Let me start by saying I really don't care who is being greedy between the Jones family and the players.
I said months ago I felt like Jerry may be doing a soft-reset of the salary cap to get out from under all of the dead money.
The hints of this have been everywhere because he chose to bring back McCarthy but not extend him despite him only having one year remaining on his current contract.
He could have easily extended Dak and Lamb before the salary cap increased or at least before other players in their respective positions signed new market-setting contracts.
The fact he didn't shows he is prepared to take a hit in 2024 to reset things.
As for leverage, I have read everywhere in the media and from many Cowboys fans how the players have all of the leverage, but this is simply not true.
What many people fail to consider is that Jerry is using the leverage he has (and he has a lot actually) to either get the deals he wants (and not just about money) or he gets his fallback plan with a reset year for the salary cap.
Everyone also assumes the contract delay is about money, and that is probably part of it, but there could be other sticking points as well.
For example, Dak/Lamb and their agents may want shorter contracts than the Cowboys do because they believe the salary cap will increase considerably in the next 2-3 years and they want to be able to capitalize on it.
They may also want longer contracts than the Cowboys want to give.
Beyond that, Dak currently has "no trade" and "no franchise tag" clauses in his contract and he may want both of those again in any new contract and Jerry may not want to do that a second time.
Lamb may want those clauses as well and Jerry does not want to offer them.
The truth is we fans and the media do not have all of the information.
Too many people assume it's all about money and greed (who to blame depends on which side you support), but the truth is the sticky points may not be money-related, at least not yearly average amounts.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out and, more importantly, if any details of the sticking points get leaked as frustration grows on one of the sides between the team and the players/agents.
he has all the leverage. dak has proven he can play good enough to be pretty good. but never good enough to be one of the highest paid at his position.
stats are pretty. you can shine them up and make them say many things. some good, some bad, but they're typical of statistics. as my gov teacher said in high school, quoting someone else i know - "there are lies, there are damn lies, and there are statistics".
it rang home that you make pull the stats you want and lob numbers at people and they'd rather go "oh, ok...yea" than sift through them to find what matters.
jones has given dak every chance. he's giving him 1 more and calling it a day. a blind man can see that at this point. dak either wins the superbowl this year and earns the payday or he goes and the cowboys not only are in the market for a new team, but with a few good moves, can afford a rebuild.
however, jones has handicapped dak as well. fair or not, that's life. no proven RB who can handle the load right now and hey - we got a stat back there with zeke. we don't have a solid player we can count on to be a game breaker, but we have history and with any luck, maybe a salvation army moment in the making.
but that's all we'll see from zeke.
with no solid ground attack, zimmer zimming around the hallways again, and mccarthy a lame duck - the odds are better for me to become a chip n dales highest paid dancer than dak winning the superbowl.
this year is a trainwreck in every sense of the word and that's how jones wants it. i don't think he wants to simply burn a year cause lets face it, he ain't got many left to burn. but he doesn't want to pay dak and he can't sit with the dead money.
which is the plan it would seem.
watch the games. have fun. but you were better off getting emotionally invested in game of thrones characters than this team, this year.
dak can win it all under these horrid conditions and make bank, or he can be someone elses problem next year.
either way, leverage jones.
