Poor Malik Hooker. When it comes to placing blame for the many struggles of the Cowboys defense in 2025, he probably doesn’t deserve much of the finger-pointing. He suffered a toe injury and was placed on injured reserve, and in the 12 games he did play, he was not particularly good. Hooker, after allowing a passer rating of just 80.9 in his first four seasons on the Cowboys’ back end, allowed a rating of 131.7 in 2025.
Hooker was rated the No. 13 safety in football by Pro Football Focus (out of 88) in 2022, and No. 14 in 2023. He slipped to 43rd in 2024 and last year plummeted all the way to 64th out of 91. He turns 30 in April, and it is entirely possible that the NFL has simply passed him by, which often happens when players at that position reach a certain age.
With the Cowboys able to save almost $7 million if they cut Hooker, he has been a frequent name cropping up on lists of, “cut candidates.” Indeed, PFF had Hooker on their list of “cut candidates,” and ESPN’s Bill Barnwell also listed Hooker as a “cap casualty.”
A Cowboys Reprieve for Malik Hooker
But Hooker might not be on the firing line just yet, according to Cowboys team beat writer Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Indeed, both Hooker and lineman Terence Steele are said to be safe bets to stick with the roster, even as the Cowboys need to create cap space to follow through on plans to rebuild the team’s defense in free agency.
Harris wrote this week that, based on intel coming out of last week’s NFL draft combine, “Don’t expect any big veteran cuts such as safety Malik Hooker and offensive tackle Terence Steele.”
Cutting Malik Hooker Could Save Almost $7 Million
Of course, that is based on information likely gathered from team sources, and as far as the future of the Cowboys is concerned, that information carries more weight. But there is still plenty of logic in weighing what the Cowboys might do with a player like Hooker, who might well be in need of a fresh start, at a position the Cowboys will be looking to fill elsewhere.
Writes PFF, after acknowledging that defensive lineman Kenny Clark is not likely to be the top cut candidate: “The choice here is safety Malik Hooker. The former first-round pick was a part of a Cowboys secondary that needs a revamp in 2026. Hooker earned a 60.8 PFF grade but would save nearly $7 million in cap space. He’ll be 30 years old heading into the new season but could land with a new team in free agency.”
GettyDallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones
Cowboys Will Need to Restructure Contracts
Instead, expect the Cowboys to get into a serious spate of contract restructures that would create an acre of cap space here in the short term, though it would push the team’s obligations into the future–something owner Jerry Jones has not been fond of doing in the past.
Harris cites five restructures that would create $95 million in space, offsetting the $56 million deficit the team has over the salary cap now, according to OverTheCap.com.
As Jones said, “Do I see me ending up spending more money than if you put a perfect picture together that the guy that’s back there looking at the account will say, ‘We don’t have any,’ or, ‘We don’t have enough’? I can see me being aggressive, I can see us being aggressive in free agency. …
“The only way for me to push more is for me to go borrow some of my future. Expect me to go borrow some of my future. That’s one representation that you’re thinking of now as opposed to the future.”
Cowboys Top ‘Cut Candidate’ Gets Surprise Prediction