Stephen Jones: Cowboys trying to 'play Houdini' to keep team's stars around Dak Prescott 

Every NFL team subscribes in July to a philosophy of Super Bowl or bust.

Such thinking is magnified for this iteration of Cowboys superstars, a collection of talents that could find themselves separated beyond 2024.

Dallas heads into the season with its franchise quarterback Dak Prescott and elite wide receiver CeeDee Lamb both on the final year of their contracts. Micah Parsons, a three-time Pro Bowl pass rusher, is waiting in the wings behind them with two years remaining on his deal.

All are in line for extensions that would place them among the top of their respective positions, a gargantuan undertaking for Dallas’ front office to maneuver, and even head coach Mike McCarthy is working without an extra year of security.

“Well those things take time,” Cowboys chief operating officer Stephen Jones said of player negotiations recently on the Scoop City podcast, via The Athletic. “And we’re talking about deals here. You know 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.

“And then of course you have Dak. Obviously, his resume speaks for itself. You know, he was second in MVP voting last year. You know, he’s just had an extraordinary career here in Dallas. And, you know, 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 in how to keep all these guys around Dak and keep these players we were fortunate enough to draft.”

Jones did note the Cowboys were “having conversations” with Prescott’s agent, but thus far Dallas’ wait-and-see approach has it heading into the season with Prescott’s $55.1 million cap hit accounting for 21.2% of the team’s cap.

Lamb is currently owed $17.9 million in base salary, the same as his 2024 cap hit.

Prescott sits tied with the Giants’ Daniel Jones as the 12th-highest-paid QB on yearly average after leading the league with 36 touchdown passes last season, per Over the Cap, while Lamb’s 2024 salary costs the team outside the top 20 for wideouts after he led the league with 135 receptions last season.

But the challenge isn’t simply their upcoming paydays. Jones also mentioned the fact that Dallas has others, such as pass rusher Demarcus Lawrence, offensive guard Zack Martin and cornerback Trevon Diggs, already making significant chunks of change with cap numbers of $20.4 million, $15.5 million and $14.1 million, respectively. Lawrence and Martin both have void years to contend with, and Diggs’ cap hit leaps another roughly $5.5 million by 2026 and an extra $5 million on top of that jump in 2027.

“When you start stacking them up like that, you know, it’s a challenge,” Jones said. “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.”

Added onto the money equation is the pressure in Dallas to capitalize on a roster brimming right now with talent. Since Prescott, Lamb and Parsons have been together starting in 2021, the Cowboys are winners of 36 regular-season games. They’ve turned that into just one playoff victory, and due in part to the contracts to come will now have to finally get over the hump without the benefit of a big free-agency boost.

Dallas will be hoping to discover some untapped magic to do so in the season ahead, similar to how the front office hopes to work the cap to keep the best team together.

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