Report: Dallas Cowboys Showing Interest in Shaq Leonard

Former Indianapolis Colts linebacker Shaq Leonard is getting interest from the Dallas Cowboys.

The Indianapolis Colts shocked the NFL world on Tuesday when they announced that they had parted ways with former All-Pro linebacker Shaq Leonard.

Leonard battled injuries throughout the 2022 season and hadn't been fully implemented back into the Colts' plans in 2023. 

The Colts couldn't afford to have a disgruntled Leonard on the team, not with roughly $53 million owed to him over the course of the next three years. 

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After clearing waivers, Leonard is a free agent. According to a report from Jon Machota of The Athletic, the Cowboys met about the possibility of signing the former Colt.

Jerry Jones on Darius Shaquille Leonard: “We had a short meeting on that before the game and we’ll see how we do with our evaluation and look at him pretty good. Like to see, look at some health things. I know a lot of teams are looking at him, so I don’t want to give an… https://t.co/V9nnncnkfN

— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) November 24, 2023

"I won't want to imply one way or the other with Leonard," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said according to Machota. "We had a short meeting on that before the game and we’ll see how we do with our evaluation and look at him pretty good. Like to see, look at some health things. I know a lot of teams are looking at him, so I don’t want to give an indication of the degree of our interest with him.”

If a team had claimed Leonard, they would have owed him the remainder of his 2023 base salary (roughly $6 million). At a lower price, Jones confirmed there are a lot of interested teams.

The majority of Leonard's remaining contract was non-guaranteed, but the Colts will still take a significant dead-cap hit for the guaranteed money he was still owed. However, $20 million of the $28 million-dead cap hit will be absorbed this year with only $8 million in dead cap for the Colts in 2024. 

The Colts were in a position they could afford the dead-cap hit with Leonard, because they are still fourth in the NFL in 2024 available-cap space at $74 million according to Spotrac.

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