BAD NEWS: Dallas Cowboys LG Tyler Smith To Miss 4-6 Weeks | More Salary Cap Moves!

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1:01Network, your team every day. Welcome back. I am your host Marcus Moser. He is Landima Cool in today's episode is brought to you by Calci for a limited time down the Calci app and use promo code Lockdown to get 10 when you trade 10. Welcome back on today's show. We are answering your social media questions, including could the Cowboys look to extend Dak Prescott before week one? We'll talk about Javante Williams's workload in 2026. But later on, I want to start with the question that a lot of our listeners have been wondering is what are the Cowboys doing with this additional cap space that they created over the weekend by restructuring the contracts of Kenny Clark, Doron, Blan and Jake Ferguson? Yeah, so the media line here, at least the line that's being given to Cowboys beat writers from the organization themselves, is that this is money that they're freeing up in order to roll over into the 2027 cap.

2:03And if you guys just a quick refresher, there is a mechanism for the salary cap in which unused salary cap from one year can be rolled over as additional cap into the following year. It's one of the cap mechanisms that really does allow you to basically do anything you want. You're in and you're out, which is part of the making of the idea of the cap isn't real. Is this sort of mechanism? But the fact is they free it. Now they are up to, I think it's close under or just over $30 million away from the cap. And they have some contracts they want to sign next year. But the truth of the matter is, is that that's not the only reason that they would necessarily do that, right? Like they're, the reason it obviously raised red flags and people's ears perked up was because you know, it freed up a bunch of money and the Cowboys could be kicking around to some trade targets. So I think there are some interesting situations to examine here.

3:04But I also think that the trade narrative doesn't fit universally to all players in all trade situations. So we could talk about like some potential trade targets. And I do think they're making this move so that if a big move does come down the pipe, they don't have to make this move then, right? They'll already be prepared. But the part that I think everybody has just missed is the players who they restructure. But I can, to me, that's the biggest part of this, right? Because you restructure the players that you think are going to be part of your team for the long haul, right? Because what you're doing is you're really stealing money from future years and giving it to yourself this year. And that means now the cap numbers for Kenny Clark, Jake Ferguson and Doron Bland are all going to be significantly higher next year. And it makes it way harder to move on from those players if you need to do that. To me, that tells me that Kenny Clark, who was a team captain, the Cowboys voted as a team captain, they believe he's going to be a really good fit in Christian Parker's defense. But really more than anything, Doron Bland, who's coming off yet another big foot injury,

4:09he pretty clearly thought he had a good enough training camp to go out and make this move. Otherwise, you don't restructure his contract because it makes it way easier to cut him next year if you're worried about him at all. And then Jake Ferguson, who didn't have a terrible year last year, but maybe didn't take the step that we were hoping. I think after what they've saw in training camp or what they've seen in training camp, they were willing to basically commit another year to Jake Ferguson. And that's why you got these restructures. Yeah, Ferguson's not too shocking because we, you know, look, even his step back year last year was pretty decent. There's obviously chemistry there between him and Dak. And I think you know what you're getting out of Jake Ferguson. It may vary a little bit, but there's a high floor there with at least as a receiving tight end. Yeah, I agree. The Doron Bland and Kenny Clark thing is an eyebrow razor just simply because you've got two guys, you know, veterans that you weren't exactly sure necessarily how each was going to fit this year. Clark obviously coming into a new defense. We thought that maybe this would be a better fit for him.

5:10He has looked good in training camp. So I guess that one's just a happy surprise and just kind of confirming that. But the Doron Bland thing, you know, look, there was two things kind of working against him. You know, obviously even when he was on the field last year, he didn't play well. Part of that probably was the foot stuff that he was still dealing with, right? But this is obviously as well a strong endorsement, not only how he played throughout training camp in the preseason, but in his health, right? And the fact that the cowboys feel good about the way this foot is, he was able to kind of go out there and participate in training camp without, you know, too many restrictions that I really remember. He didn't take a bunch of veteran days off or anything. So I think that, yeah, this is your point, absolutely really important that this is a strong endorsement in the cowboys believe in all three of those players. Yeah, because I mean, it's not like they're restructuring guys like Quentin Williams or Dak Prescott or anything like that. Guys like we know we're going to be on the team next year. It's kind of, you know, the starters that we have some question marks about, and I get

