Cowboys free agency: Demarcus Lawrence says ‘it would be a glorious thing’ to remain in Dallas, but will he?

The Dallas Cowboys have not been particularly active in free agency over the past several years. Last year, they were not even all that active in re-signing their own players, instead allowing starters Tyron Smith, Tyler Biadasz, Tony Pollard, Dorance Armstrong, Stephon Gilmore and more to leave and be replaced by (for then most part) mid-to-late round draft picks.

This offseason, they have another crop of important players hitting free agency — with the majority of them on the defensive side of the ball. Defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa is the most notable among those, but veterans like cornerback Jourdan Lewis and defensive end Demarcus Lawrence are also among the that group. 

Lawrence, for his part, would like to stay in Dallas, but recognizes that it’s not only up to him.

“The ball is in their court. I’m not only going to play in Dallas,” Lawrence said, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I’m going to have other options, but I’d like to stay here. It would be a glorious thing.”

The Cowboys currently have just over $3.8 million in salary cap space, according to Over the Cap, but would create approximately $58 million more with simple restructures of Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb’s contracts. An extension for Micah Parsons would free up around $18.3 million and another for Daron Bland could create an additional $3.3 million. 

In other words, if they get their work done early, the Cowboys could create plenty of space to retain their own — including Lawrence — and even add outside free agents. The question is whether they are actually willing to be aggressive in making the money work, and in doing things like “signing your most important players to contract extensions before free agency opens rather than waiting until the last week of training camp so you can get months of attention out of the process,” which is the kind of stuff the Cowboys of recent vintage have not been willing to do.

Lawrence has some injury issues (he missed almost all of last season), and he’s less of a pure pass rusher than some teams might like coming off the edge, but he remains an elite run defender and he’s good at rushing the passer, if not great. If Dallas doesn’t come with an agreeable deal, some other team will benefit from his services.