offseason, including twice to Dak Prescott (2020, 2021) and then also to Dalton Schultz (2022) and Tony Pollard (2023). has been done.
The latter entered his second straight 1,000-yard season while operating under the tag last year, but head coach Mike McCarthy said it didn't reflect the success or explosiveness of the previous year, all things considered. However, he admitted that there was little success. It's possible the Cowboys could sacrifice 120% of Pollard's 2023 salary for a second deal.
That's because they have Pollard and several others on the aforementioned list of pending free agents (e.g. Tyron Smith, Stephon Gilmore, Jordan Lewis, Jonathan Hankins, Dorrance Armstrong, etc.) That's not to say they aren't interested in negotiating, but rather that they don't want to commit to a fully guaranteed expensive one-year contract that would unnecessarily strain the cap.
Instead, they will negotiate without a tag in hopes of re-signing all the players they have signed, understanding that without a tag they are not just negotiating with themselves. ing.
They will do that against the rest of the teams in the league.
