The Dallas Cowboys have big contracts to take

Stephen Jones, Chief Operating Officer of the Cowboys, Lord of Forth Worth, and son of Jerry, gave interview at the combine Tuesday in Indianapolis, which hinted at the Dallas Cowboys' plans for the next five years. Defensive back Demarcus Lawrence, quarterback Dak Prescott, receiver Amari Cooper and running back Ezekiel Elliott are both waiting for new contracts. The way Dallas plays his cards will determine the trajectory of their franchise in the near future.

The Cowboys love their stars – their logo is a star, Jerry World's megacomplex is dubbed "The Star" and now, their off-season will be defined by the way they handle the four real Cowboys stars. Let's look at all the impending decisions that Dallas will have to make and what the team will do (and should) do.

Demarcus Lawrence, defensive end

Lawrence has accumulated 25 sacks in the last two seasons. Randy Gregory, the second largest number of bags last year, was indefinitely suspended Tuesday for breaching the conditions of his conditional reinstatement. Without Lawrence, the Cowboys' junior linebackers and high school athletes might not have blossomed last season. Lawrence was labeled franchise for $ 17 million last year, and he was would have seeking about $ 17 million a year in his next contract. If the Cowboys can not reach an agreement before March 5, the last day for duty-free players, they risk touching Lawrence again and continuing to bargain. It would be two years in a row that Lawrence would score, and he would win 120% of the $ 17 million, or $ 20.5 million, playing on the label. Both parties will likely want to reach an agreement before the season, and there is a good chance Lawrence will seek an agreement worth $ 20.5 million a year. This figure would put his figure above the agreement signed by Von Miller in 2016 for $ 19 million a year and below the agreement signed last year by Aaron Donald for 22.5 millions of dollars a year.

A figure larger than the average annual value is money guaranteed; There is a significant gap between the $ 51 million guaranteed by Chandler Jones in 2017 (which the Cowboys could indicate in the negotiations) and the $ 70 million guaranteed that Miller has earned (which Lawrence's team could ask for) .

Stephen Jones did not rule out the use of the franchise etiquette on the pass-stars, which would give both parties until mid-July the opportunity to reach an agreement at long term before Lawrence is forced to play 2019 on the label. Tuesday, he was confident: an agreement will be reached: "Everyone is on the record, de Jerry [Jones] to myself from [head coach] Jason [Garrett] at [vice president of player personnel] Will [McClay] on what we think of D-Law. "

Verdict: Pay the man. Without Lawrence's passing abilities, Dallas' defense progress – from linebacker Jaylon Smith's growth to Leighton Vander Esch's build-up to halfback defensemen Byron Jones and Anthony Brown – could be canceled.

Dak Prescott, Quarterback

"Listen, Dak is the Dallas Cowboys quarterback," Jerry Jones told 105.3 The Fan in November. "He is young and he will be lying."

The question is for how much. There is strong reason to believe that Dak is currently the most underpaid player in the sport. He has earned an average of $ 915,000 a year in his three seasons with the NFL, while being the most visible player in the world's most valuable sports franchise, valued at nearly $ 5 billion. Prescott is entering the last year of its recruiting contract and Spotrac estimates that the market value of Prescott is slightly over $ 25 million a year. If he won it, it would tie him to Drew Brees and Derek Carr for the league's sixth highest average salary, and that money would raise the bar for judging the old fourth-round pick.

Prescott tied for league lead in the league last season and led the league with 15 sacks out of his own pocket, rather than those in his offensive line, according to Pro Football Focus. But the team has been very productive since taking office: the only quarter with more wins than Prescott since the beginning of 2016 is Tom Brady. Victories are a team statistic, not an individual, but they certainly count in the negotiations. They are even more important considering the speed with which the Cowboys threw Prescott into the fire as a rookie.

"Brees, Brady, Manning, Aikman, Romo, this is not done overnight," Stephen Jones told Todd Archer, ESPN, in early January. "These guys have had a lot of baseball games and have seen a lot of defenses and have been seasoned like no other. Dak, I remind everyone, is in his third year. Nobody wants to be better at what he does than he does. And he has an insatiable appetite to be good. He has rare leadership skills and a rare "it" factor. What I like most about him is that he wins. "

The verdictJerry has already announced that Dak will be extended and the Cowboys certainly want to avoid the spiral of death, which has sent Kirk Cousins ​​back from Washington. The Cowboys will make their way to Dak "in a very progressive way."

Amari Cooper, wide receiver

The Cowboys shipped a first-round pick to Oakland for Cooper in late October. He quickly made the Joneses look like geniuses by finishing with 725 yards and six touchdowns in his nine regular season games with the team. Dallas does not regret anything of the trade.

