LaVar Arrington & Brady Quinn Debate Jerry Jones' Handling of Contract Negotiations for the Cowboys

Jerry Jones the owner of the Dallas Cowboys all right and about the salt Jerry Jones was talking about the situation involving his starting quarterback Dak Prescott and uh well you know here's where it stands on the contract negotiation with Dak well again we're just continuing to talk and uh uh the thing is there that uh uh since we're uh really in season we're practicing we're doing all those things operating under his existing contract which is uh really good you know one of the things that I I would like for our fans to really understand is that uh nine times out of 10 these are existing contracts that you have in place and uh you should be able to operate under those but uh we've gotten it now in the NFL other teams are are dealing with it to where with time on the contract you still might have a contract uh discussion and that's what we're doing uh but none of us player our teams wanted to hurt the preparation or the likelihood of playing at your best opening day so just a whole lot of nothing there I think there's substance to what he's saying I think he's absolutely correct in what he's saying why can't you operate under the parameters of the contract that was signed by both the player and the franchise see to me I always felt like and maybe I'm wrong but I always felt like when you say a rookie is holding out to get a contract it's not a hold out because they don't have a job yet they don't have a contract in play there's not you're not holding out they haven't agreed upon terms right you're you're not holding out but when you have a contract in play that says to you the player the employee and you the the employer that's paying it y'all both agreed to it here are the set of circum uh set of of of uh what is it called terms that we have here's the compensation here are here's everything that goes with it and you feel good about it are you good with it I'm good with it are you good with it I'm good with it and you signed it there's something to what Jerry Jones just said I don't think it's a whole lot of nothing at all if I'm if I'm trying to get a contract extension or a bigger contract a larger cont contract and I still have a year or two years left on the contract that I have it's up to you to decide how you want to handle that but I personally if I'm going to I'mma push it to the Limit but I'mma push it to the Limit based off of the understanding that my parameters are I signed the contract like I don't I'm not why do I go back in year four or the last year of my contract and say I outdid this outplay this cont contract I outd did this contract then you should have had it in your contract that says if I outplay my contract my contract voids and we have to redo my contract negotiate your contract that's to me I don't have a problem with what Jerry Jones is saying but I will say this don't sound like he about to give out no contracts no it doesn't um what it sounds like let me ask you this though how do you then look at it when a team comes to a player and know ask him to take a pay cut I think it's the same thing right I think I think it comes down because I've done that I've I've done I've done restructuring in fact I got boned the worst in the world by doing by doing a contract restructuring prematurely damn yeah yeah um but but in the end my my whole thing is you have decisions you have to make if you want to do a restructuring of your contract now I did the restructuring to help our team out but I helped myself out I got more guarante money up front and and and so my backloaded you know dollars whatever was adjusted and I got more money up front you can make the decision to change your contract if the if the organization comes to you but but I would say this are you looking at the organization like okay if I don't restructure like where do we go from here am I allowed to play am I not allowed to play like what happens if I don't restructure it's almost like okay if if a player says that I'm not playing or if you don't restructure or redo my contract I'm not coming I'm not playing I'm not practicing I'm not doing anything till we get a contract done it's like what if the what if the organization decided to do that to you if they needed you or or asked you or wanted you to restructure your contract for the sake of the cap I mean I feel like it could go both ways like operate under the contract there there's two differences in that in what you just asked if you're restructuring for the cap for cap purposes you're getting more guarantees and stuff up from that means they're going to keep you I'm saying I've seen teams ask guys to take a pay cut period period yeah well that's and that's and that's different right because we see how that works so the difficulty with the CD Lam and look every situation and Circumstance is different right dax's situation circumstance is different than Micah's is different than CD's okay so Dak is in a position of leveraging power right so they don't really have really much to go off of other than if this season doesn't go well they then have to make the decision of have we reached our ceiling with Dak because we can't franchise tag him he's going into this final year he may want to test the free agent Waters and that number could be astronomical even off of a bad year given his track record and what he's accomplished so far in the NFL there will be a market for him so they have to make a decision off that now if he does play