Players and agents don't have to sign contracts with terms they can't live with. If a player doesn't like the terms offered, they don't have to sign. However, once a contract is signed, teams don't renege on what they signed on to. That doesn't happen. Teams may cut players but if that player is owed money, that player gets money, no exceptions. However, if a player holds out after having been paid their money, that's a different story and that does happen. Now, teams can fine players, to a point, and they can go after things like signing bonus etc. but they don't always do that because the optics don't look good, precisely because of fans just like you. You see this as a one way street where teams just cut players early and so on. That's just not how it works. I mean, you act as if this is the fault of Jerry and the Cowboys. None of this is the fault of Jerry, in terms of what Zeke is getting paid. The Players Union and the CBA dictate what Zeke makes, according to what was agreed upon in the CBA. The structure of the contract is different from player to player and that is negotiated between the team and the player but nothing else. Zeke got his money up front. What he was slotted to make, he got. What's more, he got it early and almost all guaranteed. Jerry did not try and back door Zeke. Now Zeke is playing for 3 mil plus for this season, which is how his people wanted it. They wanted to be paid up front so naturally, if you have a pie and if you eat 90% of that pie in the first few days, then yeah, on the 4th day, the slice you have left is going to be much smaller then what you started out with.
I hate all of these posters who say, "Pay The Man". Guess what, the man has already been paid. What do you do when you run out of pie? You go out and you go get more pie, yes? Well, that's exactly what has happened with the Cowboys picking up his 5th year option. That's also what should be happening, in terms of a new deal after the 5th year but guess what, you are not the only one who loves pie. Other people also LOVE pie. So the pies that get backed on any given day, sometimes get eaten by other people because hey, why shouldn't everybody be able to enjoy pie right? That's where Zeke is at right now. Zeke doesn't care about the other people who also want pie, IMO. Zeke wants his pie and who cares about the rest. Well, there are only so many ovens so you can only cook so many pies. Zeke has pie left to eat and he could just eat what he has and be patient with the baker. But that's not what's happening. Zeke wants his pie and so, the baker will be forced to give him what he can spare. The result might very well be that instead of getting the Chocolate Silk pie that Zeke really, really likes, he might end up getting the custard pie. The custard pie is also very good but it's not Zeke's favorite. But if you are demanding the pie now, then you will have to settle for what the baker can offer at this time and place and it's likely that it won't be as good or as much as it might be if you could just be patient and give the baker more time to bake.
I mean, if we've heard it once, we've heard it a hundred times, it's all baked in right? That's how the cap works. Zeke needs to be patient but if he can't be patient then he has to realize that he can only get what is left. Dak and Coop are the priorities because their contracts are up sooner. Cowboys can't wait on those two. They have to get a deal done sooner, rather then later and as we all know, players love pie.