Jerry Jones says Dallas Cowboys’ financial ‘pie is getting smaller’ in wake of La’el Collins’ deal
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said the money available to sign players, including quarterback Dak Prescott, receiver Amari Cooper, and, of course, running back Ezekiel Elliott, is getting tight.
Jones said during his radio how on KRLD/105.3 The Fan that the “pie is getting smaller” in the wake of the news of right tackle La’el Collins agreeing to a five-year, $50 million contract extension.
“To the extent that we look at how much we’re allocating to each and every player, each and every position, that creates boundaries that you can go in other positions, and it should do that,” Jones said. “That’s called planning, and that’s what we’re doing.”
The Cowboys open the season against the New York Giants at 3:25 p.m. Sunday at AT&T Stadium.
The salary cap, which is $188.2 million this season, is a crutch the Cowboys have used in their negotiations, specifically with Elliott, who has held out all of training camp while seeking a long-term deal. But the Cowboys, who signed linebacker Jaylon Smith to a long-term deal two weeks ago, also have Prescott and Cooper expecting new deals.
Collins’ deal will apparently free up $5.7 million in the Cowboys’ cap for 2019, according to Yahoo’s Charles Robinson. That could help with the Elliott deal.
Jones said none of the contracts and their negotiations, happen in a vacuum.
“This takes a nice chunk out of the pie. But the thing I want to remind everyone listening is we’re continually negotiating with players. We have a group of several players that we are evaluating, not only from a skill standpoint, but we’re evaluating financially. And that’s an ongoing thing.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2019 at 10:29 AM.
