its not 40M. that's now how its measured and used in the books. people tend to take average and not understand how the cap really works.
average is average...means nothing in relation to actual cap hits per year. the past two years Dak's cap hit have been 17.2 and 19.3M.....jhis base pay was 3M and 1.6M respectively.... so basically pushing the rest of the average numbers to the future. If he was cut this year, the dead cap hit would be 109M, that's the gauranteed and bonus portions of the contract hitting the books. if he is cut next year, the dead cap hit is 89M. in 2024 the dead cap hit is almost 40M. His base pay for 2023 is 31M. and for 2024 29M
with that said, as you set up the contract, spread the bonus, redo the contract, add more bonus, the dead cap hits on the salary cap go up each year too. so in 2023, his salary cap hit is 49M. and in 2024, 52M.
so cowboys have put themselves in a rock and a hard place....if they cut him, they take a huge one year hit, probably have to cut a few, not be able to extend Lamb, Micah, etc. if they keep him, salary cap is squeezed still trying to extend current players. so the likey action for most is to add years to the contract. so they had assumed they sign a contract, then extend and push money in the future because they felt that was their QB for several years before having to rebuild.
that's probably why Stephen went cheap and saved 20M on the cap and not sign anyone, so that it rolls into next year, thus essentially getting a 20M relief on the cap. reducing perhaps Dak's cap impact to 29M if they decide not to extend.
