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.
