Cowboys Meet With Amari Cooper's Agent, Contract Talks Intensify

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Deadlines make deals in sports, it’s just that simple. In the NFL world, this time of year is the most hectic with the NFL Draft in April, and even before that, free agency that begins in March. The Dallas Cowboys have an abundance of free agents to make decisions on, with one of the most important being the long-term future of wide receiver Amari Cooper.

According to Mike Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News, the Cowboys met with Cooper’s agent Thursday at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis.

Cooper is set to be an unrestricted free agent next month, but the Cowboys don’t want him to test the open market with a new CBA almost certain to pass soon. The reason it’s so important in regards to Cooper is that under the current CBA the Cowboys can use both the franchise and transition tags. The franchise tag will be used for Dak Prescott if he isn’t able to reach a long-term deal, leaving Cooper to be designated for the transition tag. However, if the new CBA is approved it will eliminate the transition tag. What that means is if Prescott is franchised then Cooper would be able to hit the open market, making him harder to retain with other suitors throwing the Brinks truck at him.

Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones knows how important the potential new CBA is in terms of how the Cowboys will move strategically, which he talked about on Thursday.

“It removes a very strategic thing for us,” owner Jerry Jones said, “and that is we only have one (tag) — we lose the transition. Strategically, that was really thought of a lot because with our negotiations with Dak and our negotiations with Cooper. … It’s what it is. We just have to figure out a way to do it”

Like I said earlier, deadlines make deals, and with multiple important dates approaching, it’s no surprise that the Cowboys and Cooper’s representation are trying to iron out something long-term. The Cowboys want Cooper, he wants to stay, now we wait and see where the chips fall.