6:12it. You can't read everything into this, but I do think it's a good sign that they felt comfortable enough with the way that training camp went for these three players to make this move. Now I do want to talk about the trades really quickly. I have been of the belief that if a trade happens, it's going to happen after the week four games, the capital play, I think, sorry, after the week five game, Dallas plays in week three, they play Baltimore in Brazil. So week four, they play Houston in Houston, week five, they play Tampa Bay on Thursday night football. My guess is, Landon, that they're going to want to see what the first five games of the year look like. It's 10 day break and kind of reassess their team after five games. I think you're not going to know everything about your team, but I think you're going to have a pretty good feel of like, okay, this is where we, this is where we could improve. This is what's out there. I don't think you're going to get this miracle trade before week one to go out and get Christian Gonzalez or Max Crossbeck.

7:12I just don't think that's going to happen. I would just love to be wrong. I don't anticipate that. Yeah. For me, it feels like it's that or potentially that the Cowboys are in a situation where they're in active negotiation with the team over a trade and they're waiting for the price to come down maybe a little bit, right? And the hope being like a kind of to your point, the hope being that, you know, let's just say it's Max Crossbeck, the hope being that the Raiders play a couple games early on in the season, you know, I'm pretty sure they got a kind of a tough schedule if I'm not mistaken too. And like, you know, lose two or three and then maybe that kind of changes the desire to hold on to Max Crossbeck any longer and maybe the price comes down a little bit. So, and that's a good schedule real quick. Yeah. So they play the dolphins of week one. Okay, whatever. Yeah. Charger at Chargers at say chiefs at Patriots, home bills, home ramps for seven games of the year. Yeah, it's, I thought I remembered that it was a tough.

8:12So they might be two and five coming out of that week seven game and maybe that's when you make the offer. Yeah. So, and again, that was just an example. I think that that also applies to other situations too is that the angles just change as games start to get, to get going a little bit. So I think it's, yeah, it's keeping the cowboys, keeping their powder dry, but also getting their powder collected and ready, right? So, yeah. Yeah. I think, so I think pulling that, the question in the back of my mind is always just like why the timing now? And I think that part of it is that this was the soonest that they could do someone's like Kenny Clark's contract who they did last year if I'm not mistaken as well. But in a, in a sign Kenny Clark to a new deal this off season as well. That's what, yeah, I'm sorry. That's what I think I meant in relation to the signing the new deal. This was the soonest they could restructure it since then, right? But I also just wonder like why, why couldn't this have been done like, you know, the week

9:15before the train, the trade deadline is ended. So there's still some curious timing here to be sure. But I just kind of wanted to point out like if this is something you and I talked about beforehand real quick is that these kind of trades usually end up, especially like for a guy like Gonzalez, you're trading him and then signing a new deal, right? So you don't usually need a lot of front in money available on your 2026 cap if you're trading for a guy that you're going to sign to extend to a long term deal. So that's a little curious to me, the only kind of trade that would fit the bill of needing a bunch of upfront money is someone like potentially Max Crosby who you're not necessarily signing to a long, long term deal. So you need to keep the front in money pretty high because that's just what you're paying a older veteran high end player like that. All right, let's talk about Dak Prescott and his contract because if the cab was wanted more cap space in 2026 and 2027, there's a pretty easy solution.

10:15We'll get to that next. This episode is brought to you by Gusto running a small business means wearing a lot of hats and payroll, HR and benefits can quickly become some of the most time consuming tasks on the list. Gusto helps simplify those responsibilities with one platform designed to make managing a team easier. Gusto is an online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all in one remote friendly and incredibly easy to use. So you can pay higher on board and support your team from absolutely anywhere, from automatic payroll tax filing and simple direct deposits to health benefits, 401Ks and built in onboarding tools. Gusto brings the day-to-day HR tasks together in one place. There are also certified HR experts available to help with those tougher HR situations. So try Gusto today at gusto.com slash locked on NFL to get three months free when you run

11:19your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com slash locked on NFL. One more time that is gusto.com slash locked on NFL. This episode is brought to you by PricePix. Football is finally back and that means Sundays are about to get a whole lot more interesting. Every week brings new matchups, breakout players, big performances and plenty of storylines to follow. And if you like getting even more engaged with the players and the stats that you're watching, there is a new way to make game day even more exciting. PricePix is bringing out its best offer yet to kick off. New users who can sign up can get $150 in lineups if they win their first $5 lineup and PricePix is now available nationwide with PricePix, you're building daily fantasy lineups by choosing two to six players and selecting more or less on their projected stats like passing yards, rushing yards or fantasy score and get this for the week one opener.

