Terence Steele presents Cowboys with a tough offseason decision

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The Cowboys have a decision to make on Terence Steele this offseason.

Of all the moves the Dallas Cowboys could make in the 2025 offseason, releasing offensive tackle Terence Steele wouldn’t be among the surprises. After a down year and with a sizeable contract, Steele checks the boxes of a typical salary cap casualty. But the decision won’t be simple for a few reasons.

First, the money. Steele has four years left on his contract and that limits the potential cap savings. He’s scheduled to count $18.6 million against the 2025 cap, which would be the league’s 10th-highest cap hit for a right tackle. If Steele’s cut outright before free agency begins, Dallas is stuck with $13.5 million in dead money and only gets back $5.1 million in cap space. If they make him a June-1st cut, it’s $14.5 million in cap space come June but then $9.4 million in dead cap deferred to 2026.

Steele definitely did not look like an above-average OT in the early part of last season, or even close to it. Struggling woefully in pass protection and with Dallas’ run game also anemic, it was hard at times to tell who was playing worse between Steele and rookie Tyler Guyton. But even as the Cowboys’ season sunk into the toilet, Steele’s performance seemingly improved overall.

Over the first 10 games of the season, Terence Steele allowed the 2nd-most pressures among tackles with 33 pressures (3.3 per game), but over the last seven games, Steele only allowed 8 total pressures (1.14 per game).

Steele deserves credit for the improvement over the final…

— John Owning (@JohnOwning) January 8, 2025

Granted, Steele still had his bad moments against edge rushers or with penalties, but we saw Dallas’ run game clearly improve during the second half of the year and less gaffes overall. So for those who wrote Steele off early in the year, and not without cause, it’s important to make sure you’re working with the latest information.

Still, that doesn’t mean that Steele is worth such a lofty chunk of the salary cap. After looking like one of the league’s top right tackles in 2022, especially in run blocking, he’s never returned to that level since tearing multiple knee ligaments near the end of that season. The Cowboys showed faith in his recovery with the contract extension ahead of the 2023 season, but the deal is structured with early outs if needed.

Even adding just $5 million to their 2025 cap coffers wouldn’t be insignificant. And if the Cowboys went the June-1st route, that $14.5 million would help with new deals for the likes of Micah Parsons or DaRon Bland. But in so doing, it would also leave the Cowboys with a significant hole on the offensive line and no clear way of replacing Steele adequately.

Dallas isn’t exactly flush with OL talent right now, especially with its tackles. Guyton was pulled from the starting lineup by the end of last year and will hopefully benefit from a full offseason, but he needs work. They might consider moving him to right tackle, his college position, if Steele is gone but then what do you do on the left side? Guys like Chuma Edoga and Asim Richards are not full-time left tackles, at least not for a contending team. And with draft picks like Josh Ball and Matt Waletzko having not panned out, Dallas would be back where it started before drafting Guyton last year.

There is the option of playing Tyler Smith at LT and going with Richards or T.J. Bass as the starting LG. Even then, you’re still relying on Guyton to make a successful transition to RT and improve enough for a solid offensive line. That’s a lot of moving pieces, plus losing All-Pro performance from Smith at guard if he’s moved outside.

Given all that, could it make more sense to ride things out with Steele for one more year? It gives you more stability given the Guyton issue and Zack Martin’s expected departure. It also allows for a more cap-friendly separation in 2026, when Steele could be cut outright for almost $9 million in immediate relief.

That’s the dilemma facing Dallas with Terence Steele this offseason. Yes, there are some cap savings to be had from his contract. But are they worth creating a new hole to fill in the face of so many more offseason issues, plus added instability to an already precarious offensive line? It all depends on what you think you can do with that cap space in the face of losing the player, and we can see how the Cowboys might think twice before releasing Steele.