ESPN ranks Dallas Cowboys offseason capital just before the bottom five of all NFL teams

This offseason will require some creativity from the Cowboys.

We are a long ways away from the 2022 NFL season. Quite a long ways, actually. The coming months will be long and some will feel longer than others as the Dallas Cowboys look to put a disappointing season behind them and finally get where they haven’t been for over a quarter century.

Free agency will be a bigger test for this team than it has been in recent memory as a result of having so many players worth keeping but with overall salary cap issues. Waiting all the way until the 24th pick of the 2022 NFL Draft won’t be fun either. If you haven’t caught on by now, this is a more challenging offseason than some others we have followed.

ESPN ranks the Dallas Cowboys offseason capital just before the bottom five of all NFL teams

Improving an NFL roster can often involve a bit of creativity and if the Cowboys want to up the quality of their team, they are going to have create a lot of creativity. Dallas is notorious for being rather shy in free agency, they really like their guys in case you haven’t noticed.

How will they go about doing that, though? ESPN ranked the offseason capital of every single NFL team and Dallas came in at a whopping number 27.

27. Dallas Cowboys

Draft capital AV sum: 68.1

First-round pick: No. 24

Current cap space: minus-$17.7 million

The Cowboys have a lot of established veterans with high cap numbers, including receiver Amari Cooper ($22 million) and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence ($27 million). Could they be on their way out? And will the Cowboys need to restructure quarterback Dak Prescott’s deal, which is projected to count for $34.5 million in 2022, just one year after he signed it?

Some serious decisions have to be made by the Cowboys front office and Amari Cooper is likely the first one that they have written down to address. Moving on from him seems so risky from a football perspective, but maybe they believe it is in their best long-term interest.

Dak Prescott’s deal will likely be tinkered with in order to alleviate some room, but DeMarcus Lawrence is another matter that needs to be tended to.

Time to get creative.