Cowboys Pick Six: Salary Cap, RKG's Up, SOPA And Other News And Notes

There's always plenty of interwebby fun to be had when talking about the Dallas Cowboys! Let's dive into Cowboys Pick Six, what appears to be my newest recurring post. Six of the top storylines occupying the minds of Dallas Cowboys fans at the moment.

Salary Cap Won't Be Issue For Cowboys: ESPN Dallas | Interesting confirmation that the Cowboys could have as much as $20 million to spend this offseason. With the retirement of Jon Kitna, the Cowboys have about $12.6 million in cap space, right now, based on last year's cap total. This already takes into account the 'dead money' from last season's salary purge. We'll get into this in much greater detail, but with the 14th pick in the draft, Dallas is looking at spending between $5m and $7m on rookies (estimate based on 2011 #14 pick counting $2m against cap). BTB's Tom Ryle did a great piece on the Cowboys free agent situation here, which is headlined by Laurent Robinson and maybe a desire to sign Martellus Bennett, Tony Fiammetta and/or Anthony Spencer. Give or take, that could bring the available money pool down to about $3 million.

However Dallas also has bullets left to fire. They could save up to $6 million releasing Terence Newman and also another $12 million reworking the deal of DeMarcus Ware and shifting money within the Orlando Scandrick and Doug Free deals. That bumps them up to about $20 milly, with Robinson in fold, a mid-first round draft pick and optimism right around the corner. Maybe literally.

PFF Wide Receiver Drop Rates For 2011: Pro Football Focus | For all the negative press he's been getting from (allegedly) getting into an altercation with rapper Lil' Wayne and his colorful jeggings, Dez Bryant deserves his accolades too. He ranked second amongst all NFL receiver's with more than 50 catchable balls (receptions added to drops) with a 1.56% drop rate. 63 receptions, one drop. In 2010, Dez was second on the team to Jason Witten, with a 6.25% (3 drops and 45 catches). 108 catches, only four drops over two seasons with no full offseason. Three cheers for Rabble's article.

The scrap was real, the opposition is undetermined, and so is the potential. Oh, and if you didn't understand the earlier reference, google Lil Wayne's Jeggings to see the hip-hop star's highly questionable taste in "mens" pants.

More...

Alabama's Dre Kirkpatrick Arrested On Marijuana Charge: NBC DFW | This is news that most of you know already, but I'll be touching on it on the next Krunchtime With KD Podcast. Kirkpatrick is by most accounts one of the two sure-thing cornerback prospects in this coming April's draft. Does his arrest preclude him from becoming a member of the Dallas Cowboys? Two days ago, the consensus opinion was that there was no way Kirkpatrick would make it to the #14 pick? Now the question is, would Jason Garrett want him? What's more the concern, that a 20-year-old smokes the ganja, or that he couldn't even stay away from it facing the biggest opportunity he'll ever get?

Roger Staubach: Tony Romo is a solution: ESPN Dallas | Captain Comeback is the latest former signal caller to support our Tony Romo; on the heels of Danny White's vote of confidence last week.

"We have enough talent we can get it turned around," Staubach said Monday night at an event honoring the first Cowboys Super Bowl title team. "We have a quarterback that can do it. I think our defense kind of let us down in the secondary, especially at times during the year when we were coming back. That should get improved next year."

SB Nation Officially Opposes SOPA: SB Nation | I don't want to lessen the impact of this by quipping, and we normally stay away from political discussions. However, this legislation threatens the way that BTB and other SB Nation sites interact and provide coverage to the masses. Chris Mottram laid out SBN's stance.

Vox Media -- the parent company of SB Nation -- is officially opposed to SOPA. The bill as drafted is overly broad, vaguely worded, and gives rise to a number of significant concerns:

-- Serious constitutional issues in regards to due process and seizure of property.

-- Decreased effectiveness and questionable availability of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) safe harbor for sites that host user-contributed content;

-- Higher compliance costs for all sites that host user-contributed content;

-- Potentially overzealous compliance efforts by search engines and payment providers in their attempts to maintain the immunity offered by SOPA section 104;