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What New Head Coach Will Mean to Cowboys Commitment To 2020 Signings of Dak and Amari

Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones Is Committed To the 2020 Signings of Free Agent Stars Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper - But The New Had Coach Should Have A Say

Mike Fisher

What New Head Coach Will Mean to Cowboys Commitment To 2020 Signings of Dak and Amari
What New Head Coach Will Mean to Cowboys Commitment To 2020 Signings of Dak and Amari /

FRISCO - Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper are not perfect players. But they are viewed as near-perfect fits in the Dallas Cowboys puzzle, which is why the two free agents remain atop the Jones family's roster-building priority list.

“We’ve got some guys on here that I’m really proud of what they gave us this year,” owner Jerry Jones said. “And a lot of them that aren’t necessarily signed, I plan on getting them signed.”

Nothing wrong with that 30,000-feet view. But one cause for pause: Even inside the upside-down world of The Star, shouldn't the successor to Jason Garrett - a hiring process that is finally, openly under way - have a voice in the roster priorities?

Prescott finished 2019 with a big day in the Week 17 win over Washington (303 yards and four touchdowns), giving him 30 passing touchdowns and 4,902 passing yards - one yard short of Tony Romo’s 2012 franchise record.

“It really breaks my heart that Dak didn’t get that record — by a yard!'' Jones said. “I would’ve gone out there and run a route for him at that time to get that yard. He deserves that.”

Dak doesn't need Jerry's route-running; he needs Jerry's check-writing. The Cowboys' plan is unchanged there; Prescott will be a top-five-paid QB (or a tagged player) at $39 mil APY. 

Amid sensible media suggestions that Dak was bothered by not having a deal done earlier this season, Prescott insisted, “I never thought about the contract this season and I haven’t thought about it. I have a great team of people that will handle that when those talks come. When it happens, it happens.”

It will happen, in some form, this offseason. The same is true of Cooper, the fifth-year wide receiver who slumped late (he scored just one touchdown over the final seven weeks of the season) but finished with 79 catches for 1,189 yards. There is a tag available on him, too, at about $16 mil for the 2020 season.

“The answer is yes to that,” said Jerry of his desire to retain Cooper, who has posted back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons (and 15 TDs in 27 games) since being acquired in a 2018 first-round-pick trade with the Raiders.

Literally half the Cowboys' roster is set to be free. (Not to mention Garrett.) The Joneses believe in the roster, from older guys like the unsigned Sean Lee to Prescott and Cooper.

“We’ve got a good base of players,” Jerry said. “I don’t want to be trite when I say it, that includes Dak, that includes Amari, that includes Sean Lee, that we can have some great days with the Cowboys.”

It's a bit of a revelation that Lee would pop to the top of Jerry's mind in terms of offseason priorities? But Dak and Amari? They've always been at the top, and will continue to be so at the negotiating table. And there is no problem with that. But the next hire should have at least as much power as Garrett did (he did indeed have a great deal of authority here) and that hire should feature a person who brings not only "Dak-friendliness'' but also "Amari-friendliness'' as well.

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Mike Fisher
MIKE FISHER

Mike Fisher - as a newspaper beat writer and columnist and on radio and TV, where he is an Emmy winner - has covered the NFL since 1983 and the Dallas Cowboys since 1990, is the author of two best-selling books on the Cowboys.

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