With the Cowboys agreeing to sign free agent wide receiver Allen Hurns Friday, it appears Dez Bryant’s days in Dallas are numbered.
According to Josina Anderson, the Cowboys have agreed to signed Deonte Thompson to a one-year deal and Hurns to a two-year contract in consecutive days.
Both signings are indicative of Bryant’s murky future in Dallas.
Bryant is currently scheduled to make $12.5 million and would make an additional $4 million if he’s on the team. If Dallas cuts him, the team would save $8.5 million — costing them $8 million this year. Comparatively, if the team keeps Bryant and cuts him next summer, it’d only cost the Cowboys $4 million in dead money.
Dallas resigned Terrance Williams to a four-year contract last offseason and he’s scheduled to make $3.5 million this year. They also have Cole Beasley, Ryan Switzer and Noah Brown under contract. Switzer and Brown are both on rookie contracts.
Dallas is in a horrendous cap situation. The team currently has approximately $50,o00 in cap space. The space does not include the additional money that’s allocated to a team’s draft picks. Bryant might be a casualty of the cap crunch because they need additional space.
Bryant’s $16.5 million salary for the upcoming season is the third highest on the team. The Cowboys’ seventh-highest paid player is retired quarterback Tony Romo, who is scheduled to count $8.9 million against the cap.
With such a bad cap situation, the Cowboys are squandering a short window where quarterback Dak Prescott will be making under $1 million on his rookie contract.