Year after year, the Dallas Cowboys are saddled with dead money from players who they drafted, gave second contracts to and later walked away from. Just in 2025, the Cowboys have over $31 million of cap space being used on Zack Martin, Michael Gallup, DeMarcus Lawrence, Brandin Cooks and others who won't be on the team. Last year, Ezekiel Elliott took up a huge chunk of cap space, so much so it made financial sense to bring him back just to get some productivity out of the situation.v
But it appears that in 2026 that won't so much be the case. The club will still have $17 million of dead money tied into Martin, who retired last month, and any player set to make guaranteed money this year who doesn't make it out of training camp will up that figure, but the Cowboys avoided the fate of 25 other NFL teams this spring.
According to salary website Over The Cap, 25 teams have already shaved just under $600 million in salary through releasing veteran players this offseason. Dallas is one of just seven clubs that haven't released anyone of significant salary.
The Jets led all NFL teams by releases that saved them $77.75 million in 2025 salary. No other team topped $50 million, with Seattle second at $49.3 million and San Francisco third at $43.8 million. No position saw more unrealized salary than the defensive line, with interior defensive linemen totaling $129 million in savings and edge rushers second at $124 million.
When it comes to managing the salary cap, NFL teams have many things to consider. All contract types have pros and cons. Long-term agreements allow the spreading out of cap hits, but risk the dreaded dead money status when players don't perform as expected. Short deals have less long-term impact, but don't allow fancy accounting and generally cost the same against the cap that they do in cash to the player.
The Cowboys have generally fallen into a pattern with their contracts. They don't award long-term deals and guaranteed money to outsiders, instead only taking on such risks for players who have performed for their organization. Outsiders are only given short-term deals so that if things don't work out, there's not a long trail of financial impact beyond their stay with the team. One would think such an approach limits the amount of dead money taking up space under the Cowboys' annual cap but that hasn't been the case.
The Cowboys could still alter there standing here. There are still a handful of players whose jobs may be in jeopardy come training camp. Players such as Donovan Wilson, Malik Hooker and Damone Clark has sizable base salaries that would result in savings if they are pushed so far down the depth chart it doesn't make financial sense to keep them.
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Cowboys among 7 NFL teams that didn't save big cash by releasing vets
