This is what I don't understand when fans bring up a player who is available now. Every team has the opportunity to add that player but has declined. There's generally a good reason for that.
I'm not sure it's just the price demands, but teams do weigh cost vs. value, which is based on performance level, coachability, etc. They know better than us what they are getting and what the player should be worth. ... That's one reason I don't trip out over contracts. If the team pays a player huge money, it's because that's what the player's market value is. Sure, the home team can sometimes get a discount, but it's not like the owners and GMs set out to pay their players more than they are worth.
Elliott got a contract because the team agreed with his value; Dak has not because the team doesn't agree with what he believes his value is at this point. Now, there have been times when a player signed with another team where I thought the value was good and Dallas should have went after that player, but we don't really know that they didn't make him an offer or if he was even willing to take the same offer from the Cowboys. We focus too much on contracts when we don't have all the variables.