INDIANAPOLIS — Members of the Cowboys front office are dedicating some of their time at the NFL Scouting Combine to talk to agents on their awesome team bus.
While meetings were held this week with pending free agent Tyrone Smith and veterans Michael Gallup and Leighton Vander Esch, one person was missing.
No conversation occurred between Todd France, Jerry Jones, Stephen Jones and the rest of the front office staff.
France is Dak Prescott's agent, and the midfielder is entering the final year of a four-year, $160 million contract signed in 2021.
Jerry Jones said Friday he's not afraid of losing Prescott. He is confident the organization will secure Prescott's future.
But why don't we talk to France and reach an agreement?
“No, I'm not afraid of that,” Jones said. “Well, because I thought about being better than we were last year,” Jones said. This is where the focus will be. Every player you have has some time left when their contract expires. You will walk around with tremors if you are afraid of that. You can't because they all come. They can all get hurt. They all could lose some talent. So all this is not fear.
Prescott enters the season with the second-highest salary cap number in the NFL at $59.4 million. You would think the Cowboys would want to lower that cap number to ensure Prescott sticks around for three more years. The franchise is also considering extending receiver CeeDee Lamb this year, and linebacker Micah Parsons will come in next year to claim his financial windfall.
But Jones, despite understanding what Lamb and Parsons want to get and how Prescott's pending deal allows some of that to happen, didn't seem in any rush to get it done.
“All we have to do is see if we're going to try anything,” he added. “If we don't, we'll go another way.”
Jones knows that on March 18, the Cowboys must give Prescott a $5 million roster bonus, and that could start contract talks.
In Jones' opinion, Prescott is a QB1 and he's not going anywhere. If anything, Jones said Prescott could play better — the quarterback led the NFL in touchdowns last season.
What needs to be determined is how the lack of discussions with Prescott's representatives affects how the Cowboys conduct other business.
It shouldn't matter despite what the franchise tells everyone. There will be some possible restructuring and releases. An example of this was the meeting held Thursday morning with Kevin Robinson, the agent of receiver Michael Gallup.
The Cowboys can either trade or release Gallup. Gallup's cut, which Jones praised Friday, would free up $9.5 million in cap space.
Tony Pollard and Smith are heading back to free agency in search of more money but will likely need to take less money to stay in Dallas.
All of these decisions will come in the spring/summer as Prescott awaits the birth of his first child and another huge contract.
Jones believes an agreement can be reached quickly, if everyone wants it.
but …
“We don't need to, but we can if everyone wants to solve the problem,” he said. “If you can't, what we have works. Obviously if you do it one way, it means you're going to work on some other areas of the team in a different way. But you can't plan that until you see where you are there. And that's what we do.”
If the Cowboys don't make a deal with Prescott, he will enter free agency in 2025. The Cowboys can't put another franchise tag on Prescott or even trade him.
One person close to Prescott said he would benefit if he entered the open market in 2025.
Jones doesn't expect that to happen because of his confidence in getting deals done in the past. During his roughly 45-minute briefing with reporters, he mentioned how Emmitt Smith held out for a new contract in 1993, missing the first two games before finally calling Jones to complete the deal.
You know the rest of the story. The Cowboys brought back Smith and won their second straight Super Bowl.
This history gives Jones confidence that Prescott will not hit the free agent market. Why do you pretend to be afraid when Emmitt Smith calls you and says let's make a deal?
Jones and Prescott know what they want.
Will that happen? Jones thinks so, and all they have to do is start talking.
The tenth: @calvinwatkins
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