Cowboys boxed themselves into corner with bad decisions

The Dallas Cowboys are boxed into a corner. Jerry Jones is at fault.

Jones, who has owned the Cowboys since 1989 and won three Super Bowls with head coach Jimmy Johnson in the early 1990s, knows the quarterback is the best and most expensive player. He understands the hierarchy of a team.

Somehow, he paid Ezekiel Elliott instead of Dak Prescott last season. It’s a choice he’s going to sorely regret if he doesn’t already.

Dallas had two years before it needed to deal with Elliott, but decided to reward the star running back with a record-setting extension of six years and $90 million. Meanwhile, Prescott was left to play out the final year of his cheap rookie deal. The youngster did so and drove the price up in the process, throwing for 4,902 yards and 30 touchdowns.

With Prescott now slated for unrestricted free agency come March 18, the Cowboys are stuck having to likely use the franchise tag on him. Prescott has no reason to sign now, especially with the contracts of Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson potentially resetting the market in the coming months. Furthermore, the salary cap could potentially jump to $240 million by 2021, a $40 million increase from where it is now. If Prescott plays out this season on the tag and does well, he’ll reset the market next offseason.

Having to tie up more than $30 million in Prescott on the tag, plus the money already sunk into Elliott, means cornerback Byron Jones is going to leave in free agency. Jones, 27, is one of the best young cornerbacks in football and Dallas is losing him for either nothing or a compensatory pick, depending on its offseason moves.

It also means keeping star receiver Amari Cooper is going to be difficult.

Cooper was acquired last season for a first-round pick from the then-Oakland Raiders, and now could command $20 million per year on the open market. Jones and the Cowboys should have taken care of this obvious problem last offseason, but now without the benefit of a second tag (should the new CBA be ratified as expected), Dallas either needs to overpay him to keep him from hitting free agency or get into a risky, unnecessary bidding war.

Keeping this many terrific players is always a challenge, but the Cowboys bungled it from the start, and it’s going to cost them at least one of those stars and potentially more.