Dallas has converted the 2023 base salary of wide receiver Michael Gallup, according to ESPN’s Todd Archer. The former third-round draft pick had a base of $11 million for the upcoming 2023 season thanks to the five-year extension he signed last March, fresh off the ACL surgery he had suffered in Week 17 of the 2021 season.
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As noted by Cowboys Wire’s own K.D. Drummond in predicting this move, that five-year deal was really a two-year commitment, and this salary-to-bonus conversion makes it a little harder for the Cowboys to cut ties with the just-turned 27-year-old if his 2023 is no better than his 2022.
But the club believes that Gallup will be much improved over last season, when he never seemed to be fully back to himself after his Week 4 return. He ended the 2022 campaign with just 39 catches and 424 yards on 74 targets, scoring four touchdowns.
The numbers put up by the Colorado State product in 2019 and 2020, however, make it a gamble worth taking for the WR-needy club; if Gallup can come even close to matching those triple-digit reception seasons, he’ll be a far more effective threat opposite CeeDee Lamb in the Cowboys’ new Mike McCarthy-led offense.
Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News, citing a person with knowledge of the restructured contract, says the Cowboys will create roughly $7.4 million in cap space, just as the official start to free agency is set to begin.
The team reduced their cap hit by $30 million on Friday by doing similar conversions with the contracts of quarterback Dak Prescott and guard Zack Martin. Those two deals brought the team under the cap by about $14.5 million.
The new Gallup numbers should now give the Cowboys nearly $22 million in usable cap space, with more conversions likely to come.