In many ways, Dallas Cowboys owner/general manager/football czar Jerry Jones seems to have turned over a new leaf this season. He seems to be committed to winning for the first time in years. He made a mid-season trade to address one of the biggest weaknesses on his roster.
But some things never change. Jones' handling of contract negotiations with star players has been a disaster for decades. We saw it with Dak Prescott. We saw it with Micah Parsons. Now, that same issue is rearing its head with the George Pickens situation.
Jones has once again dragged out his contract negotiations with one of his best players, leading to a standstill in which he has no leverage. This time, it might cost him his window to make a playoff run.
Jerry Jones has put himself in a familiar situation with Cowboys' George Pickens contract talks
As he often does, Jones joined "105.3 The Fan" this week to discuss all things Cowboys. When asked about his willingness to have contract extension talks with Pickens and Joey Porter Jr. during the season, his answer was telling.
"We don’t even have to in any way," Jones said. "We have great agreements. The agreements are in place so that I don’t even have to talk about a question like that. I’m not at all perturbed by the question, but we’ve got that put to bed in terms of their business one way or the other. Now, I wouldn’t answer as to whether or not we visit about any of their business during the season other than how they’re playing or how they’re gonna play.”
It's a non-answer, but it's easy to read between the lines. It doesn't seem like Jones has made any real progress with Pickens' contract extension this season, and he isn't clearly willing to address those issues in the middle of the season.
Pickens is currently playing on the franchise tag, which was a saga on its own. Jones has had the opportunity to extend the wideout since he traded for him, but talks seem to have gone nowhere.
The outcome feels inevitable here. Jones will leave himself with no negotiating power, especially if Pickens performs well the rest of the season. He'll be forced to either overpay for a contract extension or let his receiver leave, hamstringing the franchise's future success either way.
Of course, he did the same thing with both Prescott and Parsons. Whether it was stubbornness, an affinity for the spotlight, or some unknown reason that drove those negotiations, they both dragged on beyond the point of reason. Prescott ended up getting a market-setting extension, while Parsons was traded away.
The same mistake is already being made with both Pickens and Porter Jr. Jones is working on his own timeline rather than doing what is best for the organization. At this point, it's hard to see any way that either negotiation ends up favoring the Cowboys.
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