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Jerry Jones opens his wallet to keep the Dallas Cowboys core together. Linebacker Jaylon Smith, right tackle La'el Collins and halfback Ezekiel Elliott all had paid-up extensions before the start of the 2019 regular season.
Elliott earned $ 15 million a year and $ 50 million guaranteed, a record for half a race, and Smith and Collins are now among the top 10 salaries in their respective positions. Earlier this year, DeMarcus Lawrence signed a $ 105 million over five-year extension, making him the NFL's highest paid defensive end. In total, the Cowboys have offered more than $ 200 million in guarantees in 2019.
And these are probably only the organizers of the table for the main event: New contracts for quarterback Dak Prescott and receiver Amari Cooper, who will be the two most expensive deals in the history of the Cowboys .
Cooper has all the weight needed to get a contract worth nearly $ 20 million per season and it is unlikely that Prescott wants a lower contract on average than his colleagues recruited in 2016, Jared Goff ($ 32 million) and Carson Wentz ($ 33.5 million) – receipts.
It's a lot of dough, especially on the offensive side of football.
Cowboys offensive linemen Tyron Smith, Zack Martin and Travis Frederick are all blocked by overtime. These agreements – and two more important ones on the way – mean that Cowboys will not have much space available in the near future.
If the Cowboys get their money's worth, it will not be a problem. They spend for the players they consider a cornerstone of the quarterback franchise, the backhand, wide receiver and multiple places on the offensive line. Dallas's offense will be more or less similar in the years to come.
But the question is whether these franchise change talents have already been put in place, why the Cowboys do not have the necessary hardware?
The Cowboys offensive got stuck in the mud
The decision to go all-in with Prescott was made in November 2016 when Tony Romo was healthy enough to come back from a back injury. Instead of returning the reins to the veteran, the Cowboys got stuck with Prescott.
He threw 23 touchdowns and just four interceptions as a rookie, leading the Cowboys to 13-3 and NFC East. The offensive placed fifth in the NFL, both in scoring and yards.
Since then, the Cowboys have not been able to recreate this magic. The offensive finished 14th in 2017 and 22nd in 2018. Prescott's numbers have been stagnant for the most part behind an offensive line that has not been as dominant as in 2016. Quarterback to assume a larger share of the offensive workload with more pass attempts, but he did not produce more passes or touchdowns.
Should Dallas really expect different results with essentially the same composition?
There are certainly warnings. Scott Linehan has been the Cowboys offensive scapegoat for years, for good reason. His painfully rigid and unpredictable playcalls made Dallas predictable.
He is now gone and the former Cowboys quarterback, Kellen Moore, is the new offensive coordinator. This could lead to a sufficiently different offense to succeed, but not so different that it loses its identity.
The Cowboys attack has improved significantly with the arrival of Amari Cooper. Before trading for the receiver in the middle of the 2018 season, Dallas averaged 20 points and 319 yards per game. These numbers have climbed to 22 points and 362 yards in the last nine weeks. He was the deep threat that the Cowboys desperately needed and Prescott, in particular, was a better player with Cooper in training.
Yet these numbers were not special; more than half of the NFL had accumulated at least 360 yards per game in 2018. It was good enough to win the NFC East, but the Cowboys were eliminated in the divisional round with a 30-22 defeat against Rams.
Dallas will be back only if the offensive line becomes an elite
It's not really a mystery to know how the Cowboys excelled with a rookie quarterback in 2016. The offensive line has intimidated everyone. Prescott was sacked 25 times in any season and Elliott had room to accumulate 1,631 rushing yards. This is the only time in the past four seasons that the run has reached 1,600 yards.
The loss of Ronald Leary and Doug Free in an independent agency has allowed the unit to step back in 2017, but it was still great. But in 2018, the Dallas offensive line was at best average, at best. Prescott was sacked 56 times – the second total in the NFL – and Elliott was not as good at hitting touchdowns near the goal line.
In 2016, he scored seven touchdowns for 11 rush attempts from the 5-yard line. This total dropped to just two touchdowns on 10 races in the same situation in 2018.
Health played a role in the decline. Tyron Smith has missed three games in each of the last three seasons and Zack Martin had knee problems in 2018. Frederick missed everything last season after being diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome.
All of these players are ready to return in 2019, and the Cowboys have added more depth by choosing Connor Williams and Connor McGovern on the second day of the last two projects.
A return to form is certainly possible for the Dallas offensive line. What is troubling for the Cowboys, however, is that it seems that attacking success depends entirely on him.
It's hard to imagine an alternative strategy for the Cowboys. Allowing one of their offensive players to walk is not really a viable option, so it is essential to have considerable resources to keep them. But the Cowboys will soon be spending about $ 70 million a season for these three players, in addition to several other eight-figure salaries.
Prescott, Elliott and Cooper are expected to lead the Cowboys to Super Bowls. They are young and have participated in eight Pro Bowls collectively. But so far, they have not advanced further than the divisional round.
It's a profitable venture for Cowboys, even if they have no choice. Dallas was a winning team with Prescott and Elliott, and the attack gave a boost to Cooper's addition.
But it is the top 10 defenders of the team that has been anchored in each of the last two seasons. The Cowboys do not pay exorbitant sums for the 22nd best scoring team, and early outings for the playoffs.
Dallas is opening the portfolios as it expects better things, especially from its offensive stars. With hundreds of millions of dollars of guaranteed money invested in the list, nothing less than the challenge of the Super Bowl will be a failure.
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