Cowboys' Ryan Flournoy Extension Fuels Speculation Jerry Jones Has Something Brewing

The Dallas Cowboys have been active since the end of training camp and have been making a flurry of contract moves ahead of the 2026-27 NFL season. Late Thursday night, the team was up to even more.

Last week, the Cowboys restructured a trio of contracts - defensive tackle Kenny Clark, cornerback DaRon Bland, and tight end Jake Ferguson - to open up approximately $19 million in salary cap space.

On Thursday night, Dallas continued to secure its future by extending backup tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford, who was listed as TE2 on the team's unofficial depth chart of the season, before reaching a one-year, $6 million agreement with rising star receiver Ryan Flournoy. Flournoy's deal keeps the pass catcher in Dallas for the same price as the 2027 second-round restricted free agent tender, which the team was likely to use.

Flournoy and Spann-Ford are exciting young players for the Cowboys who have earned key contributing roles for the team, and now, they will be around a little bit longer. But, most importantly, the move opens up even more salary cap space for the team, which has reignited the belief that there could be something brewing in the minds of Jerry Jones and the front office.

Does Jerry Jones Have Something Up His Sleeve?

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones speaks at training camp opening ceremonies at River Ridge Playing Fields. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Before the initial flurry of contract restructures, the Cowboys had around $14.2 million in cap space. After adding the nearly $19 million from the restructures, the team now sits around $35 million. We'll have to wait for official numbers to know the full extent the Spann-Ford and Flournoy deals have on the cap, but there is plenty of space to add the contract of a "substantive" player.

Fans on social media immediately began to question what the moves could mean for Dallas, while hoping that something big could be in the works.

"Yeah can’t tell me something ain’t in the works," popular Cowboys creator Attack! on Cowboys wrote on X. "They are positioning too many things right now." Others, meanwhile, think it's a proactive move for George Pickens negotiations next offseason, which is something Cowboys fans aren't used to seeing.

Dallas is really taking care of a lot of the underlying contracts - maybe to create a clearer picture headed into GP negotiations next year? https://t.co/dljX4JP7Hq
— Dyllan Rivers 🏈 (@Lord_Dylly) September 11, 2026

But, playing into the notion that the team is planning a big splash to start the season, there are two clear names that the team continues to be linked to: Las Vegas Raiders All-Pro pass rusher Maxx Crosby and Pittsburgh Steelers star cornerback Joey Porter Jr.

Renewed Maxx Crosby, Joey Porter Jr. Dreams

Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby walks on the field after the game against the San Francisco 49ers | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Cowboys have been linked to Maxx Crosby since early in the offseason, but ultimately fell short of landing the star pass rusher. Add in recent comments from Jerry Jones, and everything could finally be falling into place.

"You could look for it to be defensively," Jones said. "You could more than likely see depth on defense. Defense would be the place.

"The timing is conspicuously obvious. But yeah, we could use it for this year's team. The cap is fungible, it laps over into multi-years, 3 or 4 on parts that you make available. That's hard to put your finger on. But that does show that we have really viable, serious room financially to make a trade if we wanted to right now."

It's going to be interesting to see what happens next after the Cowboys' string of impressive moves, but one thing is for sure: the Cowboys are moving different ahead of the 2026 campaign, and everyone is taking notice.

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