Did the Dallas Cowboys offseason get really expensive?

The Dallas Cowboys front office likes to negotiate their contracts during training camp. Has this offseason shown that this is a mistake?

At the end of the 2018 season, the Dallas Cowboys had three Pro Bowl players entering their last year of their current contract: quarterback Dak Prescott, wide receiver Amari Cooper and cornerback Byron Jones and a star in the making linebacker, Jaylon Smith. Training camp started last week and all four are still waiting for their next contract.

Lately, the Cowboys Front Office has signed big contracts very close to or during training camp. Offensive tackle Tyron Smith signed his eight year $98 million contract on July 30, 2014.

Center Travis Frederick signed his six-year $56 million extension on August 14, 2016. Offensive guard Zack Martin signed his six-year $84 million extension on June 14, 2018.

History suggests the Cowboys will work out deals with the players they want to keep in the next few weeks. But has this strategy proven to be a costly mistake?

Earlier this offseason, quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Carson Wentz signed four-year extensions. These contracts will impact the negotiations with Dak Prescott.

Wilson signed a four-year $140 million contract extension on April 15, 2019 which averages $35 million per season in new money. However, if you factor the last year of his previous deal, Wilson now has a five-year contract that averages just more than $33 million per season according to spotrac.com.

Wentz signed his four-year $128 million contract extension on June 6, 2019 which averages $32 million per season in new money. If you factor the two years remaining on his rookie deal, Wentz now has a six-year contract that averages nearly $26.9 million per season according to spotrac.com.

According to reports, Prescott is seeking a deal in the range of $34 million annually. Have you seen enough from Prescott to pay him more than Wilson or Wentz?

Pro Football Focus ranked Prescott as the 18th best quarterback in 2018. Wilson ranked 7th with a score of 87.2 which was nearly 17 percent higher than Prescott’s score of 74.6. Wentz ranked 13th with a score of 79.4 which was more than 6 percent higher than Prescott.

But the nature of the contract negotiation game is agents need to out perform their peers and get a deal higher than the benchmarks. In this case, Cowboys fans are to believe that Prescott is asking for “Russell Wilson“ money when he clearly is not rated in the same neighborhood.

On Wednesday, New Orleans Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas signed a five-year $100 million extension. The $20 million average per year will certainly be a benchmark for Amari Cooper’s representatives.

Earlier this week, Seattle linebacker Bobby Wagner signed a $54 million three-year extension. His new money $18 million average per year will certainly impact Jaylon Smith’s thinking.

The problem for the Cowboys is that Seattle only has two players with cap hits above 6 percent in 2019 – Wilson and Wagner. The Saints only have two players as well – quarterback Drew Brees and left tackle Terron Armstead.

The Cowboys have three players with cap hits in 2019 greater than 6 percent: Tyron Smith, Zack Martin and Amari Cooper. This number will jump to four in 2020 and this does not factor in any deals for holding out running back Ezekiel Elliott, Amari Cooper, Dak Prescott, Byron Jones or offensive tackle La’el Collins.

Maybe this is why Cowboys Executive Vice President Stephen Jones said that Dallas will not be market setters. Speaking on 1310 The Ticket on Wednesday, Jones was quoted as saying:

"“We want to be fair. We want our players to feel good about their contract. But at the same time, we don’t want to do things that are out of line because we can’t afford to be that way. Whether it’s Dak, whether it’s Amari, whether it’s Zeke, they all understand we’ve got a whole group of young players coming behind them that want to be Dallas Cowboys and want to stay here. When we save money, whether it’s with Dak, whether it’s with Zeke, whether it’s with Amari, it’s not saving Jerry and I a dollar. It’s just money that’s going to go to another player. … We’re very convicted that we’re going to get these deals done.”"

So I am wondering why the Cowboys did not try more aggressively to sign their players first before deals with Wilson, Wentz, Wagner and Thomas reset the dollar signs in the Cowboys players eyes. I know it is a requirement for the team and the player to enter into a deal but the task at hand now seems impossible.

I wrote a few weeks ago that the Cowboys will not have enough cap money to sign Prescott, Cooper, Elliott, Smith and Vander Esch if everyone requires fair market money. The market only has risen since then.

A step in the right direction will be to try and sign players as early as they can in the offseason. This would allow the Cowboys to shape the market rather than be market followers.