Bengals get: DT Kenny Clark, 2027 seventh-round pick
Cowboys get: 2027 sixth-round pick<\/p>\n
The Clark era might not last long in Dallas. Acquired as part of the Micah Parsons deal, Clark\u2019s contract was a relative bargain in 2025, given that the Cowboys were on the hook for only his $1.3 million base salary and another $1 million in per-game roster bonuses. Clark wasn\u2019t single-handedly able to fix Dallas\u2019 defense, but he also wasn\u2019t the problem.<\/p>\n
In 2026, though, Clark is set to make $21.5 million — $11 million of which comes due in a mid-March roster bonus. He projects to have the fifth-largest cap hit of any Cowboys player. The problem is that the fourth-largest cap hit belongs to fellow defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, whom the Cowboys sent two premium picks to the Jets to acquire at the trade deadline. And the sixth-largest cap hit belongs to fellow tackle Osa Odighizuwa, whose $16.25 million base salary is guaranteed.<\/p>\n
Clark\u2019s money isn\u2019t guaranteed, and it\u2019s unlikely that he would be in position to land that same $21.5 million in 2026 compensation if he hits free agency. Grady Jarrett signed a three-year, $42.5 million deal with the Bears after the Falcons cut him last offseason, and I suspect Clark might be looking at something closer to that range as a free agent.<\/p>\n
So, if the Cowboys are going to cut Clark and he won\u2019t land the same caliber of contract in free agency, the alternative might include taking a pay cut to the $14 million range and netting the Cowboys a swap of late-round picks in the process. Clark might not be willing to accommodate the Cowboys, and the former UCLA Bruin might prefer a move out west, but this deal would be an opportunity for him to reunite with former Packers defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery, who oversaw Clark\u2019s work during his best seasons in Green Bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bengals get: DT Kenny Clark, 2027 seventh-round pickCowboys get: 2027 sixth-round pick The Clark era might not last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,438,2461,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-758760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-cowboys","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys-roster","12":"tag-dallascowboys","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116087335423983096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758760","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=758760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}