Thread by @JoeyIckes

Thoughts on the Jaylon contract, and the press conference etc...

🗣Thread me!!!!

First of all, and we’ve known this for a long time, Jaylon is a cat who just “gets it”. From a long term value stand point, and from a time value of money stand point, as he said in the presser “Cash is King”.

He views himself as a business man and he’s incredibly smart.

In that vein, there isn’t a CEO in this country or the world who won’t take Jerry Jones’ call, and Jaylon gets that. He knows even if it’s not for “endorsements” if he needs a business relationship facilitated, he has the best resource in the world in his corner in Mr Jones.

So for Jaylon, it made a ton of sense to get his signing bonus this year, and lock himself in as one of the “faces” of the star for the better part of the next decade.

So he was willing to do his deal early, and do it at a significant discount from the top of the LB mkt (one that would likely continue to increase between now and 2021).

For the Joneses the timing of this deal is spectacular, this is the exact negotiating chip they want for their deals with the big 3 guys.

This deal, and how quickly it came together and the amount it wound up being, & how Jaylon raved about being a Cowboy & how much that means, are all the exact points the Joneses have been trying to make.

This press conference was a public announcement to Dak, Zeke, Amari, Byron, Maliek, La’el etc. that, as SJ said “we are open for business if you want to do a deal”

The diff between the Tank/Jaylon deals and the Dak/Zeke/Amari non-deals, is that at some point the player stepped up to the agent and said, “I want to be in DAL do what it takes to make that happen”.

If Dak Amari and Zeke did that today, there would be a massive 3 player press conference at the Star next week with everyone smiling and Jerry joking about being poor etc.

And even for a guy like Byron, if he went to them and said “just pay me in the top 5-7 CBs and let’s rock n roll” he’d have a deal before week 1.

This contract (and Tanks) proves to their players that Joneses are not scared to write a big check, just that because of all of the outside benefits that they as a family as well as the Star as a brand can provide, they won’t be the ones to write the biggest ones ever.

The problem is, an agent doesn’t care about that. He doesn’t get paid for the players side business or post retirement career or any of that, he gets paid for the players NFL contracts, and big contracts help them recruit so his incentive is to force the # up as much as possible

Which is why it comes down to the player to do what SJ emphasized today, and take charge of the relationship, and tell the agent they want the deal done.

Dak Zeke and Amari have chosen not to up to this point, and that is absolutely their right. I will ever criticize the players for attempting to maximize their on-field earnings, & you know I won’t hesitate to criticize the FO for shortcomings.

But I truly feel that if the players decided they really wanted the deals done, they would be done lightning fast.

Jaylon has proven all of that.

Fin