By Solomon 
The Dallas Cowboys are heading into the 2025 season with a big money problem, and it’s all centered around quarterback Dak Prescott’s contract. When they signed the deal, it was meant to give them some short-term breathing room, but now it’s catching up with them. Prescott’s cap hit for 2025 is set to be nearly $90 million — way too high for the team to handle.
To fix this, the Cowboys are expected to restructure his contract — something they’ve done with other players before. They could convert part of his salary into a signing bonus, which would lower his cap hit to around $50-54 million and free up about $36-40 million in cap space. The downside? It pushes more of the financial burden into future years, making things tighter down the line.
According to NFL insider Mike Fisher, this move is likely happening soon, especially with free agency starting on March 12. The team needs cap space to sign new players and keep their key guys, so waiting isn’t really an option.
Prescott’s contract isn’t the only one the Cowboys might tweak. They could also restructure CeeDee Lamb’s deal to free up about $20 million, and if they lock down a long-term extension with Micah Parsons, they could create even more cap space — possibly up to $100 million.
The problem with this strategy is that it’s basically borrowing money from the future to solve problems now. If they keep pushing Prescott’s money down the line without figuring out his long-term future, they could end up with a huge dead cap hit when he eventually leaves.
The Cowboys’ front office, led by Jerry Jones and his son Stephen Jones, usually plays it safe with big money decisions. But with such a massive cap hit looming, they really don’t have a choice this time. Whatever decision they make in the next few weeks will have a huge impact on the team’s roster and their chances of competing for a championship in the next few years.