Dallas Cowboys restructure contract of Michael Gallup, free up 'roughly' $7 million in cap space

For the second straight offseason, wide receiver is a question mark for the Dallas Cowboys. Last year, they helped their cause by bringing Michael Gallup back on a long-term extension. However, they have now had to rework the contract with the goal of freeing up some cap space.

According to ESPN’s Todd Archer, Dallas has created “roughly” $7 million in cap room by restructuring Gallup’s contract. A big year is coming up for the wide receiver, who did not live up to the deal during the 2021 season. The Cowboys seem to believe in Gallup moving forward.

“The Cowboys have restructured the contract of WR Michael Gallup, creating roughly $7 million in room,” Archer said. “With an $11 million base salary, this was always the design of 5-year contract he signed last year. Team believes Gallup will be much-improved 2nd year removed from ACL surgery.”

Gallup only played in 14 games last season for the Cowboys, having 39 receptions for 424 yards and four touchdowns. Better production was expected out of him, with Dallas hoping he would be the No. 2 behind CeeDee Lamb.

More on the 2023 NFL offseason, free agency

The NFL 2023 calendar year is set to begin at 4 p.m. ET on March 15 when contracts running through 2022 will officially run out, making those players free agents. Prior to the beginning of free agency, teams will have a chance to designate one franchise or transition tag player, starting on Feb. 21 at 4 p.m. ET and ending on March 7. Beginning March 13 through March 15 teams will be allowed a legal negotiation with players who are set to become unrestricted free agents.

In addition to NFL free agency, the new year also marks the beginning of all trades being made official by the league office. April 21 marks the deadline to sign restricted free agents to offer sheets while April 26 marks the deadline for teams to match restricted free agent offers sheets. 722 players are slated to become free agents in 2023.

More on restricted, exclusive rights free agents

Players with only three years of accredited NFL experience become restricted free agents. Their original team will have the option to apply first-round, second-round, original-round, and right-of-fight-of-first-refusal tenders on players at escalating price tags. The higher the round, the more expensive the tender amount; however, if a separate team does offer a contract and the original team does not match that round pick will be conveyed from the new team to the original team. Right of first refusal only gives a team the option to match or not. If they don’t match, they get nothing in return. An original-round tender would send a draft pick from whatever round the player was drafted back to the original team if they chose not to match. The original team will have five days to match once a player sign