Cooper is ready to play on his fifth-year option (which the Cowboys can use because Cooper was a first-round player) that will bring him $ 13.9 million in 2019, but he is a free-agent in 2020. That would be catastrophic for Dallas to lose Cooper after sacrificing a member of the first round for him, his extension is so a must. The franchise label value for large recipients is $ 17.1 million this year, and it can be said that this number will increase slightly in 2020. So Cooper will probably seek an agreement worth at least $ 17 million a year. . This would place him in front of DeAndre Hopkins and Mike Evans and in the territory of Antonio Brown.

The verdict: The Cowboys must keep Cooper. If he plays something like he did last season, it will be worth it. Even if it steps back, it may not be important. It's hard to see the Cowboys let him go, considering what they gave up for having it.

Ezekiel Elliott, on foot

Elliott is perhaps the most famous player on the team, but he is also the last of the best players for a new contract. He will earn $ 3.9 million this season and his fifth-year option is likely to be similar to Cooper's ($ 13.9 million), the latter being Oakland's fourth overall pick a year before Elliott was taken. at the same place. This gives the Cowboys team control of Elliott for 2019, 2020 and, if they carry it duty-free, 2021. This schedule should imply that a new contract for Elliott's & # 39; Is not yet on the Dallas radar, but Stephen Jones said on Tuesday that the team is already thinking about how to extend Elliott.

"We have planned that we will pay Zeke a major contract at some point," Jones said. m said. "He's at the top of the best business, if not the best. Certainly saw what Todd Gurley was paid for and [we] know it's probably where everything starts and we're going from there. "

Jones does not throw Gurley's name lightly. Gurley, the offensive player of the year 2017 who had been selected a year before Elliott, was in a similar situation with the Rams last year. Like Elliott, Gurley was among the top 10 picks that emerged as the team's star player just three years after his career. Also like Elliott, Gurley still had at least two years of team control and was apparently behind a star defensive lineman (Aaron Donald), a receiver that the team traded against a first-round pick ( Brandin Cooks) and a quarter on a rookie contract. written in 2016 (Jared Goff) before it can be paid. Yet the Rams signed a $ 57.5 million extension with Gurley with a $ 45 million guarantee for the final season.

Elliott has led the NFL twice and three times in his three-year career, and his agents would have no problem claiming he had been the most productive running back since joining the league. Jones invoking Gurley's name is probably an Elliott agent's ear music.

The biggest concern that a team may have about Elliott's extension is its suspension in 2017 when a league investigation revealed that Elliott had "committed physical violence against Mrs [Tiffany] Thompson repeatedly "in July 2016, according to Todd Jones, Special Advisor on NFL Behavior. But given the harshness with which Jerry Jones fought Commissioner Roger Goodell following Elliott's suspension, it is hard to imagine that the NFL's findings would play a role in the negotiations.

The verdictElliott stays.

All the others

You've probably noticed a theme in this article: The Cowboys want to keep all of their star players and are willing to pay the big price to do it. Dallas is able to pay for its stars in the first place because of its savvy maneuver with its offensive line. The team sentenced Tyron Smith, Zack Martin and Travis Frederick to long-term contracts with salaries well below those they could earn in the open market (Smith and Martin earn roughly the same salary as Nate Solder and Andrew Norwell, two extremely inferior players., Signed for last season). The offensive line was well managed, although the Cowboys failed to make the most of the window when Prescott was a cheap asset due to a bad decision after a bad decision made earlier in the decade. Now the defense is about to empty.

The salary cap means that Dallas is not big enough for all Cowboys. Some of their stars will probably leave so the stars can stay. Dallas has a plethora of impact players ready to be released after this season, including right-back, La'el Collins, linebackers Sean Lee and Jaylon Smith, half-melters Byron Jones and Anthony Brown and safety Jeff Heath. Jones, Heath and Smith were among the top three Cowboy defense players in 2018, and it was not particularly tight. Jones and Brown were the cornerbacks that made the Cowboys passable from fuels to fearsome. While the impact of Lee has been replaced by that of Vander Esch, Jaylon Smith is about to leave when validating the choice of the Cowboys, which represents the 34th choice of 2016. With so much of the money from Dallas apparently devoted to Lawrence, Prescott, Cooper and Elliott, it's hard to see how they will keep their other contributors. The Cowboys had a defensive identity last year, but that could be erased if they kept their best players at the expense of the future flexibility of their course. The lonely state might have solitary stars.