12:21All Sam Darnal needs is just one yard against New England to cash his pick. It doesn't get any easier than that. Download the app today, use promo code locked on NFL. If you get $150 instantly, if you win your first $5 lineup, PricePix run your game. Welcome back to the Lockdown Cowboys Podcast. We'd like to thank you for making us your first listen of the day. Lynn and our next question comes from Discord. Our listener wants to know. Why don't the Cowboys just extend that press got now to free up more cap space of the goal is to sign George Pickens in 2027 and try to keep the core of this roster. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a good question and I wonder if it isn't something that has been on Steven Jones's mind. I mean, certainly I don't know that they want to go through the kind of contract negotiation that they went through previously or was it two times ago, right?

13:24I think for Dallas, you feel like you've got a nice little core like you said. If you can find a way to get Daked on, that maybe extends the window a little bit more because you can free up somebody. I don't know. I got the numbers here by the way. Just roughly. Yeah. Yeah. The Cowboys were to do an extension right now. They could save around $40 million in next year's cap. Yeah. $40 million probably gets you not only George Pickens because George Pickens' cap would be probably pretty low in 2027, but you might actually be able to go out and sign some more free agents. Now, the knock on this would be that you are pushing more money deeper into Daked Press Scott's career. I think his contract expires when he's 35 years old and now you would be paying him when he's 36, 37 and 38 years old. So there is a trade-off, but if the goal is to be competitive this year, next year, in 2028, it's not the worst idea in the world.

14:28Yeah. I think the way things are trending right now, you could convince yourself that you could have a really nice window again next year if you're able to continue to retain George Pickens. And yeah, freeing up, I think it's like $35 million this next year, and then $43 million in 2028, that could really potentially completely change the complexity of those two teams. Now, again, like you said, you're pushing money back to the back end of the deal, but obviously the roster mechanisms that I mentioned earlier, the ability to roll cap numbers over from year to year, and the fact that these cap numbers are obviously continuing to increase as new and new deals come out, what TV deals come out for the league. So I do think that it's not an unsound method of kind of operating, as long as you don't hit another COVID situation where the league gets completely disrupted and suddenly that cap doesn't increase the way it does. That was obviously a one, hopefully once in the lifetime sort of situation.

15:30So yeah, I think the Cowboys, it makes a lot of sense to kind of approach it this way. It extends the window a little bit. It doesn't necessarily help you so much this season, but it certainly gives you a little bit of a window extender if you feel like this core has got something and you want to continue it into the next year, maybe beyond. And we should also mention the expectation is that the new TV money should come in 2029. So if you're taking this debt contract and really pushing the money till 2029 and 2030, you're able to really soften the blow a little bit. That's why you see teams like Phil Adolfia doing that, right? They're pushing all their money into those years because they expect the cap to maybe go up by 50 or 60 million. Now maybe it's not that dramatic, but these NFL owners have got a pretty good idea of where it's going to land, right? Guys, who do you think is negotiating this deal? He has to be the guy citing Dex contracts, right? He can go. The other part of this is maybe the Cowboys just want to see one more year, not of

16:34Dak Prescott because I think that's they know what they have in Dak Prescott. As a player, but maybe they want to see one more year of Dak Prescott's health because believe it or not, that has been a question mark really for the last five years. Has he, can he stay durable? He said the hamstring injury, the foot injury, there was the shoulder injury at one point. If he goes out there this year, place 17 games plays really well. Maybe you could just start saying, hey, those were flukey things. It's not that big of a deal. He's going to be able to extend his career as he gets older. But if he has one of those years where he misses nine or ten games, maybe you think twice about pushing the money to 2029 and 2030. Yeah, maybe, I mean, look, I think it's nice to get that extra money and I think you feel better about the situation if you feel better about Dak's long-term health. But you're right. If it's going to be an on-again, off-again situation and look, every time he gets injured,

