The Dallas Cowboys' salary cap situation has been front-and-center this offseason, with Jerry Jones' team hoarding a bevy of young talents that sits in line to be paid.
Amari Cooper. Dak Prescott. Ezekiel Elliott. Jaylon Smith. Byron Jones at some point. Heck, even offensive tackle La'el Collinshas been talking contract.
The looming presumption has been that not all those players can get paid top-of-the-market deals. Some combination of team-friendly deals or letting a couple walk seems to be in the cards.
Prescott disagrees.
The quarterback -- one of the biggest bargains in the NFL for years -- believes everyone in Dallas can get their slice of the pie because that pastry is constantly growing.
"For somebody to say you can only take so much because of the salary cap or you can only do this or that, I don't know how fair that is to say," Prescott recently told USA Today's Jori Epstein. "Because with gambling, with everything going into this league, everything is going to continue to keep going up.
"It's important for all these guys to get every bit of their worth. I want to see Zeke the highest-paid. I want to see Amari the highest-paid. I want to see myself up there. And I don't think any of that is too far-fetched. Because at the end of the day, when it's all said and done, a year or two later, you're not going to be the highest-paid. That's just the way the game goes."
Prescott is correct that the salary cap has continually increased this decade. Each of the past six seasons the cap has leaped by at least $10 million. This year it increased by $11 million to $188.2 million. With other potential revenue sources available in the coming years, the balloon could continue to inflate. How negotiations of the next CBA are handled could influence the cap situation.
Even with the cap space, could the Cowboys really afford to pay Cooper, Prescott, Zeke, the offensive line, DeMarcus Lawrence, and everyone else top deals?
The QB doubled-down with his belief that none of the Cowboys currently up for new contracts should take a penny less than what they're worth.
"I don't think it's fair to sit there and say, 'This guy can't get that because he needs the rest of the team,'" Prescott said. "The rest of the team can all get theirs with the way the league is trending."
Prescott's comments suggest he's not planning on giving the Cowboys any sort of discount when it comes to his next contract.
NFL Network's Jane Slater said on Good Morning Football that Todd France, the agent for Presscott, has no plans to give the Cowboys a "hometown deal."
Given that he's made pennies compared to other quarterbacks for the past three years, the Dallas QB is due a Texas-sized pay raise.
Entering the final year of his rookie contract, Prescott is due $2.025 million in 2019 -- more than what he's made the past three seasons combined ($1.62 million). A brief list of some QBs slated to earn more than the Cowboys' starting signal-caller: Chad Henne ($2.55M) Drew Stanton ($3M) AJ McCarron ($3M), Nate Sudfeld ($3.095). Heck, Prescott is set to earn just $25K more than Robert Griffin III.
The Cowboys have been in negations with Prescott on a new deal, but given his draft status, a contract extension could be tricky.
"I mean, steps have to be made," Prescott told USA Today. "They're simple steps. For the most part, obviously you want to get closure and obviously you want to get it done, but the Cowboys probably feel the same way that I do: Nobody wants to take anything that's not fair to the other."
Fair, as always, will be in the eye of the beholder.
