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Cowboys Rumors: Zack Martin, Tyron Smith, La'el Collins Restructure Contracts
March 10, 2021
The Dallas Cowboys have restructured the contracts of offensive linemen Zach Martin, Tyron Smith and La'el Collins, per Todd Archer of ESPN.
The moves will create roughly $17 million in salary cap room, per Archer.
Teams have needed to make numerous moves to navigate around the 2021 salary cap, which has been set at $182.5 million.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented any fans from attending games in 13 NFL stadiums and limited capacity in the other 19 venues, hurt the league's bottom line to the point where the cap dropped from $198.2 million in 2020.
Prior to the moves, Dallas had only $834,273 in cap space, per Over the Cap. The Cowboys notably just signed quarterback Dak Prescott to a four-year, $160 million contract.
With the restructures, Dallas has some wiggle room to make additions in free agency. Teams can begin officially signing free agents on March 17 at 4 p.m. ET.
The Cowboys are coming off a 6-10 season. Numerous injuries, including a season-ending broken leg suffered by Prescott on Oct. 11 against the New York Giants, hindered Dallas' potential.
Prior to 2020, Dallas never had a losing season under Prescott, who became the team's starting quarterback in Week 1 of the 2016 campaign.
