Cowboys $110 Million Per Year to Keep 4 Stars: 'Doable' - But Is It Right Move?

The Dallas Cowboys will have multiple key players looking for new contracts in the near future. Can the Cowboys find the cap room to keep them all?

The Dallas Cowboys will be up against it in terms of contract negotiations over the next few years as a bundle of their young stars look for new deals. Unfortunately, that is the price you pay when you've strung together so many consecutive successful draft classes that have yielded star talent. Just in the span of the last few draft classes, the Cowboys managed to land their No. 1 running back Tony Pollard, their top cornerback and receiver in Trevon Diggs, and CeeDee Lamb and their "Lion-Backer" Micah Parsons.

CowboysSI.com has reported that Dallas is engaged on some level in contract movement on the appropriate players - a list of players who will soon be up for new deals that also includes quarterback Dak Prescott.

Cowboys COO Stephen Jones is promoting confidence about the road ahead.

"I feel like as we move forward, it will all be about timing, but we feel like we can work within the parameters of the cap and make those type of things happen," Stephen said this week.

Assuming that to be the case - and as our Mike Fisher explains below, the Joneses do have a "Pie Plan'' that assumes that drafting well equals paying well and that it can all fit together - it does leave one question ...

Do these "stars'' actually merit this money?

Dallas has already made their first move with Lamb, picking up his fifth-year option, which will cost them $17.99 million; And, despite the relative silence regarding Prescott's extension, the Cowboys remain confident they will get a deal done. In theory, the sooner they get Prescott's deal done before more market-resetting, the easier it can be to move full-steam ahead on Lamb and Diggs.  

"We want to work on all of the above, but we'll just have to see how this thing plays out," said Jones.

Jones is not implying that Dallas has reluctance on Dak, Lamb, Diggs or Micah. But we'll say this: The "shine on The Star'' can be blinding. So in addition to Cowboys Nation wanting the team to "hurry up and do 'em.'' ... the questions should be asked ...

Is Dak "worth'' $50 million APY? Are Lamb and Diggs and Micah all each "worth'' $20 million APY? To use big, round numbers: That's $110 million APY on four guys.

The point is, the Cowboys need to pick and choose who they believe is more valuable without being blinded by supposed stardom.

We predict that is what is already happening with Pollard after they slapped the franchise tag on him this offseason. So soon after cutting Ezekiel Elliott due to his then-market-setting contract, it seems unlikely the Cowboys will pay top-tier money to a back again, meaning Pollard might be one-and-done in Dallas.

"It's not daunting," said Jones about having to extend Diggs and Lamb so close together. "I think it's doable. It's just part of managing your football team, a part of managing the salary cap. But I certainly think it's doable."

The Cowboys think it is "doable," and they are right, but at what cost will it take to make "Cowboys for Life'' out of Dak, Diggs, Lamb and Parsons? And how close to "guaranteed'' is it that paying those four as if they are "the best in the NFL at their positions'' will be an accurate judgment?

The answer to that question might be even more difficult that the actual "doable'' math.

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