The Cowboys' Salary Cap Situation Is A Hot Mess

Giving huge extensions to Tony Romo, Sean Lee, and Miles Austin seemed like a good idea at the time, but next season, it could seriously bite Jerry Jones in the ass.

With the Cowboys' current payroll, they're due to be $31 million over the cap next season, according to Adam Schefter. Contracts must be restructured—and players possibly traded—in the offseason if Dallas doesn't want to get totally fucked in 2014.

How'd it get to this point? The assumption was that 2014's salary cap would see significant growth thanks to the NFL's new TV deals. Jones might have been banking on that, but it clearly isn't the case now.

The extensions to Romo, Lee, and Jason Witten made sense, and those players shouldn't be in danger, but Austin's huge contract seems like a case of buying too much on one excellent season. He's the most disposable candidate at this point. Cutting Jay Ratliff and taking a cap hit of $7 million didn't help matters. Even if Austin is shipped or cut, expect a significant amount of new, cheap faces on the Cowboys next season.

[ ESPN]

Photo: Rick Diamond/Getty Images