Report: Despite cap space, Dallas Cowboys not expected to be a part of early wave of free agency

Today is Monday, March 13th which means we have reached one of the more critical weeks of the offseason. Legal tampering in the NFL begins today and the new league year officially opens up on Wednesday. Many decisions that are made this week will have an impact on teams competing or falling short throughout the 2023 season.

To be clear sometimes decisions can be the kind that are labeled as boring by a team choosing not to dive into the tempting pool of free agency or preferring to prioritize their own players instead of bringing in outside talent. The latter philosophy has been the one that the Dallas Cowboys have chosen to follow over the last few years (over a decade now) and it appears that things will remain status quo.

The Cowboys are not expected to be a part of the early wave of free agency

At present time the Cowboys are listed with $14.7M in salary cap space (obligatory shout out to OverTheCap) so they have enough room to have some fun if they really want. What’s more is that the team can create some more cap space with a few clicks of a button as far as the statuses of Tyron Smith and/or Ezekiel Elliott are concerned, but we will see what they decide to do there.

It appears though that the Cowboys will continue with the process that they have used for over a decade as noted and will choose to sit up against the wall while everyone else is on the free agency dance floor once negotiating opens, at least according to ESPN’s Todd Archer.

It is certainly true that the Cowboys have players like Donovan Wilson, Leighton Vander Esch, and Dante Fowler to tend to. Keeping players costs money the same way that adding players does, and the Cowboys are very well-known to prioritize their own.

Obviously on one level this is frustrating. NFL fans saw the Miami Dolphins trade for Jalen Ramsey on Sunday afternoon and while a lot of that had to do with his contractual situation and that the Dolphins were his preferred team, that Miami pulled that off without a first-round draft pick to their name leaves other fanbases feeling like they should be in on things like that.

The clock is ticking on another era/window for the Cowboys. It makes a lot of sense for them to want their own players back, but it also makes sense to find outside help. Remember that it was just 11 days ago when a report circulated that the Cowboys were focusing on making an ‘impactful’ addition to the offense. If they are not going to be involved in the initial wave of free agency, what could that impact be?