Dallas, TX
Dallas Cowboys cost themselves millions waiting on extensions for Dak Prescott and other stars
The Dallas Cowboys have developed this reputation of waiting to sign their top players to new contracts. For whatever reason, they are content to let negotiations keep going and going, but that ultimately pushes up the price. As NFL contracts work, the next top guy always wants to get paid more than the previous guy, so there is perpetual growth in the market. If you wait, you’re going to pay more, and that is exactly what has happened with the Dallas Cowboys.
When the 2024 offseason began, the top of the market for quarterbacks was the $55 million per season deal Joe Burrow signed with the Cincinnati Bengals last year. Then Jordan Love and Trevor Lawrence matched that number with Tua Tagovialoa and Jared Goff just behind them.
A normal incremental increase would put Prescott at $56 or $57 million per season, just ticking up a little. But this is where Dallas’ earlier contract games with Prescott have come back to bite them.
In 2020, the Cowboys franchise-tagged Prescott instead of signing him to a long-term deal. Then they were set to repeat the franchise tag in 2021 before ultimately agreeing to a record-breaking contract extension. They waited until the last possible minute and after Prescott’s reps saw the Cowboys were prone to (repeatedly) using the franchise tag, they negotiated a no-tag clause in his 2021 deal. When the deal expired following the 2024 season, the Cowboys would need to extend him with a full contract if they wanted to keep him.
With that player-friendly leverage, it’s pretty likely that Prescott’s reps walked in and said $60 million right off the bat and held until he got it instead of the smaller incremental increase. So the negotiations in 2020 and 2021 potentially cost them $16 million from 2025 to 2028.
In 2023, the highest-paid wide receiver made $28 million per season (Davante Adams), but an explosion at the top of the market this offseason saw seven players eclipse that mark including CeeDee Lamb. Lamb signed his deal on August 26th, and by that time the market had climbed all the way to $35 million per season.
When the offseason opened in March, they theoretically could have agreed to a deal above the top of the market for around $30 million per season, but by the end of April, that was thrown out the window. Amon-Ra St. Brown and A.J. Brown moved the needle to $30 million and then $32 million within a couple days of each other prior to the NFL Draft. Then the big domino fell in early June when Justin Jefferson pushed the market to $35 million per season.
After Jefferson capped the market, Lamb and the Cowboys ultimately agreed to a deal worth $34 million per year as the second-highest contract in the wide receiver column. Over the course of the four years of the deal, it’s $16 million the Cowboys cost themselves by not doing the deal earlier at $30 million annually.
Looming now for the Cowboys is a deal for All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons. Parsons was eligible to sign a new deal this offseason, but instead the two sides will see him play on the final original year of his rookie contract. In 2025, he is under contract on the fifth-year option for $21 million. Surely he wants to make money money than that and make it sooner than those game checks more than a year from now.
Nick Bosa completely reset the market at EDGE in 2023 when he signed a deal worth $34 million per season, easily demolishing the previous high of T.J. Watt at $28 million per season. But with two more pass rushers topping $28 million this offseason, the market is going to rise rapidly to pass Bosa.
Waiting on Parsons could let Myles Garrett, T.J. Watt, Maxx Crosby, Joey Bosa, Haason Reddick, and Aidan Hutchinson continue to push the market higher, and as we’ve seen, the Cowboys aren’t afraid to use the franchise tag to push a new long-term deal all the way to 2027.
Interestingly, there is one bigger-money deal recently that they didn’t wait on. After rookie Trevon Diggs finished his third NFL season, Dallas paid him heading into 2023. He was the fifth-highest-paid cornerback in the NFL at the time and signed the biggest CB deal of the 2023 offseason. So how did his deal get done when the others didn’t?
Diggs was way more motivated to get a contract signed than Prescott, Lamb, and Parsons. As a second-round pick, he did not have the cash these other players have. At the time of his signing, he had only made $5 million over three NFL season. His $21.2 million signing bonus looked pretty great and they got him into the upper echelon, not reseting the market.
Lamb and Parsons were first-rounders and Prescott is coming off a big-money second contract, so they could afford to wait to increase leverage. Diggs chose not to do that.
Ultimately it takes two to tango, and the Cowboys haven’t wanted to dance with their star players until late at the ball, instead opting to wait it out on contract extensions. Despite the hand-wringing, they were able to get deals with these players and keep most of their core intact.
It’s hard not to think, though, about deals for other important players they franchise-tagged and let leave like RB Tony Pollard and TE Dalton Schultz, or a player they traded away instead of signing long-term like WR Amari Cooper.
Dallas, TX
Before The Boys, Chace Crawford Starred In A Dallas-Esque Drama With Don Johnson – TVLine
From the golden boy charm of heartthrob Nate Archibald to the bizarre sea-creature fetishes of the Deep, Chace Crawford’s career has been defined by two iconic and wildly different roles. But there’s another big part sandwiched between those two you might’ve forgotten about.
Four years before he joined the blood- and carnage-filled world of “The Boys” — currently in the midst of its skull-crushing fifth and final season — he took part in a short-lived “Dallas”-esque primetime soap opera called “Blood & Oil” starring opposite Don Johnson of ’80s “Miami Vice” fame.
