The Dallas Cowboys enter the offseason right up against the salary cap. Even with the NFL announcing that its 2025 salary cap will fall between $277 million and $281 million, the Cowboys have less than $2.5 million in effective cap space.

That is not an ideal place to be. While Dallas has a fantastic nucleus of players, they have glaring holes at several important positions. Defensive tackle, wide receiver, cornerback, running back and linebacker stick out like sore thumbs in that regard.

When you consider that they’ll need close to $10 million to sign their draft class, the front office needs to create significantly more wiggle room between now and the start of free agency. Fortunately, the salary cap offers myriad loopholes to create new money out of thin air.

There are four quick fixes that are begging to be put into action. By doing so, the Cowboys would position themselves to both re-sign key free agents and sign marquee players outside the organization.

4 moves the Cowboys can make to save $76 million in cap space

1. Restructure Dak Prescott – $37.196 million

Restructuring Prescott is the obvious one as his four-year, $240 million extension comes into play next season. His cap hit sits at a colossal $89.89 million, which accounts for over $30% of the team’s entire salary cap.

The number obviously won’t be that high once the season starts, but it would behoove Dallas to restructure the deal as soon as possible.

This is the situation the Cowboys find themselves after waiting until the last minute to extend their franchise quarterback. They could’ve got Prescott for around $50-55 million per year, but they allowed inferior QBs to set the market. That gave Dak even more leverage and he got a record-setting contract as a result. Now, his cap hits are astronomical over the next four years.

2. Extend Micah Parsons – $18.269 million

Another obvious one. Extending Micah Parsons should be the team’s first order of business this offseason. While Parsons is still on a rookie contract, he’s set to play out 2025 on his fifth-year option, which means he’ll earn $24.007 fully guaranteed.

READ MORE: Micah Parsons issues bold statement to Cowboys fans after Zack Martin retirement

That number also represents his cap hit after it was a measly $5.434 million last year. While $24.007 million is hardly a steep price for one of the premier defenders in football, extending Parsons would free up over $18 million in cap room. It’s a no-brainer move if there ever was one.

Parsons has called on the front office to be more aggressive in free agency. He wants to sign his extension sooner rather than later to give Dallas more money to spend. The All-Pro pass rusher has even said he would take less money if that’s what it takes to trade for Myles Garrett.

The front office won’t be able to escape the “unserious” claims if they allow this negotiation to bleed into the new league year.

3. Cut Terence Steele – $14 million

Steele is now the most seasoned player on Dallas’ offensive line after Zack Martin announced his retirement from the NFL. That is pretty crazy being that Steele won’t turn 28 until June.

It might be risky for a team to cut its most experienced offensive linemen, but Steele has not performed like one of the league’s top right tackles. Steele’s $16 million annual average value ranks 12th among RTs. Has he really lived up to that since signing his extension two years ago? Probably not.

There’s something to be said that Steele has started all 34 regular-season games the last two seasons after tearing his ACL in 2022. However, in 2023 he gave up the second-most pressures and quarterback hits among tackles, per Pro Football Focus. Last season, almost two years removed from the ACL, he allowed the fourth-most sacks and eighth-most pressures.

While Dallas doesn’t have a successor lined up, they can get equal or better production for a lot less money, whether it be internally, in free agency or the draft.

4. Cut Donovan Wilson ($7 million)

It was nice to see the Cowboys finally invest in their safety room when they paid Donovan Wilson and Malik Hooker. While both players are on the decline as they approach their age-30 and 29 seasons, respectively, Wilson in particular was an extreme liability last season.

The former sixth-round pick is still a demon when rushing the passer and crashing downhill against the run, but he looked alarmingly slow in coverage. Only two safeties conceded a higher passer rating than Wilson in and he allowed the highest completion rate at the position, per PFF. He also missed 14 tackles and was responsible for six touchdowns.

Cutting Wilson would create a stomachable $3.3 million in dead money. The Cowboys need to pair the aging Hooker with a younger safety who has more range in coverage, can drop into the box in a pinch and doesn’t look like he’s running in quicksand when pursuing ball-carriers.

Your guess is as good as ours if Dallas makes these four moves. Doing so would give them a hair under $80 million in cap space to work with this offseason.