Dallas Cowboys cut Phil Costa, restructure Mackenzy Bernadeau
Dallas Cowboys guard Mackenzy Bernadeau (73) in action against the Minnesota Vikings. Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
The Dallas Cowboys will have to make some more moves this offseason in order to get back under the salary cap, and they recently restructured the contracts of key defensive players Sean Lee and Orlando Scandrick in order to cut down on their cap hits this year. Although they are still paying both players the same amount in the long run, they are getting under their short-term goals. Until Jerry Jones changes his ways and learns how to use the salary cap effectively, constant restructurings and talks of cap issues will continue to plague the Cowboys going forward.
It looks like they have successfully put themselves under the salary cap now, as Cowboys official site beat writer Rowan Kavner reports that the team has released backup offensive lineman Phil Costa, who provided some value with his versatility. He didn’t make much money, but the Cowboys needed to clear out every bit of space and must feel confident that they can find some quality depth late in the draft to replace him. Costa’s release doesn’t mean anything in the long run, and he’ll latch on somewhere else.
Bernadeau is a decent enough 28-year-old guard, and his restructuring helps put the Cowboys in safe cap haven now. They did some scrambling to save a significant amount of money, but one issue is that most of their cap savings were created by restructures, which will likely be on their minds in the future.
Details on Bernadeau’s restructuring are unknown, but he would have made about $2.75 million this year.