Set during the present-day oil boom in North Dakota, 2015’s “Blood & Oil” follows Billy LeFever (Crawford), an ambitious working man who relocates to the bustling town of Rock Springs with his wife, Cody (Rebecca Rittenhouse), to try their luck in the black gold business. But drama soon unfolds after he engages in risky dealings with a swindling oil tycoon named Hap Briggs (Johnson).
Crawford signed up for the role just three years after “Gossip Girl” and he opened up to People about why he was excited to tackle the opportunity.
“It was a great situation, and I get to play a completely different character than the one I portrayed for six years,” he told the outlet. “It’s nice to be able to play something that’s closer to home for me. And to not have to shave my face off every day.”
Blood & Oil was not renewed for a second season due to poor ratings
“Blood & Oil” mostly scored mixed to average reviews (it has a 63% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, and a lower 40% audience score). Some critics brushed it off as just another pale “Dallas” wannabe, while others found Crawford’s presence insufficiently commanding for the lead role.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, behind-the-scenes clashes resulted in a last-minute showrunner swap, and ABC reduced its original order of 13 episodes down to 10 during its run, which didn’t bode well. The outlet also reported that “Blood & Oil” opened with a modest 6.3 million total viewers which eventually dwindled to 3.1 million and a 0.7 rating by the time the final episode of “Blood & Oil” aired. The series was not renewed for a second season.
If you want to check out all 10 episodes of the show, they’re currently only available for purchase on Prime Video, Fandango at Home, and Apple TV.
DallasStars.com is the official Web site of DSE Hockey Club, L.P. The Dallas Stars primary logo is a registered trademark and the Stars name and secondary logos are trademarks of the Dallas Stars. NHL, the NHL Shield, the word mark and image of the Stanley Cup and NHL Conference logos are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. All NHL logos and marks and NHL team logos and marks as well as all other proprietary materials depicted herein are the property of the NHL and the respective NHL teams and may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of NHL Enterprises, L.P. Copyright © 1999-2025 DSE Hockey Club, L.P. and the National Hockey League. All Rights Reserved.
FRISCO, Texas — Smiles are being worn by everyone inside the Dallas Cowboys’ organization after what’s being roundly viewed as one of the most impressive NFL draft hauls in some time, headlined by the 11th-overall selection of superstar safety Caleb Downs ahead of grabbing UCF quarterback harasser Malachi Lawrence to round out the first round.
Not to be forgotten, however, is the work that was done on Day 2, when the Cowboys traded a fifth-round pick to add veteran linebacker Dee Winters to the roster, then using their lone third-round pick on Jaishawn Barham, a versatile Michigan linebacker who will play both inside and outside in Dallas.
The position coach directly responsible for acclimating them to the NFL level and for potentially turning them into impact players is former SMU defensive coordinator Scott Symons, and Symons can barely contain his enthusiasm about his new-look linebackers’ corps.
“The three guys I’ve been able to interact with the past couple of months — Justin [Barron], Shemar [James] and [DeMarvion Overshown] — I’m really excited about the guys that we currently have and the guys that we’ve added to this room, from a culture standpoint, from a leadership standpoint, I think we have a really good foundation to build on in there,” Symons said after the Day 2 moves in Dallas.
He then went on to gush over Winters, whom he knows well from their SMU vs. TCU days.
“[Winters] was very disruptive, an extremely athletic linebacker and the clear leader of the [TCU] defense,” Symons said. “This is a process that’s been going on for some time to try and make this happen. I’ve been a huge advocate for it. When you look at his [2025] production — his ability to run, his ability to cover, the multiplicity that he brings to the table and what it does to that room is really exciting for us. It feels really good.”
The trade was fortuitous for Winters, who is in the process of building a house in Arlington and, just like that, gets a call that he’ll be returning home for good to play football for the Cowboys.
The front office made it clear the decision for Winters began during talks that eventually sent Osa Odighizuwa to the 49ers, and given the fact future Hall of Fame linebacker Fred Warner rubber stamped the move by taking to social media to post that “Dallas got them a real one, for real” attached to a crying face emoji, there’s something to be said for his potential.
He and Barham already fit the mold of what Symons demands from his linebackers, as do the incumbents in the room, something else the Cowboys’ LBs coach pointed out.
“In this position, it’s important to look at the overall alpha mentality,” he said of his group. “All guys don’t have to be the same. You can have two different linebackers on the field, but you’ve gotta have guys that have strong leadership qualities.”
-
Detroit, MI19 minutes agoDetroit Pistons fans nervous but excited ahead of Game 5
-
San Francisco, CA31 minutes agoSan Francisco thieves targeting seniors who wear jewelry, police say
-
Dallas, TX37 minutes agoBefore The Boys, Chace Crawford Starred In A Dallas-Esque Drama With Don Johnson – TVLine
-
Miami, FL43 minutes agoBraxton Berrios, Bethenny Frankel and more stars hit Gaia Miami’s opening
-
Boston, MA49 minutes agoBoston Police Blotter: Man pleads guilty to ‘vicious’ 1979 murder of Susie Rose
-
Denver, CO55 minutes agoRecruit dies during Denver Sheriff Department academy training
-
Seattle, WA1 hour agoConcerned Alki Beach neighbors seek safety measures seen in other Seattle neighborhoods
-
San Diego, CA1 hour agoMan sentenced to prison in Hillcrest sexual assault