Dallas City News

The Dallas Cowboys have been known to be magicians in the past. After Owner Jerry Jones purchased the team in 1989, he pulled three Super Bowls out of a hat during the team’s run in the ’90s.

Unfortunately, the team’s tricks have become stale and cliche for a few decades now.

Keeping fans across the country in their seats under the big top of AT&T Stadium has been more challenging, especially after the circus came tumbling down against the Green Bay Packers in January.

Luckily, the circus is back in town for another season, and the front office is trying to perform their most challenging trick to date—signing Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and Micah Parsons to record-setting deals.

Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones appeared as a guest on The Athletic’s new podcast, Scoop City, hosted by Dianna Russini and Chase Daniel. The conversation centered on the pending deals for Dallas’ big three and where things currently stand. Jones said the team is in the middle of pulling off their own Houdini trick.

“Those things just take time when you’re talking about the amount of money involved, and of course, we’re trying to a little bit play Houdini and how to keep all these guys around Dak and keep these players we were fortunate enough to draft. When you start stacking ‘em up like that, it’s a challenge it’s not that it’s not doable, but you certainly gotta have some give and take if you want to do that. I know the Vikings there with Jefferson when they made that inordinate deal at the receiver spot, they don’t have one player on their team other than Jefferson making over $20 million. Of course, we got a big one in Dak [Prescott], and we got [Trevon] Diggs right there, and then you got Zack Martin and D-Law. So we got a lot of guys making quite a bit of money. It’s no excuses we think we can get this done, know we can get it done, but it just takes time.”

Jones sounded confident in his answer, but mentioning the recent extension of Justin Jefferson with the Minnesota Vikings was notable. Minnesota tried to get a deal done with Jefferson last offseason, but the talks fell through and got sidelined to 2024.

In order to give their franchise star the money he was asking for, it could have come at the cost of keeping Kirk Cousins and forcing the team to go with a cheaper duo at quarterback with Sam Darnold and rookie J.J. McCarthy.

Sometimes, to pay one or two players comes at the cost of a few others. That’s a part of the business that Jones knows and has seemed to be a part of the conversations with the face of the franchise in Prescott.

He [Prescott] knows our goal is to keep him here. He also understands the challenges, and you see what happens to teams when you do have these top-priced quarterbacks at some point; it’s a challenge to keep everybody. Obviously, the Chiefs are an example of that, but they were able to survive not keeping Tyreek Hill and some other top players. I think they let one of the top corners in the league go after this season. You have to make some tough choices along the way, but we’re optimistic that we can do that.

The Kansas City Chiefs are a great example in a vacuum, but they have someone playing quarterback who might have more magic in his pinky than the great Houdini had in his entire body — Patrick Mahomes is just different.

This offseason, it’s been mentioned on a few occasions that Prescott’s last 50 games are comparable to Mahomes’s. Still, that illusion can only fool so many into believing they’re the same player, especially given the gap in their playoff success.

However, when it comes to the quarterback market, playoff success seems to be irrelevant. It’s about the ‘maybe’ and having a chance to be competitive for Super Bowls each year, which is why Prescott could be in line to become the first $60 million-a-year player.

As Russini pointed out, it sounds like Jones’ confidence in Prescott hasn’t wavered since the two spoke last October at the league meeting. He knows that while the quarterback receives the brunt of the criticism, the organization must improve and continue its regular-season success.

“We’re having really great success in the regular season, and there’s no question I understand the criticism from our fans; I understand the criticism from media. We all understand that in terms of not winning the big game in the playoffs, and we certainly gotta take the next step. I know we could go out there, and no one’s assuming anything, and have another great regular season, and no one’s gonna really give ‘hey, they’re gonna get it done this time’ until they see it, and we understand that. We put ourselves in that position with our playoff winning percentage, and we do have to take that next step, but I certainly believe we can do it.”

This isn’t the first time the Cowboys EVP has acknowledged the outside noise from media and fans alike. Coming off a disappointing playoff loss like the one against the Packers can leave scars that never seem to heal. Jones has talked about the moves they made last offseason to acquire veterans like Brandin Cooks and Stephon Gilmore to push their chips, but they came up short.

The team’s lack of movement in free agency was met with much criticism and confusion for a team that said they were “all-in” this year. However, it sounds like it might not be all bad, and signing outside free agents doesn’t always lead to points in the win column.

Looking ahead to the future, the Cowboys were forced to operate in the shadows, given their cap constraints and the hope of signing their core players in Lamb, Prescott, and Parsons.

Could the problem have been prevented by having all three up simultaneously? As loud as the noise has been for Dallas to change their ways in free agency, it’s been equally loud for them to approach contracts differently and come to the table earlier. Russini asked Jones about the team’s work behind the scenes financially and to address why they hadn’t gotten things done sooner.

“We’re just now to the point where we can do a CeeDee and a Micah and certainly want to see these things play out…CeeDee had his break out year this year in terms of really having a mega year in terms of his numbers and his statistics. Of course, Micah just became eligible, and of course, we’ve done a deal with Dak. After that, we’ve done Diggs, and we got him done early, and unfortunately, when you’re paying these quarterbacks the kind of money these teams are having to pay them, and it’s not just a handful of them…I’m sure there’s 12 to 16 guys that are making 40+ million bucks. Then you’re restricted to paying 5 or 6 guys, and believe me, it doesn’t feel good to watch a Biadasz leave the organization. It doesn’t feel good to watch these guys that we’ve drafted and developed and playing at a good level walk away, but unfortunately we can’t do that. Now, the good news is we feel like we’ve done a good job of drafting again, and you get the [Tyler] Guyton’s of the world, the [Cooper] Beebe’s of the world, and [Marshawn] Kneeland, who’s a pass rusher, you got to keep bringing these guys in because that’s where you get the relief under the cap is having your young guys play, play at a high level and play right away.”

The Cowboys have always found a way to supplement their losses in free agency through successful drafts. Jones sounds confident that even though they lost key contributors this offseason, supplementing them with Tyler Guyton, Cooper Beebe, Marshawn Kneeland, and others.

Dallas didn’t get much from their 2023 class, headlined by first-round pick Mazi Smith, but for the team to go anywhere this year, it sounds like Jones knows they need more from the young, inexpensive players. So far, Smith has had a positive offseason, quieting some of the talks about what happened in his first year.

One thing is for sure. The parlor tricks are over. The Cowboys don’t have just one Houdini act to pull off with the contract negotiations. The big finale matters most to fans regarding how Dallas decides to close on their 2024 performance.

Will it end in a deep playoff run, or will they have to pack everything up and try again next season? Time will tell, but hopefully, Jerry and Stephen Jones have some magic left in their sleeves to pull off their most significant tick yet and make sure it’ll be worth the price of admission.