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.
The Dallas City Council has trouble sticking to its convictions. The conversation surrounding the proposed closure of the Skillman Southwestern Library proves that.
Facing a budget shortfall and massive pension obligations, interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert and her staff set out to find cost savings to shore up the upcoming budget. That plan involves closing the Skillman library in northeast Dallas, largely due to its close proximity to other branches and low foot traffic.
But a wave of community opposition led council members last week to tentatively shuffle some money intended for underserved neighborhoods in southern Dallas to preserve the library branch in a well-resourced area of northeast Dallas. While the full council has yet to weigh in with a formal vote, the move highlights a recurring problem at City Hall.
Whether it’s the botched charter review process this year or the unchecked scope creep in the 2024 bond program, this council caves to outside pressure when it faces politically difficult decisions.
If our local representatives capitulate every time an interest group champions a pet cause or challenges an unpopular but well-reasoned policy proposal, then Dallas will just keep kicking cans down the road. Facing unpleasant but necessary decisions is part of the job description when you sit around the council horseshoe.
No one wants to see libraries close. They’re hubs for learning, community and creativity. But the 13,200-square-foot Skillman branch sits roughly a mile away from the state-of-the-art Vickery Park branch that opened in 2021. The bright and colorful 18,000-square-foot Vickery Park branch has multiple meeting rooms, a children’s play area and a tree-lined plaza. Closing the Skillman branch would surely be an inconvenience for some, but residents still have a great library option nearby.
The Dallas Public Library system doesn’t have enough money in its budget to keep the Skillman branch open while ensuring all the city’s other libraries remain open at least six days a week, this newspaper reported.
Instead, the council is considering using about $485,000 meant for the city’s infrastructure investment fund. That bucket of money was approved last year with the purpose of encouraging investment in the city’s high-poverty areas, mainly south of Interstate 30, by reimbursing developers for the cost of building infrastructure or related work.
To this day, Dallas is defined by its north-south divide. Taking funds meant to reverse decades of neglect in southern Dallas to keep a library open in a better-off part of town makes no sense. Council members haven’t even voiced a plan for how to fund the Skillman library beyond the next fiscal year.
None of this is to say that council members shouldn’t listen to their constituents. But emotional and personal attachments can’t be the reason to ignore good financial sense. The council should be fair to southern Dallas rather than crack under pressure.
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CLEVELAND — It was slated to be a dog fight when the Dallas Cowboys met the Cleveland Browns at Huntington Bank Stadium to open the NFL regular season, but the latter got put in a kennel early and often as the former went rabid in their attack, and that is especially true for Micah Parsons and Mike Zimmer’s defense.
The world got its first look at what the unit might be capable of under Zimmer, and against a highly-mobile playmaking quarterback in Deshaun Watson with his stable of weapons — including five-time Pro Bowl receiver Amari Cooper and newly-acquired wideout Jerry Jeudy — wherein Parsons helped lead a brutal onslaught of pressure.
They allowed only one first down in the entire first half and ultimately only 17 points the entire game; and Parsons (agreeing with All-Pro cornerback Trevon Diggs after the game) says they’re just getting started.
“We didn’t open up the full bag,” said Parsons. ” … I think the sky’s the limit. This is just the beginning.”
The defense was flying around to the point where you have to wonder if American Airlines will give them frequent flier miles for their efforts. From Eric Kendricks to DeMarvion Overshown to DeMarcus Lawrence to Osa Odighizuwa and more, the defensive front was outstanding.
And then came the secondary, who basically shoved Cooper, Jeudy and Elijah Moore into a locker and spun the combination on the lock.
The run defense shined. The coverage shined. The contain on Watson shined.
“We have those rotational pieces and obviously we draft it pretty well, so it looks good and it helps that we can rotate when you’re tired and things like that,” said Parsons of the Cowboys being able to throw waves of talented defenders at teams. … Man, I feel like we could have done more to anybody else.
