Are the Dallas Cowboys correctly prioritizing new deals for their stars?

The Dallas Cowboys have been in the news recently, and even more than usual. All the buzz surrounds potential new deals for three of their biggest stars.

Since last season sometime at the very least, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has made it known publicly that Dak Prescott is his guy. Even more so, he used many of these same opportunities to let the world know that Prescott will be the Cowboys guy at quarterback for the foreseeable future.

Jones doubled down on that notion as recently as Monday, May 6th, when he spoke about the Cowboys quarterback and his contract situation quite candidly. According to the twitter page for the Rich Eisen Show, Jones was quoted as saying he was sold on Dak and wants to have him in Dallas for the long-term.

The question remains however, how sold are they on Prescott? Well, it seems they’re quite sold as reports started to surface around the middle of this same week, that the deal will be at least $30 million dollars per year for the Cowboys signal-caller.

On top of the presumably massive deal they will have to give Dak Prescott, the Dallas Cowboys also have two other stars that they need to get locked up. Amari Cooper, who is entering the fifth and final year of his rookie contract, is set to make $13.9 million this season. This is after having his fifth-year option picked up by the Oakland Raiders, prior to being traded to the Dallas Cowboys.

According to the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, and as many have reported on in the last few days, Cooper’s contract demands are seen as being shockingly high. This is the case for a team that openly admits that the minimum number to start the negotiations will be around $16 million per year according to the same piece from the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram.

Although the Dallas Cowboys have expressed an interest in definitely getting these two deals taken care of, they haven’t exactly shied away from discussing running back Ezekiel Elliott‘s future either. As reported by SportsDay, Stephen Jones said as recently as the combine that they have already budgeted a significant amount of money for Elliott’s future contract. This begs the question though, are the Cowboy’s wrongly prioritizing getting Prescott and Cooper signed before taking care of Elliott?

The Answer here is no. When thinking about Dak Prescott for starters, it is rather hard to generalize him as far as the type of money he is worth. Whereas the dreaded market for quarterbacks would indicate that the number being reported at close to at least $30 million, is the correct starting point, some would argue his performance hasn’t garnered such a deal.

If you take into account Dak’s record across the first three seasons of his career, he has certainly earned it. If you also look at the fact that he has started since being a rookie and took the Cowboys to the divisional round of the playoffs in just his third season, the future still seems rather promising. This is enough, in this current quarterback market, to garner those numbers.

If you take a look at Cooper, his performance across the first four years of his career doesn’t scream that he should be paid in that $16-19 million dollar range. After looking at his arrival last season though, he did work wonders in providing a reliable target for Prescott upon coming over from the Raiders.

What the previous factors point to is the depth of the unknown when it comes down to paying certain positions in the NFL. What is known though is that Ezekiel Elliott is among the best, if not the outright best, running backs in the NFL. This makes taking care of his contract a lot easier.

It is easier in that you could simply take the contracts of the other top backs in the league when they received new deals, such as Todd Gurley, and work from there. Whether the numbers be slightly higher or slightly lower is up to both parties to decide, but that is how it will work. This is why the Cowboys are not making a mistake in prioritizing the signing of Cooper and Prescott over Elliott’s, because Zeke’s should be a piece of cake.