The Dallas Cowboys have many decisions to make with regards to which core players they will sign to long-term contracts and which players they will be forced to move on from. Signing Demarus Lawrence to a long-term deal represented the first domino to fall and QB Dak Prescott is likely the next man up. What has become apparent for the Dallas Cowboys is that the existence of the salary cap will prevent them from signing all of their star players. Since they can’t sign them all, who will the Cowboys end up keeping and who will they move on from?
There are several impactful players who have expiring contracts in the next couple of seasons including Ezekiel Elliott, Amari Cooper, La’el Collins, Maliek Collins, Byron Jones, Anthony Brown, Jaylon Smith, and Antwuan Woods. Among those players, Elliott, Cooper, Jones and Smith will demand the highest market value. The Dallas Cowboys will likely have to sacrifice one of these young star players to the open market, but which of them is most likely to depart?
LEAST LIKELY
Jaylon Smith was drafted in 2016 but because he missed his entire rookie season the Cowboys can wait until 2021 before he becomes a free agent. The recent contract signed by C.J Mosley for $17 million/year has reset the market for interior linebackers and that will impact Smith’s next contract. Smith is a high character player who has emerged as a leader on the defense as well as the defensive play caller. He is too valuable to let go at this point but another serious injury and the existence of young stud linebacker Leighton Vander Esch could potentially make him expendable in the future.
Amari Cooper saved the season for the Dallas Cowboys in 2018 and he helped show how valuable a legitimate #1 WR could be for this offense. The Dallas Cowboys have implied that they want to secure Cooper’s services in a long-term contract but he will be expensive. His contract could demand anywhere from $16 to $20 million/season. That is a lot of money to tie up into a player with a history of inconsistency and only 9 regular season games worth of a sample size with the Cowboys. A slow start to 2019 could cause the Cowboys to pump the brakes on extending Cooper right away.
MORE LIKELY
Ezekiel Elliott is the beating heart of the Dallas Cowboys offense. He is not only the most valuable offensive player but the entire offense is designed around him. Despite his clear cut value to the team he does play a position which has the shortest shelf life of any other position on the field. As well as Elliott played last season, he was clearly overworked and banged up . It would be difficult to imagine Zeke having long term success with that type of usage. The running back position is often undervalued in the free agency market because teams can find cheap replacements in the draft. Young backs can usually step in and play right away and the drop off in talent is not nearly enough to justify spending the extra money at the position. Ezekiel Elliott is going to demand somewhere between $14 and $16 million dollars/season or more on his next contract and that will be after 2 more years of heavy usage. It makes a lot of sense for the Cowboys to run Zeke into the ground and move on in 2021 but it appears that they are intent on keeping him in silver and blue for many years to come.
MOST LIKELY
Byron Jones switched over to cornerback from safety and responded with his first Pro-Bowl selection of his career. As well as Jones did play last season two things are concerning. First of all, his level of play declined towards the end of the season. That could potentially be explained by his injury as he did have hip surgery in the offseason but it is concerning none the less. Secondly, despite Jones stellar play he did not register a single interception. It is hard to justify paying $15 million/season or more for a cornerback that doesn’t generate turnovers. I love Byron Jones as a player and he is a high character guy, but with all the mouths to feed in Dallas, Byron Jones is likely going to be the odd man out.
*Photo by Kieth Allison https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode