What is the Cowboys reasoning for delaying contract signings?

big dog cowboy said:
Big and little think it makes them look smart. Like they got the best deal. And by getting it done last minute like they are these shrew negotiators. Plus it keeps the Cowboys in the news every day they wait.
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Got a like due to 'shrew negotiators'...
 
blueblood70 said:
Yeah, here’s the thing—calling this unfortunate for Pickens is ridiculous. The man can sign his tag, and even without a long-term deal, he’ll make $29 million.

Even if that averages close to $16 million over two years, that’s just how it works—that’s the rule.

Here’s the counterpoint: are we pretending the agent and player don’t know this? Why not come down on the price a bit? Over the last few seasons, non-quarterback players wanting to be the highest paid at their position has changed how contracts get done for the top 10% of elite players, making it harder to sign them early.

Negotiations are about compromise—meeting in the middle. George Pickens hasn’t done enough to deserve being the highest-paid receiver in the league, not even top three. If he wants to aim for top five, fine, but it’s also on the agent and player to compromise. Some people don’t seem to get how you run a business with a budget.

That’s what the cap is. Even without a salary cap, businesses exist to profit—sports teams are corporations. You don’t just hand employees whatever they demand or cave to threats.

Look at Parsons—his exit wasn’t about money but his attitude, antics, body language, and social media behavior. Jerry played along, but Parsons pushed it too far.

I wouldn’t want to play on a team that operates like that. Sometimes patience pays—Prescott was patient, and he took Jerry to the cleaners twice, even after getting hurt, still landing a big payday.

Fans need to stop acting like players should instantly get whatever they demand; you don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes or what number they’ve set.

Why don’t fans stop stressing over contracts and money and just let things play out? Acting like the Cowboys’ front office is doing this on purpose isn’t true. Even with Aubrey, they tried to sign him last year as the highest-paid kicker—it wasn’t by much, but it was still the best deal for a kicker. He turned it down, that’s on him. Now he needs to sign the tender—has he? I don’t think so. Until Pickens signs the tag, he can’t get offers, so where’s all this supposed high value? Cowboys fans tend to overvalue their players, get attached, and think they should get everything while taking owners to the cleaners because they dislike ownership.

Across the league, 90% of contracts get done easily; the other 10%, like this, are driven by ego on all sides. Negotiation and compromise are necessary, or nothing moves.

Let’s see the value for Aubrey and Pickens—you won’t until they sign their tags and tenders and offers start coming in. I haven’t heard a single one. I’d take the money and conversation Waddle got in that trade; I think Pickens could get that or more, and I’d do it in a heartbeat instead of dragging this out. All three sides are holding this up. Show me where he’s signed his tag and then show me teams aggressively pursuing Pickens. Some say he’s not worth a first, not even what Waddle got; others say a second. If that’s the case, he’s not worth $34 million. I bet if he asked for $31 million, Jerry would sign him now, but I think his number is closer to $36 million.
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Pickens doesn’t have to sign the tag to be in discussions with other teams. Whatever Pickens is worth to any team, except the Cowboys, carries the additional cost a whatever they have to trade the Cowboys for him. He may well be perceived as worth $35 million per season, but added to that the assets needed to trade for him make him too expensive.

Pickens and his agent are aware of the rules. The team knows they could improve their short term cap situation by signing him to an appropriate deal. The Cowboys decision is simply do we want Pickens long term? From Pickens point of view the answer is apparently “no”. He may not be pleased with that. He will proceed accordingly.
 
blueblood70 said:
That’s one of the most ridiculous and delusional takes I keep seeing. You don’t just give the player whatever he wants—that’s not how you run a $15 billion business. This is about the agent and player negotiating with the team.


That’s how it works: you don’t give employees everything they want or they’ll take it all. You aim for middle ground, for compromise. In this case, they franchise-tagged him, so he’s free to test the market and see his value.

Let’s see if other teams bid. Honestly, I’m not even sure George Pickens has signed his franchise tag yet, so we don’t know his exact value. Sure, he might make more elsewhere, but on a team already paying a primary wide receiver $34 million a year, you’re not getting a market-setting contract opposite CeeDee Lamb.

That’s just reality. This is the art of business and negotiations—if companies gave blank checks to everyone, they’d go broke. The salary cap is basically a budget to pay everyone, and with the Cowboys employing around 1,200 people, this isn’t a mom-and-pop shop.

Somehow, though, some folks think the player should get everything—but that’s not how business works.


They tried that with Aubrey last September, offering him $6.8 million. It was barely the highest salary at the time, but it would have made him the highest-paid kicker. Even now, with two other kickers getting new deals, he’d still hold that title.

But you know what he did? He said no. That’s on him, not Jerry, because expecting Jerry to pay Aubrey $10 million just because Aubrey asked for it isn’t how business works.
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There is not now, nor was there ever, a reliable source that knows what they offered Aubrey. The 6.8 number appears a to be a leak from the cowboys and we all know that they have a thirty six year history of lying about players and contracts.

Further, Aubrey, and his wife, called BS on the front office whisper campaign that he had demanded $10m. That carries weight with me because, unlike Jerry, I don’t have decades of proof that Aubrey is a grifter and a liar.

This is just like Pickens. The team put a tag on him and will pay him that because they don’t want to actually pay him top of market.
 
Kwyn said:
There is not now, nor was there ever, a reliable source that knows what they offered Aubrey. The 6.8 number appears a to be a leak from the cowboys and we all know that they have a thirty six year history of lying about players and contracts.

Further, Aubrey, and his wife, called BS on the front office whisper campaign that he had demanded $10m. That carries weight with me because, unlike Jerry, I don’t have decades of proof that Aubrey is a grifter and a liar.

This is just like Pickens. The team put a tag on him and will pay him that because they don’t want to actually pay him top of market.
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Per some source I saw they offered him $7.4M.
 
It was obvious from day 1 Pickens was going to have a monster year.

1. He had a better QB to play with.
2. He was playing with a top 5 WR who was being doubled.

This is like when our DB's Diggs and Bland played outstanding with Micah's pass rush. Then without Micah, not so much.

Not only do we not know how to build a complimentary football team, we also can't recognize inflated performances because of it and then tend to over pay players.

A great year does not necessarily mean you over pay them. Pay them what they are worth, or trade them after a monster year, and reap the rewards in draft compensation.
 
Mobinvans said:
Because they are terrible GMs and people who work for them are scared to tell them
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I think your missing the point. They don't care what people think. They own the Dallas Cowboys and they will do whatever suits their fancy.
 
Coogiguy03 said:
Could someone please help me understand why we do this, why we think this is some kind of special tactic to use? I'm sure "other teams do this too" but we're focusing on the cowboys. What is the reasoning, has the player not shown enough, is it the agent, is it both, or the Cowboys just aren't sure the player fits in their plans?

It's kind of hard to believe as the Cowboys have great things to say about every player. If you ask them, you always hear positive feedback on how they WANT said player to return and play for them, yet they stall and take their time. I realize it's good to see what the market is set at, but find out what the market is, and get the player signed. Often times we run the price up by waiting too long, doing the opposite of what we want to do. We all know they're cheap, yet they wait and wait things out, only to see the price increase! Please give your thoughts on this
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Jerry is trying to read the tea leaves or waiting for feedback from his psychic.
 
Bob Strum hit the nail on the head when discussing why the Jones boys stink at free agency and then explaining why deals get drawn out with them.

They covet leverage and are "comical lowballers" as Strum stated. The Jones boys always have to feel like they won a negotiation. Having media coverage on their stalled contract negotiations is a cherry on top.
 
There's more to it than just being cheap and terrible at their jobs.

