The NFL is inching closer to the official start of the 2025 NFL season and with it, parameters are being put into place. The franchise tag window opened on Tuesday, allowing clubs to designate one free agent they’d like to have extended control of.

And while the Dallas Cowboys haven’t indicated they feel strongly about placing the tag on any of their crop of free agents, like DT Osa Odighizuwa, Wednesday’s new news is of major significance to them. Late last season the NFL projected where the salary cap for 2025 could end up, but now they’ve inched that projection up some. They’ve announced a range for the cap of between $277.5 and $281.5 million.

Prior estimates had the cap coming in around $272.5 million, so this is a significant increase of another $7 million. And with it, the Dallas Cowboys are now projected to be under the cap threshold when the new league year starts on March 12, by around $2.5 million.

This is key as all NFL teams need to be compliant with the cap by 4:00 pm ET that day, or the league will start removing players from the roster themselves. Dallas will not have to release or restructure anyone’s deal now, at least until they are interested in signing additional players.

The Cowboys currently have 54 players on their offseason roster, whose cap hits (along with dead money from players no longer on the team) total $298.55 million.

Dallas is carrying over unused cap space from 2024 totaling just under $20 million, allowing them to comfortably fit under the expected cap.

The Cowboys can restructure contracts to quickly get themselves to over $60 million of space, with other moves able to create even more room, but now have the added luxury of waiting until that is necessary.

Here’s a look at the Cowboys’ current roster, which skews extremely young, and which positions they will need to address this offseason in order to be competitive.

This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: NFL’s new projected cap of $279.5M barely allows Cowboys a little wiggle room