The Real Reason Jerry Jones Isn't Paying the Cowboys' Three Best Players

When the owner of a team insists that he'll do whatever it takes to win a championship, the results are generally mixed. Most of the time, said teams are about to drop "Dream Teams" on us — collections of great or seemingly great players with little thought to schematic fit or team chemistry. Other times, it's just talk to appease an apoplectic fanbase.

In the case of Jerry Jones and the 2024 Dallas Cowboys, it would appear to be the latter.

"We feel great about what we've been in free agency," Jones said two days before the 2024 NFL draft back in April. "All-in. All-in. All-in. We're all-in with these young guys. We're all-in with this draft."

Then, Jones was asked about the contractual status of his three best players — quarterback Dak Prescott, receiver CeeDee Lamb, and pass-rusher Micah Parsons. And as tends to happen when he's challenged, Jones got a little testy.

"You may be working on it and not moving anything but your eyebrows," Jones said. "Who in the world would think that we're not working on it? I work on it at 2:00 in the morning sometimes. What your actual question is (is), why don't you have something done and negotiated and put in the drawer? We'd like to see some more leaves fall. We'd like to see some more action. It's called option. A lot of guys need to hand it off, first guy through the line. Another guy will keep it a step and decide whether to pitch it or not, whether to cut upfield or pitch left. So, it's called an option quarterback."

Jones recently pulled that option quarterback bit out again, comparing himself to Patrick Mahomes in a negotiating sense.

The problem with being an option quarterback, either in a literal or in a metaphoric sense, is that you'd better be able to adjust to a defense on the fly, and you'd better have command of a playbook big enough to beat the forces arrayed against you. One-trick ponies will be figured out and summarily dismissed.

In Jerry Jones' case, he's more of a run-around guy looking for a few Hail Mary passes to bail him out.

Now, as we head into the 2024 preseason with no concrete answers on the Dallas futures of Prescott and Lamb (each in the final years of their current contracts), and Parsons (whose contract expires after next season), why is Jones, who sees himself as a wildcat riverboat gambler, suddenly holding and folding?

It's really about how the league is structured, and how Jones and his people have misevaluated the market.

The waiting is the hardest part

As Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News points out, the Cowboys have been kicking the can down the road with their highest-cost contracts for years, and as much as the NFL's salary cap can be manipulated in the short term, there's always a point when you have to pay the price. The Cowboys signed Prescott to a four-year, $160 million contract with $126 million in guarantees on March 8, 2021, and they have been pushing Prescott's money forward into future years ever since. This is when Jones really was "all-in." and without any deep playoff runs to show for it, failure seems like the only option.

From Gehlken:

The Cowboys have restructured Prescott to such magnitude that, if he becomes a free agent next March, he will count $40.14 million against the 2025 cap while playing elsewhere. That amount would be $13.25 million without restructures. If re-signed before his deal expires, he will count $26.13 million on top of whatever new cap dollars his extension dictates for 2025.

The Cowboys have also done this dance with the contracts of other stars, such as guard Zack Martin and defensive lineman DeMarcus Lawrence, and that's put them in a rough spot.

In addition, Jones has no options with Prescott beyond 2024 if he isn't re-signed, Per the contract he signed in 2021, he can't be franchise-tagged or traded. So, Prescott has all of the leverage here.

That leaves Lamb as the likely franchise tag candidate in 2025 if he isn't re-upped. Franchise tag tenders are entirely guaranteed, and they're based on the average of the top five salaries for every position. The 2024 franchise tag tender for receivers is $19,766 million . That could shoot through the roof next year, given the recent mega-deals given to Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jaylen Waddle, and Nico Collins.

Parsons' situation is a bit more complex. He's one of the NFL's best bargains in 2024, as he has a base salary of $2,989,062 in the fourth year of his rookie contract, and an overall cap hit of $5,434,479, per OverTheCap.com . Next year, he's guaranteed $21.324 million, which is also his cap hit. If Parsons continues on his current torrid pace as a quarterback disruptor, that's not the worst thing... but a new contract for Parsons could mitigate that damage in the short term if the new contract was more back-loaded.

The bottom line is, the Cowboys engaged in the worst kind of "hurry-up-and-wait" with their best guys, and there's no way to avoid the fallout.

