IRVING, Texas – On Monday, the Philadelphia Eagles released wide receiver Riley Cooper, freeing up $3 million in cap space. On Wednesday, the New York Giants released offensive linemen Geoff Schwartz and Will Beatty and linebacker Jon Beason announced his retirement, freeing up roughly $12 million in cap space.

Teams have been able to release players since Monday, and so far the Dallas Cowboys have been silent.

Why?

They don’t need to rush anything. There is no cap crunch.

In years past, the Cowboys had to make salary-cap moves, like releasing DeMarcus Ware after the 2013 season, or restructure contracts just to get under the cap by the start of the league year.

Over the last three years, the Cowboys have cleaned up their salary cap, living with high amounts of dead money in 2014 ($28 million, according to ESPN Stats & Information) and 2015 ($19 million, according to ESPN Stats & Information).

As of today, the Cowboys have just $901,105 in dead money against the 2016 salary cap. Jasper Brinkley leads the way, counting $625,000 against the cap. The Cowboys are likely to release some players through injury settlements that have hung around their cap roster, if not their 53-man roster, since last summer. That will add to the total, but it's hardly noteworthy.

The Cowboys could have a decision to make on cornerback Brandon Carr, who is going into the final year of his contract. If the Cowboys make Carr a June 1 cut, then that would add $4.717 million to the dead-money pile. If the Cowboys give Carr his outright release before that, then it would add $7.4 million in dead money.

Before the Cowboys make a decision on Carr, they have to figure out how to replace him. Perhaps it would be wiser to sign Carr to an extension that would lower his 2016 cap number and give the Cowboys some depth at a troublesome position. Carr does not have an interception since Thanksgiving Day 2013 but he has not missed a game in his career, either. There is something to be said for being available each week, especially considering the injuries Morris Claiborne had in his first four seasons.

In order to gain cap space when free agency begins March 9, the Cowboys will look to restructure the contracts of Tyron Smith and Tyrone Crawford first, which would give them roughly $12 million in room. They don’t want to look to the contracts of Tony Romo and Dez Bryant unless they absolutely, positively have to.

Why?

Future dead money.

Gaining space now would only take away space in the future and put their contracts out of whack in the future.

That’s what happened to Ware. The Cowboys restructured his contract so many times that his cap figure was roughly $16 million. Ware paid the price for being willing to create cap room over the years.

The Cowboys will do their best to prevent that from happening again with one of their core players.