The Cowboys are a salary-cap conscious team. While some teams will eagerly build in free agency and allow their spending to ebb and flow each season, Dallas stays fairly consistent. They aren’t an “all in” franchise. They are an “always in the mix” franchise. Right or wrong, it’s how the Cowboys are generally operated.
In order to achieve this, they are extremely reliant on the NFL draft each year. The budget is based on a certain proportion of rookie contracts populating the ranks. For every high-priced star, they need four or five players working and contributing on their entry level salaries.
It’s not as simple as just re-signing good players. Dallas drafts too efficiently for that. In their minds, they can’t afford to re-sign all their good players every year. In order to maintain a healthy bottom line, tough decisions need to be made.
Star players like Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Trevon Diggs and Micah Parsons are all up for new deals in the next two years. All four will command top-of-the-market money and all four are expected to get that money in Dallas.
“Where are our priorities and what can we do with a guy like CeeDee, who we all know what his expectations will be,” Stephen Jones said of upcoming contracts. “Not unlike Diggs, not unlike, you know, other players and then you’re always factoring in, every team is, your quarterback.”
Four gargantuan contracts will unavoidably have ramifications to the rest of the roster. It’s a reality the Cowboys are well aware of. Stephen Jones went on…
“As we move forward [Prescott] is a big part of how we figure our salary cap in who we can keep and when are we going to have to make hard decisions to move on. Not unlike we had to do this year with Schultz. No one respects Dalton Schultz more than the Dallas Cowboys…at some point you have to make those tougher decisions.”
The Cowboys won big when they added Jake Ferguson and Peyton Hendershot in 2022. Not all Day 3 selections and UDFA signings work out like those two did. Their success afforded Dallas the flexibility to move on from Schultz, saving money, and moving resources.
Looking towards the TE-rich 2023 draft class likely also played a part. Both Jerry and Stephen Jones mentioned the need for young draft picks to step up and assume roles. Jerry pointed to Josh Ball and Matt Waletzko as two players he expects to step up.
And Stephen mentioned two players who stepped up in the past and why a constant roster churn is part of the Cowboys’ strategy.
“These guys got to step and play at some point,” Stephen said. “You might have to let a, like we have the last two years with Conner Williams and Conner McGovern, and we thought the world of both those guys…but you can’t keep everybody.”
It’s telling, in the last pre-draft presser of the offseason, the Cowboys continuously discussed financial decisions and how money impacts their roster building. They spoke of tough decisions in the past and virtually guaranteed tough decisions in the near future.
“There’s going to be a tough decision as we move forward, where’s Tony going to be and how he fits? Obviously he’s going to be here this year, he’s franchised that shows you what we think of him but we’d also like to think about keeping him around for the next 3-4 years as well.”
Keep in mind, the Cowboys franchise tagged Schultz in 2022 and seemed to make little effort to retain him beyond. It was one of those tough decisions they spoke of.
They discussed tough decisions to veteran players as well, like Ezekiel Elliott and how money played a big part in his departure.
Tony Pollard, Terence Steele and Tyron Smith are names that stick out as potential “tough decisions” for the Cowboys this next year. In K.D. Drummond’s annual Draft Commandments, “Follow the Money” is a tried and true edict for what fuels Dallas’ draft process.
Money is on Dallas’ collective mind and it’s a basis for how the roster is constructed each year. They just offered up the latest reminder.
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