Jerry Jones's Obsession

In the 2024 offseason, the Cowboys made Dak Prescott and Ceedee Lamb the highest paid players at their respective positions. They paid Dak Prescott a 4 year 240 million dollar contract, making him the highest paid player in NFL history and making him the 4th highest paid athlete across the whole world. However, one key member they never signed was Micah Parsons, someone who they decided to hold off on the contract negotiations until this year's offseason. A move that will surely backfire onto them.

As much as I hate to admit it, the Cowboys were severely hindered by Prescott and Lamb's contracts, and due to their situations, the Cowboys were unable to sign any big name free agents to help out the team, or were they? In March of 2024, the NFL offseason changed the landscape of the league, as more power started to shift to the AFC. Derrick Henry, Joe Mixon, Josh Jacobs, Aaron Jones, Saquon Barkley, and Tony Pollard all shifted teams. Some of the best RBs in the league were on new teams. Meanwhile Dallas? They didn't even attempt to sign any of these players, even though it probably would've saved them. In the 2024 season, the Cowboys were dead last in rush offense for the first 8 weeks, and it put a lot of strain on the passing game to succeed. No matter how good the QB is, you always need a good running game if you want to make it far in the league. But that's not the point here.

What I should be focused on were the Quarterback contracts, Jalen Hurts got 55 million, Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert, Geno Smith, and other quarterbacks like Jared Goff got deals north of 50 million dollars! One name was missing however, Dak Prescott. Jones's inability to sign Prescott in the same time frame as these players is the reason Dak got the deal he did. It was nothing based on his ability as a player, but everything to do with the Jones's inability to seal Dak when the iron was hot, or was it?

In 2019, Ezekiel Elliot held out for months before he was awarded a contract that made him the highest paid running back in the league at the time. In 2015, Dez Bryant did the same thing and got awarded a 90 million dollar contract. Tony Romo, with just one playoff win, was awarded a 230 million dollar contract in 2013. See a pattern? Jerry Jones loves the headlines, the attention, the smokescreen that the press and the media will give the Cowboys for these deals regardless of the outcome. His obsession with wanting the attention is the biggest reason the Cowboys have not made it to the big game since 1996. The reason for the 4 playoff wins since 1996.

The repeated cycle of holding out negotiations, stirring up news in the media has been a thing for this team dating back to when I first started to watch in 2014. Jones's obsession has led the Cowboys astray of their current goals and of the ultimate goal to win the superbowl. He has done the same with Micah Parsons now. Myles Garrett signed a big extension that made him the highest paid defensive player of all time, then TJ Watt followed it up by breaking that record and setting that for himself. If the Cowboys want to retain Parsons, they will need to set headlines again, and make Parsons the highest paid defensive player of all time, once again, fueling Jones's obsession with headlines.