The Dallas Cowboys can save $5 million if they cut Greg Hardy before their next game

Since his very first day back from suspension, Greg Hardy's time as a member of the Dallas Cowboys has been a complete PR disaster.

He's given misogynistic interviews, tried to fight his special team's coach on the sidelines of a game, and, just last week, briefly changed his Twitter bio so that it painted him as a victim of discrimination.

In light of Deadspin's release of photographs of Hardy's ex-girlfriend from the night of his arrest, many have called for the Cowboys to cut him. Some have suggested that it would make sense monetarily, not just in terms of PR.

But exactly how much would it save the Cowboys if they cut Hardy before their upcoming game against the Dolphins on Sunday?

Using data provided by Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, we calculated that the Cowboys would save just north of $5 million by cutting Hardy this week.

Here's the breakdown:

• Hardy makes a base salary of $573,529, and he'd continue to make that each week for the remainder of the season, regardless of whether or not he were cut. (That figure becomes termination pay when a player is cut.)
• He also makes a per-game roster bonus of $578,125. Assuming he plays out the rest of the season and the Cowboys don't make the playoffs, that's seven more games at which Hardy would earn this sum, which totals to around $4.05 million.
• Lastly, Hardy's contract is structured to incentivize sacks: if he finishes the season with eight sacks, he earns $400,000. Ten sacks ups the bonus to $1 million, 12 sacks to $1.4 million, and 14 sacks to $1.8 million.

Hardy has four sacks in five games, so we'll assume he stays on a similar trajectory and finishes with at least 10 sacks. This means that the Cowboys would owe him another $1 million.

If the Cowboys cut him, then, they'd save a total of $5.05 million.

Jerry Jones has already said publicly that he wants to sign Hardy to a new, longterm deal in the off-season. But given the never-ending bad publicity that accompanies Hardy wherever he goes, it's not impossible that the Cowboys will change their mind. In addition, the Cowboys are on a seven-game losing streak and seemingly out of playoff contention - it might be worth keeping as much cap space as possible going into the off-season.