Contracts tell you a lot about roster status for players
The Dallas Cowboys are constantly trying to make all the right moves when it comes to dealing with contracts. They receive a lot of heat for lollygagging on extensions (some of it deserved, some of it not), but there are also many other things that come into play when talking about a player’s future. People will throw out blockbuster trades, recommend cutting players, and offer their suggestions on when a player should receive an extension.
There’s a lot to take into consideration, but oftentimes, some of the details are overlooked. To help keep everyone in the know, here are three things we should keep in mind when it comes to certain players and their contracts.
Dak Prescott isn’t going anywhere
There are a lot of different opinions about Prescott as the quarterback of this team. Many acknowledge that he has been great at times, while others quickly point out that he hasn’t delivered when it’s crunch time. Regardless of where you stand, it should be accepted that he’s the quarterback of this team, and that isn’t going to change for the foreseeable future. And the reason for this is the money.
The Cowboys are invested heavily in him. Between signing bonuses and restructures, the team still must account for almost $150 million of his salary on their books. And on March 16, that number jumped to $190 million because his entire 2026 salary of $40 million became fully guaranteed. So, hypothetically speaking, if the Cowboys decided to cut him, they’d endure a $190 dead money hit. That’s obviously not going to happen.
Trading Prescott is almost just as impossible. His contract has a full no-trade clause. That means if the Cowboys were to trade him, Dak would have to give his approval. In that instance, his new team would be on the hook to pay his 2026 salary next season, dropping his dead money hit down a bit, but we must also remember that the team just converted $46 million of his base salary into bonus money at the beginning of the month. If the Cowboys had any inkling of an idea to trade Prescott, they would have done so before moving money around because that’s now money they have to account for on their books.
Terence Steele is here for at least another year
Many fans had written off the team’s right tackle, expressing great confidence that he would be a cap casualty this offseason. While his “disappointing” performance may have been exaggerated, the team has always spoken highly of him and given every indication that he wasn’t going anywhere. On March 16, the cement dried on that notion.
Steele’s 2025 salary became guaranteed, meaning his dead money hit went from $13.5 million to $26.75 million. If they wanted to move on from him, they would have done so before his salary became guaranteed. Steele has three more years remaining on his deal after this season, so the Cowboys can still choose to cut him loose early, but it’s definitely not happening this year.
Donovan Wilson may still be a cap casualty
The Cowboys’ veteran safety is in the last year of the three-year, $21 million deal he signed in 2023. Wilson has had some ups and downs, flashing both great play and atrocious play. While he may be seen as the defensive version of Steele, the financials are quite different between the two. For starters, there is no more guaranteed money remaining for Wilson. He is due $7 million this year, but the Cowboys could choose to get out of all of that by releasing him. Additionally, the team didn’t touch his contract during restructures, meaning the only dead money hit they’d take would be the $3.3 million left from his signing bonus.
Wilson’s job security will depend on where the team stands at safety after the draft. They already have depth pieces like Markquese Bell and Juanyeh Thomas behind Malik Hooker. Should the team draft a safety next month, a Wilson release is still a legitimate possibility.
