How Jaylon Smith's Cowboys Contract Affects Ezekiel Elliott, Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper

As mentioned ad nauseam, the Dallas Cowboys have the unenviable task of attempting to lock in three perennial stars in Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott and Amari Cooper.

The Cowboys announced a press conference for this past Tuesday, with many expecting it to concern one of the three offensive cogs.

Instead, it was for linebacker Jaylon Smith, whom Dallas signed to a five-year, $64 million contract extension. While Smith's deal is viewed as a discount in terms of what he could have potentially received in free agency, it does have an impact on how the Cowboys can allocate their funds.

For his 5-year, $64M extension that includes $35.5M guaranteed, LB Jaylon Smith gets $20M over the next 16 months. The third-highest guarantee at his position. He was slated to make $1.3M in 2019, then the RFA tender. He’s now under contract for 6 years.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 20, 2019

Jaylon Smith Contract Details and Breakdown

Here's Smith's cap hit in each season for the duration of his contract, according to Spotrac.com:

2019: $2.566 million

2020: $7.77 million

2021: $9.8 million

2022: $11.8 million

2023: $13.6 million

2024: $12.6 million

2025: $12.35 million

So, what does that mean for Elliott, Prescott and Cooper?

Dallas Cowboys Salary Cap Situation

Well, owner Jerry Jones stressed that there's "still pie left" to go around, but "less pie" than before. In translation, if either of the three offensive starters want to stay, they're going to have to take a bit of a pay cut to build a contender in Dallas.

With Smith's new contract, here's how much cap space the Cowboys will have in each of the next four seasons, which probably provides the best outlook for their contract situations with Elliott, Prescott and Cooper.

2020: $52.8 million

2021: $99.5 million

2022: $82.9 million

2023: $76.75 million

Source: Dak Prescott has not asked for $40 million a year https://t.co/Vi8TpiESwn
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) August 12, 2019

Assuming Zeke, Dak and Amari are going to make top-five money at their positions, it's safe to say we can take the average of such salaries for running backs, quarterbacks and wide receivers. Let's take a look.

Average Top-5 Salaries for Quarterbacks, Running Backs and Wide Receivers

This is all according to OverTheCap.com:

Quarterbacks: $32.9 million AAV

Running Backs: $11.35 million AAV

Wide Receivers: $17.33 million AAV

Add that all up and we get $61.58 million between Prescott, Elliott and Cooper, which eats up a pretty significant amount of the cap over the next four seasons, especially since the Cowboys have far fewer players signed to the roster in 2022 and 2023 at the moment. Jaylon Smith's deal eats into some of this, especially down the road, so Jerry Jones will have to do some tinkering if he wants to keep his core together.