Why the release of Michael Gallup is a foregone conclusion for the Cowboys this offseason

The writing has been on the wall for a certain Cowboys veteran wide receiver.

It was around this time two years ago the Dallas Cowboys had to make a big decision about what they wanted to do at wide receiver. The team had rising star CeeDee Lamb under player control for three more seasons, but that was the only given for the team’s wide receiver group. The Cowboys needed to decide if they wanted to continue to pay Amari Cooper $20 million a year despite a slight dip in production where he was coming off his worst per-game totals in receptions, yards, and catch percentage over his past four seasons with the team. If not, the Cowboys could choose a cheaper route and pay unrestricted free agent Michael Gallup after already proving he could be a viable WR2 for this offense.

Ultimately, the team went with the latter as they traded away Cooper in a salary dump move and signed Gallup to a five-year, $57.5 million deal. From a financial sense, this move looked smart. Cooper, while still very good, was now the second fiddle to Lamb and the team felt like they wouldn’t be losing much with Gallup at WR2 at almost half the price. And Gallup’s $11.5 million annual cost would look better and better with each new season.

Sadly, things did not go as expected. Cooper has been tearing it up in Cleveland putting up over 2,400 yards over the past two seasons with his new team. In terms of yardage, it’s the best two-year stretch Cooper has ever had throughout his entire career. And to make matters worse, Gallup has been almost non-existent. In 2022, he only had 39 catches and 424 yards across 14 games, putting up just 30.3 yards per game, his worst per-game outage over his five-year career. Most of us chalked that up to the slow recovery as he was coming off a knee injury in the regular-season finale the year prior.

With another year removed from his knee surgery, fans expected bigger things from him this past season, but despite playing in all 17 games, his numbers were even worse. He only had 34 catches for 418 yards with a new career-low per-game outage of just 24.6 yards a game. His production had become just 33% of the prime Gallup we were seeing back in 2019.

Something is just not right with Gallup. It’s sad to see things play out this way. Gallup is such a high-character guy and his teammates love him. He also brought a unique flare to the Cowboys’ receiving game. Whether he was galloping through traffic with that hitch in his giddy-up, high-pointing the ball on contested passes, or showing remarkable concentration on sideline toe drags, he never ceased to amaze us with fun highlights over his career.

Sadly, those moments have become few and far between. He was once believed to be a nice bang for the Cowboys’ buck, but now, he’s just a waste of money. The financial situation for Gallup breaks down like this (numbers courtesy of spotrac.com).

spotrac

Some things to understand about his contract – the Cowboys still must account for all of his remaining signing bonus ($2M x 3) and his restructure money ($2.35M x 3), which amounts to a smidge over $13 million. That money will count against the cap one way or another. If they released him this offseason, that would be his dead money hit which the Cowboys could absorb all at once or spread out across two years if they designated him a post-June 1st cut.

If the Cowboys decided to hang on to him, it would tack on the base salary + roster bonus figures for any additional season. Or, to simplify things, here are the financial implications of keeping Gallup around for the following scenarios:

It’s just not sensible to pay Gallup another $8.5 million for what he’s giving the team. And considering Lamb and Brandin Cooks already take up $28 million of this year’s cap, adding another chunk of change to that amount wouldn’t be smart.

With Lamb and Cooks on the team, the Cowboys can find a cheaper way to supplement WR3 productions. The two Jalen’s, Tolbert and Brooks, are young and on cheap rookie deals. They both had great training camps last year and could be more productive with an expanded role. The same is true for last year’s UDFA David Durden who was flashing something in camp before an injury ended his season before it started. And Kavontae Turpin is also still under player control for one more season.

Between the guys the Cowboys already have and maybe another upcoming draft pick, the team has options, but hanging on to Gallup isn’t one of them. This team is strapped for cash and it seems inevitable that they will move on from him. And that decision will be made soon because $4 million of Gallup’s 2024 base salary becomes guaranteed on March 18th and the Cowboys won’t want to add on any additional costs.

The Cowboys had a plan, but it didn’t work out, so now it’s time to come up with a new plan. Gallup is a sunk cost, and the Cowboys need to be careful to not compound past mistakes with new ones.