Cap hell is coming.
"The salary cap makes paying Prescott, Cooper, Jones,
and Elliott difficult. Prescott’s next deal could be in the $130 million range—similar to those signed by Russell Wilson and Carson Wentz—and Cooper’s is likely to top $100 million, as Saints receiver Michael Thomas’s new contract did. Jones is in line for about $80 million over four years, based on the contract signed by Dolphins corner Xavien Howard. Plus, three members of the offensive line will cost another $50 million in salaries for 2020, and the salary cap for that season will sit at about $200 million. While cap math can get complicated—deals can be structured to push a player’s hit against the cap to a future year—it’s possible that the Cowboys will be in a position where just eight or nine players will account for three-quarters of their cap space. In other words, it looks impossible for the team to pay every player it’s going to want to keep. Hard choices are coming.
Teams that are successful when their star players are on their first contracts have a much tougher time retaining high-level talent to surround them as those stars get more expensive to re-sign. Prescott accounts for a little more than $2 million toward the salary cap in 2019, which has given the team a lot of flexibility to bring in players like Cooper. By 2020, the quarterback will cost ten times that, and that flexibility goes out the window.
Which means that 2019 might be the last hurrah for this iteration of the Cowboys. Elliott’s obviously a big part of their hopes for the coming season—which is the very leverage that makes his potential holdout a smart strategy. The Cowboys salary cap situation will be a game of musical chairs in 2020. If Elliott can guarantee himself a seat for several seasons to come by threatening to disrupt the team’s plans, that could be his best shot to succeed at the business of football while playing the game’s most disposable position."
https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/dallas-cowboys-salary-cap-ezekiel-elliott-holdout/
