Cowboys Fans Get the Michael Gallup News They've Been Waiting For

The Dallas Cowboys' quiet start to the offseason has had a lot to do with their salary cap situation. Dak Prescott and eventually CeeDee Lamb are staring down potentially massive contract extensions, and that doesn't leave much room for Dallas to make any big impacts.

They took a big step to clear cap space on Friday, finally releasing a veteran in a move that fans have been calling for for some time now.

Cowboys News: Michael Gallup Released

The Cowboys have released Michael Gallup with a post-June 1 designation. That means the dead money incurred by cutting him will be spread over 2024 and 2025. In short, that designation means that Dallas has freed up $9.5 million in 2024 salary cap space with the move.

Gallup's release has been a long time coming. There was just no way he was going to be worth his $13.9 million cap hit in 2024, let alone the $15.9 cap hits he stood to carry in 2025 and 2026. That's not the money you want to pay any WR3, but considering Gallup isn't even an especially good WR3 it was a particularly easy choice.

This was also pretty harsh timing. A post-June 1 release could have been designated as early as Wednesday, when the league year began. That would have allowed Gallup to start negotiating with other teams immediately. Now plenty of WR-needy teams have already made signings and used up some of their available cap space before even knowing he would be available.

Perhaps Dallas had been trying to negotiate trades for Gallup, and at the end of the day this is business. The Cowboys will be paying Gallup millions of dollars to not play in Dallas this year, so even if he doesn't get the best possible contract elsewhere I'm sure he'll be alright.

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