Report: Cowboys haven’t begun talks with Dak Prescott or Amari Cooper

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The Cowboys have plenty of young, key players who are due for new contracts. As to two of them, negotiations have yet to commence.

Clarence E. Hill, Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the talks haven’t begun regarding new deals for quarterback Dak Prescott and receiver Amari Cooper. Both are entering the final year of their respective deals.

Neither will be easy to sign, given the trail blazed by Kirk Cousins and Trumaine Johnson via the franchise tag. If the player resists signing a long-term deal and opts to collect two years of the franchise tag, the team may have no choice but to let the player hit the market in year three.

The non-negotiations with Prescott and Cooper come at a time when the Cowboys are getting nowhere with defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, who is due to make $20.56 million under the second year of his own franchise tag. Per Hill, the Cowboys initially offered Lawrence $17 million per year before bumping to $20 million.

There’s no reason for Lawrence to accept that amount; he can make $20.56 million this year, putting the Cowboys on the hook for $29.6 million if they franchise-tag him again in 2020. And if the Cowboys opt for the right-of-first-refusal-only approach under the transition tag (at a tender of $24.67 million), Lawrence still gets a shot at the open market.

At a bare minimum, Lawrence should want the sum of the 2019 franchise tender and the 2020 transition tender, fully guaranteed at signing. That’s $45.23 million over the first two years, an average of $22.6 million.

Lawrence arguably could/should want more than that, given that he also could sit out the entire year and force the Cowboys to use the quarterback tender to keep him from the market in 2020, a separate trail blazed by Le'Veon Bell.

Regardless of how it plays out, Lawrence, Prescott, and Cooper have plenty of leverage. And if they plan to use it to the maximum, the Cowboys will have a very hard time getting them all signed.

And that’s without consideration of the possibility that running back Ezekiel Elliott, two years removed from free agency, will demand a new deal now — and hold out if he doesn’t get one.