Stephen Jones 'confident' Cowboys can deal with Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Micah Parsons
Perhaps no team in the league is in more of a bind than the Dallas Cowboys heading into the 2024 season. The team has the head coach, Mike McCarthy, entering his final season under contract, as well as Dak Prescott, and they have extensions for two of the league’s top players coming up with CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons.
This week on Scoop City with Dianna Russini and Chase Daniel, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones opened up about the balancing act the team must perform to work on these major deals simultaneously. No long-term deals have been signed this offseason and the cap space paints a bleak picture for the Dallas’ balance sheet.
“Those things take time,” Jones said, regarding the potential mega-deals. “We’re talking about deals here… two players that aren’t quarterbacks, they feel like they outta be like (Justin) Jefferson, the top paid non-quarterbacks in the league, and then of course you have Dak.
“His resume speaks for itself. He was second in MVP voting last year. He’s had an extraordinary career here in Dallas. Those things just take time when you’re talking about the amount of money involved.”
Cowboys’ veteran roster poses ‘challenge’
The contract expirations coming in such close succession makes Jones’ job that much more difficult, as he explained by comparing the Cowboys’ salaries to those of the Vikings. Unlike Minnesota, Dallas already has numerous players in the top pay range for their position.
“We’re trying to play Houdini to keep all these guys around Dak and keep these players we were fortunate enough to draft,” he said. “When you start stocking them up like that, it’s a challenge. It’s not that it’s not doable but you certainly have to have some give and take.
“When the Vikings made the deal with Jefferson, you know they don’t have another player on the roster making over $20 million dollars… We have a big one in Dak, (Trevon) Diggs, Zack Martin, DLaw… No excuses. We think we can get this done, we know we can get it done but it just takes time.”
The Cowboys depart for Oxnard, California next week to begin training camp. Top receiver CeeDee Lamb appears set to stage a holdout until he agrees to an extension, but some believe the team will get a deal done before practices begin. If Lamb does opt to holdout, he’ll be subject to fines for every day of camp missed.