Contract year looming for up to 42 Cowboys; Re-sign early or wait and see?

There are a number of Cowboys players entering contract years.

When the Cowboys decided to pick up the fifth-year option on Tyler Smith’s contract a week ago, they ensured their 2022 first-round pick would not hit unrestricted free agency in 2026.

That decision dropped the total number of players playing on expiring contracts this year to 41. But then the team went out and traded for George Pickens, who is playing on an expiring contract, bringing the total back up to 42.

All of which places the Cowboys front office in somewhat of a conundrum: extend those players now and hope to get a great performance on the cheap, or wait until those players break out before re-signing them and risk overpaying in the process?

Two of the highest-profile players among the 42 are Micah Parsons and Daron Bland. Parsons is entering the fifth and final year of his rookie contract and the expectation is he’ll sign a blockbuster extension soon; Bland is entering his fourth and final year and we haven’t heard much about a possible extension.

Other notable free agents include kicker Brandon Aubrey (whose next contract likely places him at or very close to the top of the kicking contract market) and WR Jalen Tolbert, who might be amenable to a team-friendly contract extension as the (now) projected No. 3 WR.

Those four players highlight the group of 42 players made up of 26 unrestricted free agents (UFA), 10 restricted free agents (RFA), and six players currently designated as exclusive rights free agents (ERFA) who combine for a motley crew of soon-to-be free agents:

One Golden Child: Micah Parsons, four-time Pro Bowler and soon-to-be highest-paid defensive player in the league.

Six players remaining from the 2022 draft class. Sam Williams, Jalen Tolbert, Jake Ferguson, Matt Waletzko, Daron Bland, and Damone Clark are all entering the final year of their rookie contracts. Do the Cowboys want to work out an early deal with any of them, or will they let them hit free agency first to gauge their value?

11 veterans signed to one-year deals this year. The fact that they are signed to one-yer deals makes them feel a little bit like a one-year rental army. Their 2025 performance will determine if any of them get signed to a new contract.

11 players on veteran contracts are playing out the final year of their contracts. Two of them (Israel Mukuamu and Donovan Wilson) have never played an NFL snap for a team other than the Cowboys.

8 players are former UDFAs who will all be restricted free agents. A restricted free agent is a player whose contract has expired and who has three accrued seasons of service. A RFA receives a “tender” (with a salary predetermined by the CBA) from his old team but can negotiate with any team. If the RFA receives an offer sheet from a new team, his old team can match the offer and retain him (right-of-first-refusal). If the old team does not match the offer, it can receive draft-choice compensation depending on how the RFA was tendered (first-, second- or original-round tender). A first-round tender next year will be around $8 million, a second-round tender close to $6 million.

Five players are exclusive rights free agent. All five (Justin Rogers, Denzel Daxon, Jalen Moreno-Cropper, Josh Butler, Kelvin Harmon) have no more than two accrued seasons in the NFL and may only sign with the Cowboys, provided the Cowboys extend a minimum qualifying offer to the player. So if the Cowboys want to keep any of them, they can keep those ERFAs for the veteran minimum for another year at least.

Here’s a summary table of all 42 players who could carry some kind of free agent designation after the 2025 season.

The first hurdle for many of the 42 players in the table above is the 53-man roster, and not all of them will make it. There are probably 15, maybe more, players listed here that won’t make final roster cuts, and that includes some of the veterans the Cowboys signed in free agency this year. But that still leaves the Cowboys with 20+ players who’ll be playing on expiring contracts this year. After the season, and if the players are not re-signed by the Cowboys, they could provide the Cowboys with one final return on their contracts: compensatory draft picks.

So how many players on this list will the Cowboys keep beyond 2025?

Micah Parsons’ new contract is just a question of time.

From the 2018 draft class, the Cowboys would be well advised to try to lock up Tolbert, Ferguson, and Williams to team-friendly extensions. The team will likely balk at Bland’s asking price now, and will be out of the running for his services if he has another strong year. But in Ferguson and Bland, the Cowboys have two Pro Bowlers coming off injury-shortened seasons, perhaps there’s an early deal to be made with both at somewhat of a discount. Damone Clark seems to have fallen out of favor, so he’s likely gone after the season, Matt Waletzko won’t get an extension, but there’s a chance he could be brought back on a veteran contract after the season if he can be had for cheap.

From the veterans on expiring contracts, Donovan Wilson may be too expensive for the Cowboys’ tastes, C.J. Goodwin might get another one-year contract after the season, but there’s no immediate candidate here the Cowboys need to re-sign early.

One-year “Rentals”: None of these guys is getting an early extension and it’s anybody’s guess how many will stick around.

George Pickens might get slapped with the franchise tag if things work out in Dallas for him. He’ll cost the Cowboys about $4 million this year. The franchise tag next year will be around $28 million. If they tag him, they get two years out of a premium player for an average of $16 million a year. All at the cost of a third-round-pick that they’ll likely be able to swap for a fourth-round comp pick. Not bad – if things work out.

Former UDFAs & ERFAs: Brandon Aubrey is for sure the one guy they could try to lock up early. Juanyeh Thomas has been a special teams staple and provided some relief on defense, is he worth locking up early? Beyond that, it’s going to be an uphill struggle for all of these guys, but maybe there’s a surprise or two among this group.

In total, I have about 10 of those 42 players back on the team in 2025. Over to you: How many of the 42 players above do you think the Cowboys will keep beyond 2025?