17:35it's leaving a mark. He's not the same athlete as he was before the hamstring and the knee stuff. That's fine because he's such an incredible quarterback that he's found ways around it. But that won't always be the case, right? Not all these injuries as they accumulate as he gets older are going to be. I could understand the hesitancy to push a bunch of money to guarantee, to further tie yourself to 35-year-old Dak Prescott, because think about how Tony was, right? It was great good. It was getting better. It was great. And then suddenly, because of the injury stuff, it fell off a cliff very quickly. And suddenly, you were committed to all this money for a guy that basically wasn't even able to give up the field for you. Yeah. And I think that's what maybe Dallas wants to avoid. But we'll see. All right, I want to talk about Javonte Williams, Lane. And because as we all know, the Cowboys did not do a ton of this off season to bring in running back talent. They are going in with Malik Davis and Amari DiMaccardo as the backup running backs to Javonte Williams.

18:35Will we see the Cowboys manage the workload for Javonte Williams this year? We'll talk about it next. This episode is brought to you by Home Chef with schedules getting busier and everyone getting back into their normal routines, figuring out what's for dinner can become a daily headache. Home Chef mixed cooking simple with fresh food delivered right to the door, easy to follow recipes and meals that actually taste great. Weekly deliveries help eliminate the meal planning, grocery runs, complicated prep, even a lot of the cleanup. And with more than 30 meal options every week, there are choices for different tastes and different dietary needs, including 30 minute meals and oven ready options. I know for me, my kids are back at school, my wife is back to teaching, it's football season, it just gets incredibly chaotic around here. So having Home Chef, where we don't have to think about what we're having for dinner that night makes it so nice. For a limited time, Home Chef is offering our listeners 50% off and free shipping on your

19:41first box plus free dessert for life. Just go to Home Chef dot com slash Lotton NFL. That's Home Chef dot com slash Lotton NFL for 50% off your first box and free dessert for life. Home Chef dot com slash Lotton NFL must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert. This episode is brought to you by Kowshi before the season even kicks off. Everyone is making predictions. Who's going to win the division? Who's going to make it to the playoffs? Who's going to be lifting the trophy at the end of the season? On Kowshi America's number one prediction market platform, you can trade those predictions in a live market. Will the Cowboys win the NFC East this year? Right now they're trading at about a 39% probability, which I like. They're starting to see those that trade move up a little bit. Lot of buzz on the Cowboys being good this year. We'll see. On Kowshi, you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house. And as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position, trade the

20:44draft pick the game and more on Kowshi, download the Kowshi app, use promo code Lotton to get 10 when you trade 10 Kowshi trade on anything. 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Kowshi products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see kowshi.com. Welcome back to the Lotton Cowboys podcast. We'd like to thank you for making us your first, listen every single day. Late in our final question here is about Javonte Williams. Do we expect Javonte Williams to see a managed workload this year? We saw him wear down at the end of the 2025 season. All right, real quick. We will answer that question, but unfortunately, I have some breaking news that we have to talk about. Tyler Smith is being placed on IR to return because of a thumb injury that he's having surgery

21:50for tomorrow. He's supposed to expect it to be out four to six weeks. Which is awful news. So the expectation is that TJ Bass will start at left guard for the time until he returns. And that has just been announced by Brian Schott and we're recording this as Brian Schott and he's having his press conference today. So we kind of have to discuss that a little bit. Obviously tough blow. You know, and the fact that he's going to be the fact that he's going to be back on DTR is good news. The fact that it's not some more knee stuff, I think is probably good news. A thumb is not great. Obviously, it's hard to kind of block with a thumb injury. We'll see what the situation is once he gets back. Again, the only positive news out of this is that you're playing your best backup at a position that you really need someone to perform well at. But losing Tyler Smith for four to six weeks is a incredible bummer to a team that has

22:52experienced a lot of health so far through training camp. We should mention the cabboys have this really wonky schedule where their fourth game of the year will be at Houston. And if he's on IR, he will not be able to play in that game against Houston. And then they have that quick turnaround where they play week five against Tampa Bay. So my yeah, I would assume if he's going on IR, he's not going to be ready for week five either, right? Because there's just no way you're going to be able to make that turnaround three or four days later, which means probably the earliest we'll see him as week six against Green Bay. Now I think that's probably a pretty likely outcome that we see him in that stretch. But that is it. What's frustrating is they've had for the most part a really healthy training camp. And now you have this massive injury one week before you have to play your first game of the year. Yeah, it really is.