“Deshaun’s tough. He’s a tough quarterback, bro. He’s hard to get down. He’s scrappy, he’s relentless. He kept getting up, man [but] it was challenging for Cleveland to really dial into the offense.”
The three-time All-Pro pass rusher was lined up in several different spots on Sunday in Cleveland, making it difficult for the Browns to key in on him pre-snap, to resounding success.
He did give praise to Watson for his toughness and grit, though, and in being able to keep Parsons from having what could’ve otherwise been a multi-sack day to begin the season.
“I think I missed two or three [sacks],” said Parsons. “He’s tough. I’m going to have nightmares tonight for sure. I’m supposed to start this year off with [three sacks]. … I don’t think I played to my standard. I’ve gotta finish those plays..”
Parsons says he’s making no excuses and is determined to get back into the lab following this game to try and right that ship for Week 2 — in the home opener against the New Orleans Saints.
“First home game? They’ve got Derek Carr and they just dropped 40, so they’re clicking,” said Parsons. “We’ve gotta hit this lab and get cooking, but the Lion’s coming. Gotta protect the Den. Let’s go.”
The Cowboys owned the longest home win streak in the league before it was derailed by the Green Bay Packers in January, and they’re looking to start a new one, effective Sept. 15.
Dallas, TX
Cowboys-Browns live updates: Newly-paid Dak Prescott, Dallas open 2024 season on the road
After a long offseason, the wait is finally over.
Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys hit the road to open the 2024 season against Deshaun Watson and the Cleveland Browns. Although Dallas enters the matchup with a favorable record (3-0 in lifetime in openers against the Browns), Cleveland could present various challenges for Mike McCarthy’s squad.
Before Sunday’s matchup, Prescott notably agreed to a four-year extension with the Cowboys. He’s now the highest-paid player in NFL history.
Can Dallas open the season with a win for the second consecutive year? Will Amari Cooper get some revenge on his former team?
Follow along for live coverage, scoring updates and more from our team of writers and photographers on scene at Huntington Bank Field:
Pregame updates
— Inactives for Sunday’s game:
– Cowboys: QB Trey Lance (emergency third QB), CB Andrew Booth, LB Buddy Johnson, OT Matt Waletzko, WR Ryan Flournoy, TE John Stephens.
– Browns: QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson, CB Kahlef Hailassie, CB Myles Harden, DE Isaiah McGuire, OG Javion Cohen, OT Jedrick Wills Jr., OT Jack Conklin.
— All smiles in Cleveland:
— Dak Prescott is now the highest-paid player in NFL history. The quarterback agreed to a new deal with the Cowboys just before the team’s season opener in Cleveland. Here’s a look at our coverage of the signing:
– Cowboys extend Dak Prescott, make him highest paid player in NFL history
– What we know about Dak Prescott’s record-breaking deal with the Dallas Cowboys
– The negotiations may be over for Dak Prescott, but the clock is ticking on his career
– Cowboys QB Dak Prescott is now the highest paid player in NFL history. Who did he top?
– National reactions to Dak Prescott extension: Jimmy Johnson, Skip Bayless weigh in
How to watch Cowboys-Browns
When: 3:25 p.m. (Sunday, Sept. 8)
Where: Huntington Bank Field (Cleveland, Ohio)
Betting line: CLE -2.5; Over/under 42.5 (via ESPN BET)
TV: FOX Streaming: foxsports.com, NFL Plus
Broadcasters: Kevin Burkhardt, Tom Brady, Erin Andrews (sideline) and Tom Rinaldi (sideline)
Radio: 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM), 107.5 La Grande in Spanish (KMVK-FM)
Pregame reading
— After tragedy, loss and grief, Cowboys DC Mike Zimmer has a chance to heal in Dallas
— An illustrated prediction of every Dallas Cowboys game in the 2024 season
— Expert predictions for Cowboys-Browns: Will Dallas kick off season with tough road win?
— 5 final thoughts about Cowboys-Browns: Road woes, containing Myles Garrett, gameday roster
— Tom Brady previews Cowboys-Browns season opener ahead of NFL on Fox broadcast debut
Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
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