Jerry fancies himself a modern day JR Ewing. He needs cash and pumps it into oil & gas and yachts and who knows what else. When you give a player a new contract, the guaranteed $$ - the truly guaranteed $, not that $ that requires a player to still be on the roster - has to be placed in escrow. So the minute he'd have signed Micah Parsons, $120M was going out of his pocket and into an account he can no longer touch. In Jerry's mind, that's $120 million he can invest and grow, and he'll grow it more than he loses from Micah's price going up.

He traded Micah for Kenny Clark, who had no guaranteed $. Then, months after he should have signed Micah, and spread out over time, he signed Tyler Smith, Osa, Ferguson, and Bland for only slightly more total guaranteed than Micah alone got. In Jerry's mind, 5 players for the current price of one, and he kept all that cash several extra months than if he'd resigned Micah in the spring of '25, when he pretended like they were going to.
 
TNCowboy said:
There's more to it than just being cheap and terrible at their jobs.

Jerry fancies himself a modern day JR Ewing. He needs cash and pumps it into oil & gas and yachts and who knows what else. When you give a player a new contract, the guaranteed $$ - the truly guaranteed $, not that $ that requires a player to still be on the roster - has to be placed in escrow. So the minute he'd have signed Micah Parsons, $120M was going out of his pocket and into an account he can no longer touch. In Jerry's mind, that's $120 million he can invest and grow, and he'll grow it more than he loses from Micah's price going up.

He traded Micah for Kenny Clark, who had no guaranteed $. Then, months after he should have signed Micah, and spread out over time, he signed Tyler Smith, Osa, Ferguson, and Bland for only slightly more total guaranteed than Micah alone got. In Jerry's mind, 5 players for the current price of one, and he kept all that cash several extra months than if he'd resigned Micah in the spring of '25, when he pretended like they were going to.
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Meanwhile, Jerry should be investing and growing the talent level on his football team.
 
gimmesix said:
They explained the purpose of it years ago. They said that things don't get done until there is a deadline, a sense of urgency applied. If they start negotiations early, then the agent is going to take his time and keep trying to up the asking price. If they wait until it's time for camp, they thought that that made both sides have that urgency.

However, it seems like they've modified that belief to be even more extreme. It appears they've devalued getting deals done at the start of camp and just want to get them done by the start of the season. I think they've adapted a philosophy that if a star player can't participate in the preseason then he also can't be hurt. This comes IMO from not playing players like Dak and Elliott at all during the preseason.
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Deadlines make deals lol
 
gimmesix said:
They explained the purpose of it years ago. They said that things don't get done until there is a deadline, a sense of urgency applied. If they start negotiations early, then the agent is going to take his time and keep trying to up the asking price. If they wait until it's time for camp, they thought that that made both sides have that urgency.

However, it seems like they've modified that belief to be even more extreme. It appears they've devalued getting deals done at the start of camp and just want to get them done by the start of the season. I think they've adapted a philosophy that if a star player can't participate in the preseason then he also can't be hurt. This comes IMO from not playing players like Dak and Elliott at all during the preseason.
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If they don't start negations until the deadline then they are correct. Several deals have already been made this off season before any deadline.

Jerry gets decide when the deadline is in this scenario.
 
Managing the salary cap should be much simpler than the Cowboys make it.

In today’s NFL, the ability to evaluate the talent on your roster is a big part of cap management. Knowing not only the players you have that are worth paying market prices, but also knowing when or if you make the decision to pay them - or not.

The process of managing the cap should go something like this:
  • Evaluate the talent you have.
  • Decide as EARLY as you can whether you want to extend a player or not.
  • If you know you want them, don’t wait. Offer them an extension as early as possible. It saves $$$.
  • Avoid long contract negotiations or delays. Because the longer you wait, the more you pay and the less flexibility you have for other signings.
One reason this team always seems to have cap issues is they fail to follow a process anything close to the above.
 
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