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By Calvin Watkins 2h ago
The Cowboys’ biggest concern this offseason is paying their biggest stars. In reality, Dallas can’t expect to pay everyone. La’el Collins could be one player out the door; the right tackle is due for a new contract next spring, but Cowboys officials are expected to let him test free agency. Jaylon Smith, meanwhile, won’t have to be paid right away. The fourth-year linebacker will become a restricted free agent next year and a source said the team is expected to place a second-round tender on him.
That leaves four big names: Dak Prescott, Amari Cooper, Zeke Elliott and Byron Jones. And with the salary cap increasing by at least $10 million in each of the last six seasons, the Cowboys are optimistic they can take care of all of them.
At the top of this list is Prescott, whose value has increased thanks to recent extensions signed by Russell Wilson and Carson Wentz. Bottom line, no matter how deserving you believe he is, Prescott is going to get a fair contract from the Cowboys. And the longer the Cowboys wait, the more expensive that contract gets. What’s at stake is how much money will be allocated to Prescott, because it will dictate how much is left over for the rest of the Cowboys.
For now, offensive linemen dominate the top of the Cowboys’ salary cap in 2019 and 2020. This year, Dallas is projected to spend a league-leading $60.9 million on offensive linemen this season, a number that dwarfs second-placed Green Bay, which will spend $48.3 million. Tyron Smith ($15.5 million) and Zack Martin ($13.9 million) run first and second on cap hits in 2019, followed by Amari Cooper ($13.9 million) and DeMarcus Lawrence ($11.1 million). In 2020, Lawrence will surpass everyone with a $21.9 million hit thanks to his own contract extension. Martin’s number increases to $15 million while Smith’s actually drops to $13.5 million.
Here’s where it gets fun.
Prescott’s cap hit could wind up in the $30 million range. It’s just the way it is. In 2020, six quarterbacks are set for a cap hit of at least $30 million, led by Atlanta’s Matt Ryan at $33.5 million. When the 2022 season rolls along, three quarterbacks are set for cap hits of at least $35 million. That’s the sort of money Prescott is looking for, and it will dominate Dallas’ salary sheet. Kirk Cousins’ final two years leave him atop Minnesota’s cap sheet by a large margin. Cousins’ cap hit is $29 million this year with Danielle Hunter the closest to him at $13.5 million. In 2020, when the Vikings have 11 players taking up at least $10 million each in cap space, Cousins’ number will balloon to $31 million, with Stefon Diggs the closest player at $14.5 million.
In some ways, Dallas could be getting off easy. If you thought there was an arms race for a new contract between Prescott, Wentz and Goff, wait until 2022 when the likes of Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes become free agents and salary caps could be as much as $30 million higher.
So whatever the Cowboys do with Prescott, he will take up a great deal of their cap space.
Just how close will the rest of the Cowboys’ core come to Prescott and Lawrence?
In the spring, the Cowboys didn’t have Elliott on their priority list – with good reason. The team could utilize a fifth-year option in his rookie contract in 2020, then franchise tag him in 2021 and 2022 seasons. But Elliott’s reps reached out to the Cowboys reminding them not to forget about the star running back. The Cowboys didn’t forget about Elliott, the organization figured they could wait on him realizing Prescott, Lawrence and Cooper were bigger concerns. Plus, as a running back, the Cowboys could just utilize him for as long as they could with the value of the position weakening across the league. However, the Cowboys are not ruling out a second contract for their star runner.
But Elliott seems to be trending toward Prescott’s and Lawrence’s numbers now. While the Cowboys haven’t promised their star running back anything just yet, the team no longer believes they can wait on extending him in 2020. The Cowboys now want to extend Elliott this offseason, and executive vice president Stephen Jones noted that the contract of Rams runner Todd Gurley is the positional standard.
In that case, Elliott’s 2020 cap numbers might surpass Gurley’s $17.2 million or Le’Veon Bell’s $15.5 million with the Jets. Given Gurley’s health concerns and Bell’s possible short-time status with the Jets, Elliott might wind up as the highest-paid running back in the NFL.
It’s quite possible this could happen, and it shouldn’t affect the Cowboys’ bottom line too much in 2020 or 2021, the heavy years when Prescott and Elliott will command their biggest salaries. The cap numbers for their highly-priced offensive linemen, while large, are not restrictive enough to put the Cowboys in a significant bind. Tyron Smith’s cap numbers fluctuate in 2020 to $11.9 million, $12.2 million in 2021 and $13.5 million in 2022. Travis Frederick’s, meanwhile, will sit at $11.1 million in 2021 and dip to $10.1 million the next year.
So there’s room for Prescott and Elliott. What about Cooper?
That one is tricky. Cooper’s representatives are looking for a contract that would place him in the top three in the league at his position, if not at the top, in overall salary.
Right now, the Browns’ Odell Beckham has the biggest contract among all receivers in terms of total amount ($90 million), guarantees ($65 million) and average salary ($18 million). Much like Prescott, the Cowboys are in a race to take care of Cooper, one they might lose because the Atlanta Falcons are interested in extending elite receiver Julio Jones at a rate similar to Beckham’s. If Jones overtakes Beckham for the richest receiver contract in NFL history, Cooper will see his financial numbers increase, too.
We didn’t forget about Jones, the talented cornerback coming off his first Pro Bowl season who often seems like the forgotten man of the bunch. One Cowboys source said he would like to see Jones replicate his Pro Bowl form while adding some interceptions in 2019. The Cowboys value Jones and want to extend him, but haven’t held any substantial talks with his agents. He’s being pushed to the back end, and that’s okay, because the Cowboys have others to take care of first. After projected cap increases, Dallas should be able to pay Jones.
There is one possible complication. If the NFL and the NFLPA fail to reach an agreement on a new CBA by the end of the 2020 season, the contract rules change. The NFL calls this the Final League Year, and teams are allowed to designate one franchise player and one transition player. Dallas doesn’t plan to do this, but if new contracts aren’t reached with… say, Prescott and Cooper — or even Jones — they would be tagged and under team control for one more season.
That’s all in the future, though. For now, Dallas has four key players to take care of. There’s reason to believe they can do exactly that.