Jones expects Dak to be Cowboy for ‘a long time’

Todd Archer, ESPN Staff WriterSep 5, 2023, 11:02 AM ET
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FRISCO, Texas — Since training camp started, the Dallas Cowboys have signed cornerback Trevon Diggs, safety Malik Hooker and right tackle Terence Steele to extensions and reworked the contract of right guard Zack Martin, and they would still like to work on deals with quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb.

Prescott and Lamb are under contract through 2024 with Prescott set to count $59.4 million against the salary cap next year.

“Those types of numbers, especially the big ones, you live with constantly. That’s always on your mind,” owner and general manager Jerry Jones said on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas on Tuesday. “There’s never a time where it goes away because you’ve got to make the entire thing fit. And so, it’s on the mind on a player decision in the middle of the year. It’s just a fundamental. We expect Dak to be with us a long time. And, yeah, we’ll always [be] working around it with several machinations of numbers that would work.”

Jones has continually expressed the desire to sign Prescott to an extension, but getting one completed would actually chew into salary cap room this year. In 2024, Prescott is scheduled to make $29 million in salary and has a $5 million roster bonus.

The Cowboys put the fifth-year option on Lamb for 2024 at a cost of $17.99 million but have had talks this offseason with his agent regarding an extension that would make him among the higher-paid receivers in the NFL.

In the past, some players have used Week 1 of a season as a deadline of sorts in terms of wanting to get a deal done. It’s not clear if either player has said such a thing to the Cowboys, but Jones said the team would be willing to let the talks continue into the season.

“And it may be a better time for them to get to the point where they can make a decision,” Jones said. “We all, I know I do, have times that I get up and I feel like locking something down that may be a loose end. If I get a chance to, well, I’ll do it. That should sound flexible because it is. It’s a moving part. Of course, the real-life situation that we deal with is injury, and we deal with appreciating and depreciating talent levels. It goes up and down. And it happens there right before your eyes. It can happen during a season, so how you start a season off is not how you end up a season with a short-term and long-term look either.”