extremely well he again can still go to the free agent Market there's nothing Dallas can do about it and that number would be astronomical so it would be in dax's interest to press through this year unless they just give him an offer he can't refuse and he wants to stand Dallas because it is Dallas it is the most valued franchise and he would continue on CD's circumstance is entirely different and it's one of the reasons why when we talk about going to an 18th game you've heard a lot of talk about the NFL PA trying to reduce the amount of years on these rookie deals and they want to reduce the control that a team can have on a player where CD Lamb's going to know his fifth year right this is his rookie contract so when you talk about a grand to a contract he's agreed to it and and and unfortunately there's really not much they can negotiate right you can negotiate two things two things when you come in as a rookie you can negotiate your offset language and the timing of your signing bonus that is essentially it now a guy like Caleb Williams has tried to negotiate being paid through an LLC and all these other things to avoid Equity stake Equity stake sure and and and none of that's even been taken seriously and um it won't be and and unfortunately too from a tax perspective that's why he's trying to reduce uh is you know taxable uh you know or increases his uh non- tax income but anyway the the point is those are the only two things you can negotiate so the frustration for a player that last year led the league in receptions last year was second in league in yards has done everything that I think you would ask of C would would say of CD lamb as a rookie uh and then coming through the you know first four years of his career he's been everything he'd hoped he'd be and so to be going into this fifth year with still the potential of a franchise tag in another two years he's saying like come on man like commit to me commit to me as being your guy and and this this number is going to be really high but that's the cost of doing business and so that's I think the frustration is other teams and we we talk about Philly all the time because I think they do it as good as anyone and they're in the division this deal would have been done by now because they know the longer they wait the more expensive it gets they know that and for whatever reason Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys two out of the last three years have been one of the cheaper or organizations in regards to their cash Outlet I mean they are not pay they were dead last last year as far as paying guys in cash and I don't know if they're preparing for something I I don't know I mean we obviously don't can't see their books so we don't know from a business standpoint if something else is going on I I don't know those those you know the answers to those questions but the one thing we do know is you know they are trying their best to kind of keep this together but really forcing guys to play out and making it an unhappy scenario and then and then Micah situation is more of a precedent setting deal they unfortunately made the decision to extend Zeke before they should have and that now has led to a guy like Micah who very similar to Zeke when Zeke came in did everything you'd wanted him to do and Micah has done everything you wanted him to do so far and now because you did it with Zeke he's saying well you did it with Zeke now you got to do it with me and and this is what I should be compensating being paid and and I don't I mean there's no argument there to be made for me with any of these guys you know as far as against what they deserve to be paid it's just the resistance from the Cowboys wanting to pay out the cash they need to pay to make it work underneath the cap that that's that's the biggest conundrum right now yeah it is I think for this team it is a conundrum and I and I get everything that you're saying and it it makes perfectly great sense but still at the end of the day you signed a contract you didn't have to let's be clear you didn't have to sign to to be a a rookie in the National Football League you could have chose a different profession you could have went in a different direction you chose to play you chose to sign the contract whether you have the ability to right to negotiate it or not been there I get it like you you outplayed it your statistical line like mic is like in rare air CD lamb has done amazing work I get it and I and I buy into it I subscribe to it all I'm saying is what Jerry Jones said is not inaccurate that's all I'm saying it's not inaccurate now where you go from there how you treat it understanding the value of what that would look like if he hits the you know if Dak hits the open market you know whatever it is that you're going to do with CD lamb if you don't redo his contract whatever it is they may be or may not be preparing for I listen the bottom line is is that if we were to have this conversation in other categories of of the job industry it would be laughable they would laugh you out of the office but for some strange reason the culture behind what takes place in professional sports is to put their put people's financials on BL I actually disagree with that right now good good and the only reason I'll say that is if you look at today's job market and there's probably a lot of people listening right now who know this too is there's never been a time where so many people who are under contract working somewhere are looking for other jobs other opportunities other