Another poster brought this up in another thread, and it's an interesting aspect of Dak's negotiation that doesn't seem to have been discussed much, but it's not unreasonable to wonder if, without the threat of the season not taking place at all, the Cowboys would have taken the 5th year off the table and signed Dak. As it is they may have worried that if the 2020 season isn't played that with a 4 year contract they would have effectively only had Dak committed for 3 seasons.
It's probably a waste of key strokes for me to write this, but if all you have for this thread is something like "Jerry just screwed it all up", or "Jerry just decided Dak sucks", or "Dak doesn't want to play in Dallas" please let it go in favor of some discussion on this topic. Obviously there was a desire to get a deal done, whether 4 or 5 years, or the two sides wouldn't have held out the possibility of a deal until the deadline.