Cowboys contract conundrum, Part II: Examining if keeping Prescott, Lamb, and Parsons is financially possible

Jason Parkhurst-USA TODAY Sports

The Cowboys have a lot of financial work still to do.

The financial situation of the Dallas Cowboys has been heavily scrutinized as people try to figure out if they can afford to hang on to Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and Micah Parsons. Fitting all those big contracts under the team’s salary cap will be a challenge as not many teams pay high-end money to all three of the most expensive positions in the NFL. For the Cowboys to pull something like this off, it will take some commitment to how they operate.

Yesterday, we asked if the front office was interested in keeping all three guys. Today, we’ll run through what it will take to get it done. Before we get to that, let’s carefully lay out what the Cowboys are dealing with. Prescott, Lamb, and Parsons are the names people bring up because they will be the most expensive, but we have to consider a couple of other players as well. If the Cowboys kept their best players who will stick around for the long haul, they would have to shell out the following...

These are the team’s top players who we believe the team would like to retain. Trevon Diggs has already been re-signed so we know his cost. These other players are projections based on the going rate of the top player at their respective position in the year we think they’ll be re-signed. When you add all these contracts up, they would use 59.44% on just these five players. That’s what the Cowboys are up against. How can they expect to compete if they have to allocate 3/5 of their cap space to five players?

It’s worth pointing out that most teams are top-heavy. The stars get paid while most others make considerably less. If you look at the Philadelphia Eagles' payroll, their top five paid players are Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Lane Johnson, and Landon Dickerson. They make up 54.75% of their team’s cap resources. They are not too far off from Dallas.

For the Cowboys to fit everyone else within the last 40% of the cap space, the Cowboys will have to be efficient in how they operate. Here are some things they can do to make it all happen.

LOCK’EM DOWN LONG TERM

It’s widely debated that signing players early is the key to saving money. There is some truth to this, but it’s not as simple as it seems. If a team can score a good price on a player who hasn’t shown his full potential, then there’s an opportunity to save money, but those instances are rare. The Cowboys have tried to do this with La’el Collins, Jaylon Smith, and Terence Steele. So far, this proactive approach has done more bad than good. If they try to get too cute, it can backfire.

In most cases, by the time they can offer an extension (after the third year of their rookie deal), a player’s value is already known. And their price won’t change much from year to year (average salary will change due to inflation, but not their cap %), so there’s not a big disadvantage in waiting. This is why the Cowboys are patient when extending players.

The best way to save money is by signing a proven talent to a long-term deal. The Cowboys have been really good at this. Long deals with reliable offensive line talent have helped tremendously with saving cap space. The longer the deal, the more affordable it becomes since the latter years are applied to seasons when the salary cap is much higher. Find a “sure thing” and sign them long-term. That’s the magic recipe.

HAVE AN ESCAPE PLAN

Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. Whether a player doesn’t live up to their contract (Michael Gallup) or something unforeseen changes the talent layout of the roster (CeeDee Lamb falling to Dallas when they already had Amari Cooper). As Forrest Gump said, “It happens.”

When these things surface, it’s great to have an escape plan. Most contracts are constructed that way, back-loading deals so players continue to play well to earn the rest of their money. The Cowboys have been good at inserting safety valves into contracts so that even when things go awry it doesn’t bury them. This is important because who we see as star players now might not be later. And even if the players are good, the Cowboys might want to change how they allocate their cap resources to make the team better overall.

FREE AGENT FRUGALNESS

Good news, bad news. First, the bad news. The Cowboys will have to be extremely cheap in free agency. When March rolls around, they’ll have to be the team sitting on the sidelines while other teams are tossing money around. The good news is the front office already does this. It’s frustrating to fans to miss out on all these appealing free agents, but the Cowboys have shown a lot of discipline here and this is one of the reasons that keeping the band together is even possible.

TOUGH DEPARTURES

This is the most difficult part of the Cowboys' approach. They will have to let good players walk. It’s not always easy to see the Pro Bowl talent they’ve drafted and relied on leave for greener pastures, but they must make sacrifices. Losing players like Tyler Biadasz, Tony Pollard, or Dalton Schultz weaken the roster, but at the same time, they aren’t the special players the Cowboys feel comfortable throwing money at. And when Jerry Jones says that he can’t risk Tyron Smith hitting those playing time incentives, this is why. When they choose to move on from Amari Cooper’s $20 million annual salary for a “measly fifth-round pick,” this is why. The Cowboys need to save anywhere they can because they don’t want tough departures to include their young All-Pros who are critical pieces of this roster.

And some of these departures might sting a bit. Players like DaRon Bland or Jake Ferguson are guys we’d love for them to hang on to, but that might be a tough ask. The front office should consider trading some of these young talents they know they can’t afford to get something in return that is better than just a compensatory pick.

QUALITY DRAFTING

With so few players taking up so much of the cap space, the Cowboys must continue to rely on cheap labor from many players on their rookie deals. The only way to make that work is quality drafting. Fortunately, this is a strength of the Cowboys as they’ve done a fantastic job replenishing young talent. Sometimes the replacement guys are better than the originals and they have to work them into the budget. Having more players earning nice paydays is a good problem to have.

Note - quality drafting doesn’t mean perfect drafting. The team has gotten very little from their 2023 draft class, but it’s not a detriment. Their roster remains strong. Overall, this team is doing a great job gathering collegiate talent via the draft or finding good priority free-agent signings.

RESTRUCTURES

The Cowboys already have built up quite a large tab, but that’s the cost they’ve been willing to accept to keep their talent together. With several players having large cap hits, moving money around will continue to be standard practice for the Cowboys. Every team does this. The key is not letting it get out of hand, and the front office has been somewhat responsible in keeping their books under control.

CONCLUSION

The Cowboys’ front office always reminds us how challenging it is to keep all their guys and they’re right, it isn’t easy. Keeping everyone is not realistic, but they can keep the ones they really want. It just takes a lot of financial responsibility that comes with sacrifices that fans aren’t always open to making. The Cowboys have become good at operating in this manner so there’s good reason to believe this approach is sustainable.