sweeteners and are looking for somewhere else to jump ship to like this actually happens much more frequently in the business World um explain that again I didn't catch that I didn't catch that what say that so there's people who are right now working for companies that are looking for a better job elsewhere and jumping ship elsewhere I mean and they're going to their boss saying this is what I'm offered elsewhere you know either match this increase it or out and that's happening more frequently than ever before in history in part because of remote work and and how there's not a lot you know not as many people they're in a hybrid work schedule they're able work completely remote and so now more than ever you've gotten people who it's gotten way more competitive and you're seeing actually this play itself out in the business world where where companies are having a hard time hanging on to Talent when they're really really good at their job like a CD lamb at their position at their job it there's no a I'm telling you exactly what it is I get what there's always a a and and the idea of it is is I get what I get that too I do like somebody gets taken from Under Armour they get pulled away to Nike like because you did X Y and Z I get that like corporately speaking yeah sure sure I don't see teachers doing that I don't I don't see teachers teachers leaving for a better job elsewhere no I mean they you could go to like a private school it it does happen all the time but it's not go a better District district pay better but it's not under these circumstances like I think that's apples and oranges I think it's comparing apples and oranges I actually I actually think the crazier part is is is where and then and look I'm not trying to make a case for like us to feel bad for professional athletes because they become millionaires upon being drafted in in the first round or whatever I'm not I'm not making that case but they don't have much Choice the team picks them so there there is that element of it too that like even coming out of college chose my team I know so so and I think there's an element of like if you could have chosen your team think about how different the negotiations would have went how maybe your career would have went how all that and and and again I'm not even saying this based on like my history or my experience I am just saying but you could no if if if you compare it to everyone else who leaves college or joins the workforce they get the pick not only from different potential careers but also different potential companies like in in the NFL it's like they pick you it's the only time where it's like that and at any point in time of a football players career think about it high school you can go pick to go play if you want to go to private school or if you want to stay where you're at right but their information blast their information isn't on blast like that you're right they get to choose but you're not sitting there and it's like okay I would like to have more money because I feel like I'm outperforming it know now it's being written about in the local newspaper or being reported on the local channel of news that's saying hey look Jonas Knox went to to the top and told Don and Scott I need to have a bigger contract that happens sometimes I mean it happens when guys leave different places it happened last week didn't card hasn't worked at Fox forever yeah yeah right I knock out doors they open that don't play out in the in the public guys you're talking maybe one two that's what we're talking about we're not talking about an average player we're talking about one of the best wide receivers in the NFL you make a good point you make a good argument but I I don't I think the Cure I don't think it it's not like for a football player like then you get to pick your college then it's like until free agency you don't get to pick again it's it's the oddest thing if you really take that into account it is it is but that's what it is it's the reality of what it is and then they shame you by putting it in public forums like this is how much he makes why should he have a problem why should he why should he want a new contract before it's time to get a new contract I I think most people I think most people are probably siding with CD lamb I don't I don't I don't think there's people who are like oh Jerry Jones you know I feel bad for him like I think most people probably side with cidd lamb in this in this dispute I just don't think it makes him wrong he's not wrong for what he's saying it's all I'm saying whether you side with him or you side with with CD lamb what he's saying isn't incorrect that's all I'm say good thing is is whatever he said this week it could change next week damn right it could you're damn right it might have to change it should have to change because it don't look like CD lamb is coming back I mean we're talking about Dak Prescott and Dak is already there and he's going to play I mean he's going looks like he's going to play I mean but I'm CD so much money man I'm not so sure this is going to play out I'm not sure this is going to play out the way people are thinking it's going to play out with CD I think it gets done but I'm not sure I'm not sure because he wants Justin Jefferson money they're not going to give it to him today's the last day for um third preseason game correct yeah yeah this weekend so really I would say in the next like week plus like these deals get done if they get done I can't imagine they'll drag on in the season it better