Why the Dallas Cowboys can’t afford to delay extending Amari Cooper
The Dallas Cowboys seem to be waiting to get a deal done with Amari Cooper, however, they shouldn’t wait or it could cost them.
With the talk surrounding Amari Cooper and the Dallas Cowboys on how he wants to play a full season and hopefully set all sorts of receiving records, the lack of contract talks needs to be addressed. Sure, they could wait until after the 2019 season, but there is strong potential it could cost them a lot of money. With all the talk of waiting on Dak costing a few millions, Amari could be even more costly.
In essentially half of a season with the Cowboys, Amari Cooper had 725 yards and 6 touchdowns. If you spread that out to a full season, one could safely assume he would have about 1400 yards and 11 touchdowns. I am being a little safe with those numbers as opponents make a difference as does game plan. That would place Amari near the top 5 receivers in the league last year.
If Amari were to become a top 5 receiver the cost for him would skyrocket. Even he has stated he doesn’t think he is a top 5 receiver, yet. Sure, he may want to wait until after this season, but the less the Cowboys try to sign him, the more likely he is to use 2019 to make a case for a huge payday.
The top three receivers last year were Julio Jones, DeAndre Hopkins, and Mike Evans. Each of them is about $14-16 million per year. All three are playing a few years into their deals, which means if Amari were to top them, you would figure he could command $18-20 million a year, since Odell Beckham Jr. just signed for $18 mil a year. This would be about $4-6 million a year more than he will make in 2019. Sure, it is an estimate, but a pretty fair one.
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So the Cowboys should work on the contract now, well before Amari has the stats to show he warrants the top paid receiver in the league money. A full offseason can only help Amari become the player he and others believe he will be in 2019. Regardless of what fans think, Amari makes Dak and the offense better. The smart move is to make sure he stays for a while if you are resigning Dak.
However, this all comes back to all of the contracts the Cowboys have coming up. Sure the salary cap will rise, but so will the cost of players. At some point someone will eventually be too expensive and have to be a money decision and not resigned.
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While they can the Cowboys should sign who they can. So while all the talk is going on about Dak Prescott, the conversation also needs to be about Amari Cooper. Those talks need to be happening now, before it is too late and too expensive.
- Published on 06/25/2019 at 12:00 PM
- Last updated at 06/25/2019 at 06:34 AM