23:53It's the timing of its sucks. I mean, it was obviously very surprising. We were talking pre show that it's we have heard that he wasn't a practice. He wasn't a practice last Friday. We were hoping that it was just some sort of veteran day. But yeah, it looks like it is a situation where he needs to get that left thumb surgically prepared. Well, so last week you and I did a show on some players, some non the most important non starters for these boy boys. And one of the players we mentioned was TJ Bass because we said every year, TJ Bass is playing 300 to 400 snaps. And there's just the odds of you getting through the season with all five of your offensive line starters playing all 17 games is incredibly low. Little did we know that Tyler Smith is going to miss the first month of the season. It's a blow. It's a big blow. But at the very least, you have a capable guard. I think the problem is is you really needed Tyler Smith. To be a dominant guard so that you can make up for maybe having average tackles.

24:57That's the part that sucks here. And also he's a contingency plan for your tackle backup situation. So yeah, it's it's a real serious blow. I think the Cowboys are going to have to find a way to overcome again. Like if thank goodness that you have TJ Bass and I think he is going to hopefully make up some of the huge gap that you lose and losing an all pro like Tyler Smith. And again, I think the other bummer here is that I mean, we just can't seem to catch a break when it comes to offensive line health and continuity. Right? It's just like you can't seem to get you know, get these guys all in the field for any length of time. So, you know, hopefully after that they get some better health and they kind of, you know, reverse back the other way. But yeah, unfortunately at this point, it looks like you're going to see a lot of TJ bass early in the season. So I would assume that the Cowboys are just going to put Smith on IR, right? Put him on IR that gives you a new roster spot. You probably bring up Nick Levere from the practice squad, correct? That's probably the best move to do. That way you have a backup center in case Cooper BB goes down or whatever. But to me, it just doesn't seem like it's worth.

26:00It doesn't seem like it's worth maybe trying to squeeze one extra game. I'd rather, I'd rather make sure that Tyler Smith is healthy for the meat of the season rather than trying to get him ready for a miracle week format job. Yeah, and again, like, you know, you have a solid backup here. It's not a life or death situation. Obviously, it goes from being a featured part of your offense to maybe slightly dull just because you have a backup. But TJ Bass is good enough that you could still continue to run the offense the way you want to. And you can at least feel good about not trying to force Tyler Smith to come back earlier than he's ready. Just to answer the question, no, I don't think you're going to see it manage workload for Javante Williams. I think you're going to need them past protection a lot. And I don't think the other running backs are quite as good in that area. So to our listener, sorry, we did get to your question, but Tyler Smith news overtook it. Yeah, it's really kind of a bummer way to go over run your question there. But we'll get to it eventually.

27:01I'm sure. All right. That is it for today's show. We'd like to thank you for making a lot on Cowboys your first listen of the day. Now on video, we're sending you out to the first ever 24 seven lot on NFL YouTube channel for the 2026 NFL season preview. All three episodes airing now until Sunday at 1 p.m. Eastern. What team will be the final one standing? If you're on audio, find it on the lot done NFL feed or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow Lane and on Twitter at McCool BCB. I'm at Marcus underscore Mosher and we will see you right back here tomorrow. On cowsie, you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house in as the probability changes you can buy in and out of your position for a limited time. Download the cow she app and use code locked on to get $10 when you trade 10 KAL S H I cow she trade on anything 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors prices, values and available

28:05markets may differ from those mentioned for more information. See cow she dot com slash regulatory. Hey, NFL fans. I'm Brian peacock and that is Matt Williamson hosts of the NFL six pack part of the locked on podcast network. Your team every day NFL six pack brings you the latest NFL news and analysis and breaks down all of the weekly action. A six pack of takes daily on the playoff pushed in the 2025 season or if your team's in draft mode, yeah, we'll hit that too. All right here every day on the locked on podcast network. The NFL six pack subscribe on YouTube or everywhere you get your podcasts.