Jerry Jones has successfully shifted the focus from the hideous product on the field and re-centered the attention to the proverbial “what could be” nature of the Dallas Cowboys. A couple hours prior to the 2025 NFL trade deadline, the Cowboys owner swung the club’s second trade of the day, acquiring three-time Pro Bowl DT Quinnen Williams from the New York Jets.
Dallas sent the 2027 first-round pick they had acquired in the Micah Parsons trade, one of two, with a stipulation. The Jets will take the better of the Cowboys’ two picks that year. In addition, a 2026 second-round pick and DT Mazi Smith (2023 first rounder) go to New York. The acquisition of Williams and the position he plays is highly interesting.
Dallas hasn’t invested in the interior of their defense in a long time. This offseason, they re-signed DT Osa Odhigizuwa to a four-year, $80 million deal. Then, in trading Parsons away to the Green Bay Packers, they brought back Kenny Clark, who ranks just above Odhighizuwa as the No. 14 highest paid DT in 2025.
Now, the Cowboys are adding Williams to the mix, both rotation wise and financially. Williams’ $24 million a year salary ranks eighth overall, giving the Cowboys three players in the Top 16. The New England Patriots (Milton Williams second, Christian Barmore 15th) are the only other team with two players on the list.
Williams, like Clark, has two years remaining on his deal. Half of his 2025 base salary of $15,650,000 comes with him, as does around 50% of his per-game bonuses. He adds around $8.4 million of cap hit onto the team’s 2025 ledger. Along with LB Logan Wilson, who was acquired earlier in the day and added $2.8 million himself, the Cowboys used around a third of the cap space they had remaining entering the week.
The Cowboys are “saving” just under $1 million in removing Mazi Smith from the cap.
Over the Cap has the Cowboys at $20 million of space remaining.
The Cowboys can certainly absorb Williams salary this season, bringing the total spend at the position to just under $22 million. Clark was acquired after the Packers paid most of his salary and Odighizuwa’s new deal comes with the customarily low first-year cap hit.
It’s 2026 when things get hairy.
Williams, who signed an extension with the Jets in 2023, will count $21,750,000 against the cap in 2026. Clark, will check in at $21.5 million, while Odighizuwa sitas at $20.75 million.
Dallas is currently projected to be the highest spender at the position, at $69.4 million, and that includes the reduction of Smith’s $2.5 million guaranteed salary.
Odighizuwa has three void years built into his deal, so the Cowboys are clearly intending to restructure his $16.25 base salary (the other $4.5 million of cap hit is in prorated money already paid to him, plus per game bonuses).
Will Dallas keep all three players? That has a lot to do with figuring out how they are going to deploy them. But here’s a look at the financial figures for all three players.
Quinnen Williams
2025 Base Salary: $7.825 million
2026 Base Salary: $20.75 million, $1 million in per-game roster bonuses
2027 Base Salary: $25.4 million, $100,000 in bonuses
Kenny Clark
2025 Base Salary: $1.3 million, $1 million in per-game roster bonuses
2026 Base Salary: $8.8 million, $11 million roster bonus, $1 million in per-game bonuses, $700k workout bonus
2027 Base Salary: $18.3 million, $1 million in per-game bonuses, $700k workout bonus
Osa Odighizuwa
2025 Base Salary: $1.75 million, $4 million signing bonus, $500k in per-game bonuses
2026 Base Salary: $16.25 million (guaranteed), $4 million signing bonus, $500k in per-game bonuses
2027 Base Salary: $20 million, $4 million signing bonus, $500k in per-game bonuses
2028 Base Salary: $20 million, $4 million signing bonus, $500k in per-game bonuses
2029 Dead Money: $4 million
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Salary cap impact of Cowboys’ blockbuster trade acquisition of Quinnen Williams
Reporting by K.D. Drummond, Cowboys Wire / Cowboys Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
