Players like Kenneth Murray, Dante Fowler, Robert Jones, Payton Turner and Jalen Tolbert are all expected to leave without much resistance. Another group of internal free agents could be retained, but only if the price is right. The real problem is re-signing the true objects of Dallas\u2019 affection. It\u2019s those players who are likely to cause the headaches in 2026.<\/p>\n
Dallas\u2019 favorite internal free agents share one common trait: They\u2019re expensive. The Cowboys haven’t publicly seemed overly interested in re-signing role players from their 7-9-1 team, but do seem fixated on the standouts. Signing those standouts is going to be expensive.<\/p>\n
The prize of the 2026 free agent class is widely regarded to be receiver George Pickens. Pickens had a breakout season last year, finishing third in the NFL with 1,429 receiving yards. He finished sixth in yards after the catch and third in total EPA.<\/a> He brings a special game-breaking skillset to the WR position that\u2019s both rare and coveted in today\u2019s NFL.<\/p>\n The Cowboys want to keep Pickens because he keeps the pressure off CeeDee Lamb making the offense almost unstoppable in a pick-your-poison kinda way. The problem is Pickens is expected to command an annual salary north of $30M according to Spotrac estimates.<\/a> With Lamb already on the books for $34M annually, that\u2019s a lot of money devoted to one position group.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n The Cowboys leading rusher, Javonte Williams, is looking for a new deal at age 25. Coming off a career season where he amassed 1,201 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns on a 4.8 yards\/carry average, he’s become a league leader at the RB position.<\/p>\n His 830 yards after contact ranked seventh in 2025, and his 5.16 tackle for loss rate ranked fifth so Williams is understandably looking to cash in. The Cowboys front office has been quite vocal in their desire to retain their leading rusher but will have to adjust the way they view the running back position to do so.<\/p>\n Not since Tony Pollard played on the franchise tag in 2023, have they devoted real money and resources to the RB position. They\u2019ve avoided high-end options in free agency, and they\u2019ve avoided high-end options in the draft. Based on Spotrac estimations Williams is expected to command a deal around $7,339,098 annually. That\u2019s considerably more than the replacement level attention the Cowboys have been giving the RB position in recent years.<\/p>\n Aside from Pickens and Williams, Dallas still has to lock up their restricted and exclusive rights free agents like Brandon Aubrey, T.J. Bass, Brock Hoffman, Juanyeh Thomas, Josh Bulter and Reddy Stewart. They won\u2019t be as expensive as the other two but they won\u2019t be veteran minimums either.<\/p>\n This terrain is perfectly navigable but it will take some extra effort to move money in a way that still allows the Cowboys to upgrade their defensive personnel. Keep in mind, the two most desired internal free agents are offensive players and the primary objective this offseason is fixing Dallas\u2019 historically bad defense.<\/p>\n This will be a challenge.<\/p>\n You can follow Reid on X\u00a0@ReidDHanson<\/a>\u00a0and be sure to follow\u00a0Cowboys Wire on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0to join in on the conversation with fellow fans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 17, 2026, 7:55 a.m. CT The Dallas Cowboys have 15 players hitting free agency with an unrestricted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2066],"tags":[95878,230,229,257,2461,7,1070,6,96666,96667,95882,99261,96669,97563,96253,100161,96671,100163,96254,95896,95888,95895,95897,95899,100162,95883,95881],"class_list":["post-685822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas-cowboys","tag-accessfree","tag-cowboys","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallascowboys","tag-football","tag-jr","tag-nfl","tag-sstssportsnflcowboys","tag-sstsncowboys","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagbrandon-aubrey","tag-tagceedee-lamb","tag-tagdante-fowler","tag-taggeorge-pickens","tag-tagjalen-tolbert","tag-tagjavonte-williams","tag-tagjuanyeh-thomas","tag-tagkenneth-murray-jr","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-negative","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagpayton-turner","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115914361498844001","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768712659_812_86373428007-square-1.jpg\")