The Dallas Cowboys find themselves in a unique position as the 2024 NFL season approaches. On one hand, Dallas its still in many ways “America's Team.” The Cowboys have had more regular season success than any other team in the NFC over the last three years, and their roster is spear-headed by a trio of All-Pros — Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and Micah Parsons — who are in line for market-setting deals, or at least deals that would come close. On the other hand, this is a franchise that enters each and every season with Super Bowl or Bust expectations placed on them by the owner of the team, Jerry Jones. To make matters worse, for as rich as Jerry Jones is, there isn't a limitless amount of money that he can spend on the team. Champagne problems, am I right?
Paying everybody on the roster, including Prescott, Lamb, and Parsons their desired or deserved salary is a nearly impossible task, but one that the Cowboys front office is attempting to make a reality by any means necessary… even magic.
“We're trying to a little bit play Houdini in how to keep all these guys around Dak and keep these players we were fortunate enough to draft,” Cowboys co-owner Stephen Jones said recently during an interview on the Scoop City podcast (h/t Dianna Russini and Larry Holder of The Athletic). While both CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons were highly-touted 1st round picks for the Cowboys in back-to-back drafts, Dak Prescott was a 4th round pick in 2016 who was thrust into action ahead of his rookie year only because of a preseason injury to starting quarterback Tony Romo. Since then, Prescott has gone 73-41 as the starter in Dallas and finished 2nd in MVP voting last season.
However, Dak Prescott's success has proven to be something of a double-edged sword. Prescott is due $55 million on the final year of his contract this year, and will be in line for a deal even bigger than that potentially moving forward. Given his regular season success, it's understandable that the Cowboys would pony up the money for him. But in that scenario, building a championship roster around him becomes more difficult.
“You know what happens to teams when you do have these high-priced quarterbacks,” Jones noted. “At some point, it’s a challenge to keep everybody.”
(Cut to Stephen Jones pulling a rabbit out of his hat as CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons look on)
Can the Cowboys keep Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb AND Micah Parsons?
Even with this challenge, Stephen Jones believes that locking down not only Dak Prescott, but also CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons is a realistic possibility.
“We are optimistic that we can get these guys done,” Jones said. “When you're talking about CeeDee and Dak, and you know somebody like a Micah coming up. I mean you're talking about two players that aren't quarterbacks that feel like they ought to be a little bit like (the Vikings' Justin) Jefferson, the top-paid non-quarterbacks in the league.”
In June, Justin Jefferson signed a four-year, $140 million deal to remain with the Minnesota Vikings, making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL, edging out San Francisco 49ers edge rusher Nick Bosa, who signed a deal worth $34 million per year ahead of the 2023 season. Looking at the production of Lamb and Parsons versus Jefferson and Bosa last season, the Cowboys duo has a rock-solid case to receive deals in that neighborhood.
CeeDee Lamb (2021-2023) – 50 games, 321 receptions, 4,210 receiving yards, 27 receiving touchdowns
Justin Jefferson (2021-2023) – 44 games, 304 receptions, 4,499 receiving yards, 23 receiving touchdowns
Micah Parsons (2021-2023) – 50 games, 213 tackles, 40.5 sacks, 51 tackles for loss, 7 forced fumbles
Nick Bosa (2021-2023) – 50 games, 156 tackles, 44.5 sacks, 56 tackles for loss, 8 forced fumbles
Of course, part of the reason why the Vikings and 49ers were able to hand out these deals is because their starting quarterback is not making upwards of $50 million per year, which makes the process more of a challenge, but by no means impossible.
“It's not that it's not doable, but you certainly got to have some give and take if you want to do that. … We got a lot of guys making, you know, quite a bit of money. And you know, that's no excuses. We think we can get this done, know we can get it done. But it just takes time.”
Harry Houdini lasted 91 minutes underwater in a sealed coffin. Fortunately for the Cowboys, they have more time than this to figure out how to keep this team together.
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