There are plenty of ways to value a contract. For most extensions, agents (and, in turn, the media members to whom they leak the numbers) typically focus on the “new-money average.”
It’s become an industry standard, even if it’s a fiction. There are no extensions, per se. The old deal is always ripped up, and it’s always replaced with a new contract.
That’s precisely what the Bills did for Josh Allen. He had four years left on a deal that had become grossly obsolete. So they put it in the shredder and signed Allen to a brand-new, six-year deal. It reportedly pays $330 million — $55 million per year from signing.
It’s the richest deal in NFL history, from signing. Which is all that matters.
Dak Prescott’s latest contract has a value from signing of $53.8 million. Lamar Jackson’s contract was, at signing, a $52.5 million deal.
So that’s the new high-water mark. From signing, $55 million per year.
Allen deserved it. Allen got it. And the Bills didn’t play the “you’re under contract for four more years” game. He’s in his prime, he’s the MVP, and it’s possible that he’ll find an even higher level of postseason performance, now that both the league and his team have given him the appreciation he deserves.
The Cowboys are keeping one of their own impending free agents off the market.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reported and the team confirmed that they have agreed to terms on a new deal with safety Markquese Bell. Bell will sign a three-year deal with a max value of $12 million.
Bell signed with the Cowboys after going undrafted in 2022 and he appeared in five games as a rookie. Bell played in every game in 2023 and made eight starts, but was back to a reserve and special teams role in nine appearances last season.
Bell has 101 tackles, three tackles for loss, four passes defensed, and two forced fumbles over the course of his career.
When it comes to paying linebacker Micah Parsons, the Cowboys keep dragging their feet. As they usually do with core players they plan to keep.
But here’s where it gets interesting. Maybe, when it comes to Micah, the Cowboys will eventually choose not to keep him.
With Browns defensive end Myles Garrett pushing the non-quarterback APY as high as $40 million per year (the actual details are TBD), Micah’s price will also climb. The question becomes whether it gets to a point where the Cowboys and owner Jerry Jones will punt on Parsons.
It’s not as crazy as it sounds. Last April, Shan Shariff of 105.3 the Fan in Dallas (you know, one of the guys Jerry threatened to fire even though Jerry doesn’t employ them) said Parsons has “worn thin” within the building. During the 2024 season, multiple Sunday Splash! reports from the TV network the NFL owns and operates (and over which Jerry has considerable influence) floated the notion that Parsons could be traded.
Why wouldn’t interested teams already be calling? Parsons will want more than Garrett. Parsons might want a lot more than Garrett. If there’s another team that will pay Parsons and give the Cowboys a boatload of picks, why not listen? Especially if Jerry doesn’t want to pay Parsons market value.
Last weekend’s uncharacteristic Scouting Combine silence from Jones prompted plenty of speculation regarding the reason(s) for it. Most centered on Micah.
Are the Cowboys considering trading him for the No. 1 overall pick? Are they trying to trade him for Garrett? (If so, too late.)
However it goes, a trade remains possible until Parsons puts his autograph on a new contract. And the longer the Cowboys wait, the more expensive it will get.
If Shariff’s information from last year is accurate, maybe they’ll decide to do a Herschel Walker-type trade for someone who will break the bank for Parsons and send significant draft capital to the Cowboys.
Four teams have traded Brandin Cooks, but the wide receiver has never been a free agent. There is a first time for everything.
Cooks, who has played 11 seasons, is scheduled to hit free agency for the first time next week.
“I’m expecting a good free agency since this is the first time that I would be a free agent in my career, but I’m also open to returning to Dallas,” Cooks told Josina Anderson of The Exhibit. “At the end of the day I’m just trying to win.”
Cooks missed seven games with a knee infection after arthroscopic surgery last season. He had career lows with 26 receptions for 259 yards, and he scored three touchdowns.
“I am fully healthy and have nothing to hide,” Cooks told Anderson. “If a quarterback wants to go throw somewhere, I could get on a plane and catch for him right now.”
Cooks has had six 1,000-yard seasons but none since 2021. In two seasons in Dallas, he had 80 receptions for 916 yards and 11 touchdowns.
He is open to a return to Dallas, but there are no signs the Cowboys are interested in his return.
“I have a good relationship with Dak [Prescott], the Jones family and Cee Dee [Lamb],” Cooks said. “It’s just one of those things where they have to focus on what they have to get done first, too. I would love to play with the Cowboys, at the same time they would have to use me right. I don’t think they fully used me to my strengths.”
Former Cowboys wide receiver Michael Gallup is ending his retirement, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports.
Gallup, who retired last offseason, was released from the Raiders’ reserve/retired list Friday for that reason.
Gallup, 29, signed a one-year contract worth up to $3 million with the Raiders last April. He was expected to compete for the team’s No. 3 receiver job.
But after participating in the Raiders’ organized team activities and minicamp, Gallup abruptly called it quits.
He had 266 receptions for 3,744 yards and 21 touchdowns in six seasons with the Cowboys, who released him March 15, 2024, in a cost-cutting move.
Gallup tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee late in the 2021 season, but the Cowboys still signed him to a five-year, $57.5 million deal before the 2022 season. He could not get back to where he was before the injury, though, catching 73 passes for 842 yards and six touchdowns in 31 games in 2022-23.
