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.
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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.”
First Shift 🏒
The Stars have a history of bouncing back quickly in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
In the past three seasons, Dallas is 14-1 after a loss in the first two rounds, and that’s a big reason it has made it to the Western Conference Final for three consecutive seasons.
“It’s just the guys knowing how to park it,” said Stars goalie Jake Oettinger. “I think we’ve done it enough, so it’s just part of who we are.”
Dallas has been a great response team for years. Former Stars forward Joe Pavelski pushed to not have consecutive losses at any point during the regular season, and that built a way of playing. Current players have carried that tradition and pushed for a mix of calm and intensity after a loss.
“We’ve been doing it as a group all year long,” said captain Jamie Benn. “Our group has been through a lot the last couple of years, so we have some good memories.”
The one time they lost two consecutive games, they still bounced back from an 0-2 hole to beat Vegas in seven games. Other than that, the team and Oettinger have come up with an answer quickly.
“Just play better, do more,” said defenseman Esa Lindell when asked how the team could improve after an overtime loss. “I thought we played pretty well, but we can be better.”
The Stars said they felt good about their effort in Game 4 – a 3-2 overtime loss. They had a 45-43 advantage in shots on goal, an 84-83 edge in shot attempts and a 32-29 advantage in faceoffs. Dallas scored twice on the power play and Minnesota scored three at even strength, and that is an area that will be studied.
But forward Rantanen said he was encouraged by his team’s chances.
“We just have to stick with it,” Rantanen said. “Both teams can defend, both teams can play offense. We need to find a couple of bounces in the 5-on-5 game and go to the net and get lucky.”
Defenseman Heiskanen said he felt good about Game 4.
“We played a solid game and could have won,” he said. “I think we played well 5-on-5, we just didn’t score. If we play the same way, it will come at some point.”
Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan echoed those sentiments. He will have to shuffle his defense pairs because Nils Lundkvist suffered a facial laceration in Game 4 and will not play Tuesday. However, when asked about making changes in his forward group, Gulutzan said among the options is keeping the lineup the same.
“Sometimes, success lags behind the good things you’re doing,” Gulutzan said. “Right now, we just have to keep doing things and take the next steps and hopefully we’ll get success.”
Trade deadline acquisition Michael Bunting has yet to play in the playoffs and veteran Adam Erne came out after Game 1, so they are eligible replacements. But it would be tough to take out a player like Colin Blackwell, Oskar Bäck or Arttu Hyry, because they have been playing well.
“When you look at all the metrics, we just need to take the next step. We just need to get to loose pucks, get some tips, that kind of thing. Everything else is there. But there is another step to it, something harder,” Gulutzan said. “We like where we are. There are certainly things we can do to create more offense, go to the net a little better and get to the tougher areas. Right now, you’re down to the last little tightening of the screws. After four games, teams know each other pretty good, so it becomes a little bit of a battle of wills.”
Minnesota understands. It battled back from a 2-1 deficit in the third period and then won in overtime in Game 4.
“We’ve been in a 2-2 series before, and we’ve got to play a really, really good, smart, detailed game in Dallas,” Wild forward Marcus Foligno told reporters in Minnesota on Monday. “I think the momentum of the game is something that we have to learn to control in Dallas, so all eyes are just on Game 5. I mean, you can’t look at Game 6 or 7, it’s got to be just, how can we win in Dallas for one game?”
The Stars have the same attitude. It’s worked in the past.
“You just move on and get to the next one,” said defenseman Heiskanen.
That easy?
“Yeah. That easy,” he said.
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