Howie Roseman’s Biggest Strength Is The Cowboys Weakness

I will admit to not being as high on Howie Roseman as many Eagles fans. He is a very good GM, but I do think he has some flaws that get ignored by fans. There is something he is better at though than any GM in the league. That thing looks even better when you look at the Cowboys. The recent massive deal signed by Trevor Lawrence exposes it even more. Trevor Lawrence just became the richest player in the NFL, at least on a per-year basis. He is far from the best player in the NFL, but because he is the latest QB to be paid, he is also the richest. That is how it works. The newest guy up for his contract gets paid the most. Howie Roseman understands that, and gets contracts done early. The Cowboys? not so much. Related: The Top 11 Most Impactful Free Agent Signings Made By Howie Roseman Howie Roseman Sets The Market The Cowboys, are consistently behind the 8-ball when it comes to extending their own players. Dak Prescott, Cee Dee Lamb, and Micah Parsons are all awaiting an extension. They are also all understandably unhappy that they have not been paid yet. But really, they should be happy. They are going to be paid more now. The problem for the Cowboys is the more they wait, the more those prices go up. Meanwhile, Howie Roseman has spent the last two offseasons locking his players up early. He sets the market. Howie doesn't let other teams set it for him. He signed DeVonta Smith and AJ Brown earlier than he had to. Neither were going to be free agents. Both WRs had two more years under contract, including the 5th year option for Smith. He could have used the franchise tag to make it 3 years for 1 of them. But he paid them early. What happened after he did that? Other WRs signed even bigger deals. AJ Brown held the record for highest-paid WR for a whole month before Justin Jefferson broke it. The Devonta Smith deal looks more and more like a bargain with every subsequent WR. Smith became the 4th highest-paid WR when he signed that deal. He is already down to 8th. Once JaMarr Chase and Cee Dee Lamb get paid, he will likely be 10th. By the end of the deal, he very well could be outside the top 20. Jalen Hurts signed the biggest contract in NFL history when they extended him before last season. Is he the best QB in the league? No. So at the time, you could have said it was an overpay. He is now down to 6th. That could become 8th or even 9th once Jordan Love, Tua Tagovailoa, and Dak get paid. By the end of his deal, he will be outside of the top 10. He set the market with Landon Dickerson too. The $21 million AAV leads all Guards. But with how much of it is tied into bonuses, he is actually only 7th. As more guards get paid, it will fall even more. Jordan Mailata is currently 4th among Left Tackles, but you know future LTs will push him down that list. Howie Roseman is consistently ahead of the curve, while the Cowboys are always behind it. Credit needs to go to Jeffrey Lurie too. He is the one willing to pay for it. Jerry Jones is cheap and wants to string his best players along. But it only ends up costing him more. We saw it with Zeke, and we saw it with Dak the first time. The Cowboys Don't Follow The Lead Of Howie Roseman Yet here are the Cowboys, dragging their feet with all of their star players. Cee Dee Lamb is going to get paid. He will be paid more than they would have had to pay if they took care of the deal last year when he was first eligible. He will also be paid more than he would be if they paid him at the start of this offseason. The same goes for Dak. Now maybe they actually plan on moving on from DAk. It wouldn't be the worst idea given his playoff performance. The problem is they are not exactly in a good spot to replace him. They are cap strung, and are never bad enough to have a prime pick to get a good QB. Dak, as flawed as he is, might be their best option. But because Jerry Jones is pinching pennies, they are going to end up paying him more if they want to keep him. Also, unlike Jeff Lurie, Jerry is not willing to give huge bonuses up front to soften the cap hit. So when Dak gets $56 million per year, it might actually cost them $56 million against the cap. The Hurts cap hit meanwhile doesn't get crazy until 2027. Even then, it is $41 million, which likely won't even be a top-10 cap hit that season. Next, we will see it with Lamb, Parsons, and Dak. They will either lose those players or pay them more than the original asking price. Whenever Dak signs, it has to beat the Trevor Lawrence deal, because Dak is better than Lawrence. When Lamb signs, he might have to beat the Brown deal. Lamb isn't better than Brown, they are probably close to even. But Lamb will be paid like he is better. So thank you Howie Roseman, and Jeffrey Lurie, for consistently doing these things the right way. Not only for taking care of their players before it comes to them holding out but for actually saving money in the long run by doing so. Also thank you Jerry Jones for being so cheap. Year after year he proves he has no clue how to operate a team in the cap era. There is a reason the Cowboys have been irrelevant for most of the cap era. There is also a reason why despite there being only 1 Super Bowl, the Eagles have mostly been a successful team. Jeffrey Lurie, and by extension Howie Rosman, get it. Jerry Jones does not. Listen To Or Watch 'The Best Show Ever?' Live On The 97.5 The Fanatic And On NBC Sports Philly From 2 To 6 p.m. every Weekday