OXNARD, Calif. — The first couple of days in California were pretty slow. The Dallas Cowboys arrived at their hotel on Tuesday afternoon, and we briefly heard from a pair of Cowboys players. And then Wednesday came and went with no activity at all after the organization's annual State of the Team press conference was pushed from Wednesday to Saturday, and back to Thursday.
But Thursday did not disappoint. A jam-packed day of Cowboys camp activity, starting with that twice-moved State of the Team presser.
And 'ambiguity' ruled the day. In a 48-minute, 23-second press conference (shorter than usual, in fact, because of practice scheduled to start right afterward), Cowboys owner Jerry Jones did his best impression of a congressman, filibustering his way through the press conference, sometimes with four and five-minute answers. In his first answer to a football-related question (had to get the legalese out of the way first, after Jones' trial in Texarkana), he used some form of the word 'ambiguity' seven different times. Fortunately for Jones, he says the good lord blessed him with a tolerance for ambiguity.
As he and his team face the challenge of having three star players with contract concerns, that tolerance will be tested.
"I do not think this will be his last year with the Cowboys," Jones said about quarterback Dak Prescott. "At all. It's pretty clear, I think. I want to say it if it hasn't been clear, about how much we appreciate what Dak Prescott has meant to this team in a positive way."
Prescott enters the final year of his contract without a new deal in place and is set to cost the Cowboys $55.1 million against the salary cap this season. He and his representatives have been in discussions with the Cowboys about a new contract, that league-wide precedent suggests would pay Prescott north of $55 million, and perhaps up to or beyond $60 million.
"Believe it or not," Jones said, "In my life, I've had a lot of things I wanted, that I couldn't get because I couldn't afford it."
That's a mouthful and speaks to a willingness from Jones and the Cowboys to draw a line in the sand, relative to how much they are going to pay for Prescott's services.
And then the Cowboys have the contracts of Micah Parsons and CeeDee Lamb to sort out as well.
"We have a very unique situation," Cowboys VP of Player Personnel and COO Stephen Jones said. "We have a quarterback who played at the top of his game last year, second in MVP voting, who can leave. And then we've got two players [Parsons and Lamb], who can't leave here for three years. Theoretically, if we didn't sign either one of them, we couldn't franchise one three years from now. But, we could sign one of them. And both of them, rightfully so, believe they should be the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league. And [I] totally respect that."
If the Cowboys do sign all three players to long-term contracts, it will eat up a significant portion of the salary cap.
"Those three players could be 70% of all the money you've got, 70% of your payroll," Jerry Jones said. "Now you need a little money for the other 51. That's a challenge."
Lamb is not in Oxnard, holding out to bolster his negotiating position. Parsons did not speak with the media on Thursday, but Dak Prescott did.
"I'm just here so I don't get fined," Prescott deadpanned at the start of his press conference, when asked about all the discussion about his contract and whether this will be his final year in Dallas.
He was kidding and did circle back to say he's not worried about his contract. He also said he thinks Parsons and Lamb "need to get paid, and need to get their money. I've gotten a contract, so the last thing I'm going to ask them to do is take less."
Prescott has all the bargaining chips in his negotiations. If the Cowboys elect not to sign him to another long-term deal, he'll assuredly be signed by some other quarterback-hungry team in the offseason, and make every bit as much or more. But he said he wants to be in Dallas.
"I want to be here, but when you look up all the other great quarterbacks I've watched play for other teams. My point in saying that is that that's not something to fear. That may be a reality for me one day," Prescott said.
Day 1 Observations
The first day of camp always feels rife with anticipation, but also generally tends to leave you feeling unfulfilled because of how much of the work is merely getting back into the swing of things. But it was interesting to see Dak Prescott hand the ball off to Zeke Elliott again. We've seen it so many hundreds and thousands of times at this point, through their careers together. But regardless of Elliott's potential production this season, it just feels right to see them side-by-side again.
Jalen Tolbert made the top play of Day 1, diving to make a juggling catch near the goal line during the Cowboys' 7-on-7 period. Prescott said afterward that the ball placement on that throw, to Tolbert's back shoulder, is indicative of the trust he has come to have in Tolbert, through their work together.
And one final highlight from the day -- Dak Prescott hitting little-known wide receiver Tyron Billy-Johnson on the deep ball. Billy-Johnson is an interesting story – a journeyman wide receiver who is now in his eleventh different stint with an NFL team, all since 2019. He has 23 career receptions.