Depth issues give the Cowboys no wiggle room

The unfortunate recent news that edge-rusher Sam Williams suffered a torn ACL in training camp points to Dallas' depth issues at that position, and there are more disconcerting issues elsewhere. Yes, the Cowboys have Parsons, Lawrence, the underrated Osa Odighizuwa, and second-round rookie Marshawn Kneeland , but with new defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer seemingly intent on moving Parsons around more, how will that affect Dallas' pass rush? Last season, Parsons had 16 sacks and 109 total pressures. Per Pro Football Focus, Parsons played off-ball on just 5% of his snaps, and had one sack and one quarterback hurry from those spots.

Quarterback and receiver are more fraught. Trey Lance, Prescott's primary backup, came into the NFL in the 2021 draft, when the San Francisco 49ers paid a king's ransom to move up and select him with the third overall pick. Lance became that rarest of beings — a quarterback who couldn't succeed in Kyle Shanahan's offense — and the 49ers offloaded him to Dallas in August, 2023 for a 2024 fourth-round pick. Lance has completed 56 of 102 passes for 797 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions in his NFL career, and he's no sure thing as Prescott's hypothetical replacement.

At receiver, the Cowboys are so light behind CeeDee Lamb, they're setting up multi-player tryouts, digging into the UFL.

Lamb also has all the leverage, because a receiver triumvirate of Brandin Cooks, Jalen Tolbert, and Whomsoever Else isn't going to scare anybody. Very few teams rely on one receiver as much as the Cowboys rely on Lamb — last season, Lamb ranked fourth in the league in targets (167), third in receptions (121), fifth in receiving yards (1,544), and tied for fourth in receiving touchdowns. Whether you think Lamb is a No. 1 alpha-dog receiver or not, he's being utilized as such. Neither of Dallas' 2023 sub-leaders in target share — Michael Gallup and Noah Brown — are with the team anymore.

Can the Cowboys sneak their way out of this?

So, with Jerry Jones having waited himself out of the optimal opportunities to retain his best players, what now?

As it stands, the Cowboys have $12,120,365 in cap space , and the ability to kick the can a bit further down the road with Brandin Cooks, DeMarcus Lawrence, cornerback Trevon Diggs, and offensive tackle Terrence Steele. Converting salaries to signing bonuses, as has been a favorite practice, could help again. But not likely enough to get everyone under the same umbrella.

It may be that when Jones says he's "all-in" for 2024, what he really means is that he's "all-in" for a rebuild. Except that this doesn't make sense, primarily because losing Prescott as the face of the franchise puts the actual franchise in a bit of salary cap purgatory. If Prescott walks off to the New York Giants and is beating Jerry's 'Boys twice a year while counting $40.14 million against Dallas' cap... well, that is an Old Al Davis-level mistake.

Per Athlon Sports' own Mike Fisher , Jones recently sent Prescott and Lamb contract offers. We don't know what those actually look like, nor do we know if those offers are merely perfunctory gestures designed to give the appearance that Jones is doing all he can.

No matter what those offers are, Jones is stuck in the Prescott negotiations — for all the reasons we've already mentioned, but also because after the recent Jordan Love and Tua Tagovailoa deals, there are now eight NFL quarterbacks with average annual salaries of over $50 million, and 11 quarterbacks with at least $150 million guaranteed in their contracts. If Jones thinks he can get Prescott at a hometown discount, maybe that works... and maybe it doesn't. Prescott's ability to push the AAV up to $60 million a year isn't out of the question if he hits the open market at a time where lucrative broadcast deals has the salary cap increasing generously on a year-to-year basis.

As for Lamb, he might not want to exceed the $35 million AAV in Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson's contract , but all indications are that he wants to be in the ballpark. Most likely, Lamb would want guarantees of more than $70 million in his next contract; six NFL receivers currently have that.

Perhaps the best way to do this is to extend Prescott, tag Lamb, tag Parsons the next year, and hope that all works. Because as it stands now, with the albatross portion of Prescott's current contract kicking in, and Parsons' final-year guarantee of $21.324 million taking hold, the Cowboys already have more than $200 million in total cap liabilities projected for the 2025 league year .

Which is a rather large yikes.

Most teams in transition are teetering between rebuild and reload. Jerry Jones' Dallas Cowboys are different in that they reside in a prison of their own design, and it's past time for the allegedly great option quarterback/oil wildcatter/Ramblin' Gamblin' Man to figure out how the playbook works.

Related: Sam Williams Injury Raises Expectations for Cowboys Rookie Marshawn Kneeland

Related: Dak Prescott Extension a Higher Priority for Cowboys than Parsons, Lamb Deals

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