FRISCO, Texas — It’s pretty basic, but the Dallas Cowboys’ annual pre-draft news conference is designed to focus on that week’s NFL Draft. Generally, it’s about 30 minutes of questions directed at team owner Jerry Jones, executive vice president Stephen Jones and head coach Mike McCarthy.
But this year was much different. Very little roster activity over the last month was the reason. For nearly an hour, Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones fielded the majority of the questions about why the franchise has done less than any other team in free agency, and why star players Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb are without contract extensions.
“Very proud of this roster,” Jerry Jones said. “Very much think this roster, without knowing right now how much the rookies are going to contribute, we feel good about the promise of the team we’re going to have this year with this roster. We will have young players step up, no-names that become names because names have left and are off the roster. Those guys have got to step up.
“We’re all in with these young guys. We’re all in with this draft.”
Mike McCarthy, Jerry Jones, Stephen Jones at the Cowboys’ annual pre-draft news conference today at The Star pic.twitter.com/IoCQJp6D92
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) April 23, 2024
To save you time from reading every quote, we’ve broken it down to the most important non-draft related topics.
Why haven’t they done anything in free agency?
The simplest answer is because of the salary cap. The Cowboys don’t believe they have the space to continue fielding full rosters beyond this season if they are not cautious now. And that’s because they are determined to re-sign Prescott, Lamb and DE/LB Micah Parsons to long-term deals. But when none of those extensions have been completed and the only outside veteran free agents signed have been LB Eric Kendricks and RB Royce Freeman, there’s justifiable concern from those outside of the building.
“Our rules of this game is to have a salary cap,” Jerry Jones said. “And that salary cap means that if you pay (Zack) Martin more money one year, you’re going to have less to pay the next year. That’s just part of it that goes and that’s what you’ve seen. … There’s no question we’ve been operating on the credit card. That’s how we’ve had Dak Prescott plus his great supporting cast around him for the last three or four years. You can’t keep that if in fact, all of a sudden, the system causes that to go up and you’ve got to start depreciating it down. So if you decide to have a key player and you pay him to that extent, then he’s going to have less supporting cast around. Look around. That’s the way it works. That’s the way it’s been working in the NFL.
“We have known that you were going to basically have to have less in order to have some of the players that we want to have at the prices they are. You got to have less supporting cast. There’s no getting around it.”
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Why haven’t they gotten deals done sooner with players like Prescott and Lamb?
Part of the reason is the Cowboys want to see what happens in regards to the spending at the quarterback and wide receiver positions around the league. While many will point to those numbers consistently increasing, the Cowboys seem reluctant to be the ones resetting the market. Stephen Jones mentioned how agents representing other top wide receivers like Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase likely communicate with Lamb’s agent. All three could have the opportunity to reset the wide receiver market.
“We’d like to see some more leaves fall,” Jerry Jones said. “We’d like to see some more action. It’s called option quarterback. … That’s working the problem. I’ve spent my life being an option quarterback. I can go all the way out to the sideline and still have a pitch in me. I can do that, and that’s just a style that you have. So, you never know. You may give money to somebody that you shouldn’t have given it to. … To say that you’re not working on it and going is not the right answer. It’s on your mind. It’d be madness not to know that the contracts are ahead. I want to see a few more cards played, candidly. If you got trouble with when the timing is around here, it’s because I’m not ready to go.
“I probably have as good a feel as anybody living on this Earth about what the cap is going to be three years from now, four years now, five years from now. I really do. We have exceptional insight into where the cap is going to be, more so than a lot of people.”
What do the Cowboys say to their frustrated fans about their lack of moves?
“The elephant in the room is our (lack of) playoff success,” Stephen Jones said. “And we can win an offseason like we did last year and get an A. ‘Boy, you went and got (Brandin) Cooks, you went and got (Stephon) Gilmore. You signed some veteran players and boy, you won the offseason.’ But guess what, we didn’t get it done in the playoffs. … Until we have the success in the playoffs, that’s the biggest question that everybody is going to ask: How are you going to get over that hurdle? And we feel like we can do it with this roster. I know Mike feels strongly about our team and what we can get done with it.
“There’s a lot of moving parts (when re-signing top players) and certainly you want to get it right. There are some contracts that you look up and you didn’t get right. That happens to all 32 (teams). You make some bets because you’re dealing with human beings, you’re dealing with injury, you’re dealing with all the things that go on sometimes and those contracts don’t pan out for you. But when you’re paying the type of money we ultimately will or would have to to keep them to a Dak, to a Micah, to a CeeDee, you want to make sure you get it right.”
Dak Prescott had an MVP-caliber season a year ago, but a wild-card playoff loss took the luster off it. (Kevin Jairaj / USA Today)
Where do things currently stand with Prescott?
The franchise QB said last Friday that there have not been any “real” contract talks this offseason. The Cowboys maintain that their goal is for Prescott to continue his career in Dallas well beyond the 2024 season.
“We want Dak Prescott,” Jerry Jones said. “That’s that. … I give Mike a lot of credit for (Prescott’s improvement last season). That improvement demonstrated to me there’s more as far as ultimately winning what we’re trying to do here. The question nails it for me. We want Dak. We think that there’s room for growth. … If you are a team that has a lot of cap room, and then you have a quarterback for a little while that is well underneath in his rookie contract — San Francisco last year, us with Dak early after we had (Tony) Romo — boy, we had a lot of credit card use there on Romo. Dak came along, so we didn’t have to have it so we were able to absorb that money and still keep Tyron (Smith) around him. So Dak has enjoyed, in his career that we’re proud of, some of the best supporting casts that you could put around him.
“To move forward, we will have to diminish that. That’s a fact. That’s the rules. That’s our challenge and to make it work out. Dak as the quarterback Cowboys, I don’t even have a blink on that one.”
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Where do things stand with Lamb?
Nothing new on contract talks, but it’s clear that Jerry Jones wants Lamb wearing a Cowboys uniform for a long time.
“I think CeeDee’s one of the best players in the NFL,” Jones said. “I think he’s very instrumental because of his position to quarterback success, personally. I think if you look at the complementary football, he does it all there for you. He’s multifaceted in where we can line him up, the type of things we can use him for. He’s dedicated in his practice and he’s sound physically. That puts him really right there at the top as far as a player. I guess the answer is without saying anymore, I think he’s one of the top players in the NFL.”
(Top photo of CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott: Cooper Neill / Getty Images)
