Cowboys having “pretty active discussions” with Prescott, Cooper

[Rowdy]

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The Cowboys have one long-term deal done with more to go. With defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence out of the way, the Cowboys have started work on the contracts of receiver Amari Cooper and quarterback Dak Prescott.

“Yeah, we’re always open to looking at things,” Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said on 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday. “Certainly if there are opportunities there that make sense, then we’ll progress. I think pretty much everybody’s on it pretty good that there’s some pretty active discussions now with Dak and Amari, but it doesn’t mean that some can’t pick up in short order with other players that we have on our roster that we certainly want to keep here in Dallas and have them remain Cowboys in the future.”

The quarterback market has gone crazy in two years, and Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson set a new bar early Tuesday morning. Wilson now is the league’s highest-paid player, with a four-year, $140 million extension that includes a $65 million signing bonus.

Jones was quick to point out that Wilson and Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, whose contract averages $33.5 million per season, both have won a Super Bowl.

Prescott is 32-16 in the regular season in his career but 1-2 in the postseason and has never gone beyond the divisional round. But then, Matthew Stafford ($27 million per year), Jimmy Garoppolo ($27.5 million), Kirk Cousins ($28 million), Matt Ryan ($30 million) and Andrew Luck ($24.6 million) also have never won a Super Bowl as a starter.

Jones said last week that Prescott’s deal must be “team friendly” to maintain a competitive roster around him, and Jones repeated that Tuesday.

“You’re talking about two guys there who, between Rodgers and Russell Wilson, have won Super Bowls that have had success year in and year out taking their teams to the playoffs,” Jones said. “Russell, both of them have been to a couple of Super Bowls, or at least I know Russell has been. So, yeah, those are guys who are going to make those type of jumps. But I’m not concerned. I think at the end of the day if there’s any position that has to keep an eye out, not only for the themselves, but they have to keep an eye out on their team in terms of how much cap space they take up, these quarterbacks are those guys because, at the end of the day, they’re going to make a lot of money. The bigger for them in terms of their career and what they’re all about is how much did they win, how many Super Bowl rings do they have on their fingers, those are all huge deals. And they know if at some point they take up too much cap space at the end of the day, then it can hurt their chances in terms of winning.”