Report: No contract talks between Cowboys and Amari Cooper yet, but expected to happen in offseason

Late Saturday night, somewhere around the fourth overtime of the instant classic between Texas A&M and LSU, ESPN’s Adam Schefter dropped some news concerning the Dallas Cowboys.

America’s Team is 6-5, first place in the NFC East, and feeling better than they have in quite some time. Sunday marks “Wednesday” for them as they played a game three days ago and have one in four. They’ll return to practice while the rest of the NFL partakes in Week 12 action (here’s who you should root for throughout that, by the way).

There are indeed a lot of things going on with the Cowboys, but despite earlier speculation it seems as if an Amari Cooper extension isn’t among them (at least for now). From ESPN’s Adam Schefter:

Sources said the sides haven’t had any talks regarding a contract extension for Cooper, who has given Dallas yards after the catch, touchdowns, and renewed hope in the NFC East.

Considering the Cowboys surrendered a first-round pick for Cooper, some NFL executives thought they would have tried to lock him up in advance of the late-October trade. But the team felt that with Cooper’s fifth-year option and then the franchise tag after that, there was no need.

Back on November 5th, hours before Cooper made his Dallas Cowboys debut, Stephen Jones appeared on 105.3 The Fan and the subject of an extension for the wide receiver came up. Having just paid a first-round draft pick for Cooper it made sense for him to support the idea that Dallas wants Cooper around for a long time.

It’s also worth noting that Jason Garrett has referred to Cooper as a “cornerstone” type of player. Four games in his play has certainly lived up to that label (he was definitely worth a first-round pick and you can get the shirt that says so right here), but there really is no rush to get a deal done.

Cooper is in the middle of his fourth season in the NFL. Prior to trading him the Oakland Raiders had already picked up his fifth-year option. The Cowboys have that route and a franchise tag, as Schefter notes, if they truly cannot come to terms.

The Cowboys are also hoping to extend Dak Prescott this offseason

Hours later NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport dropped similar news concerning Amari Cooper, and he added in some discussion on Dak Prescott. According to Ian the Cowboys plan on extending Dak and Amari (we knew this about Dak), have the cap space allotted to do so, and both will be paid near the top of their respective positions.

These bridges to cross are way down the road in the grand scheme of things and right now the sole focus of the Cowboys is the remaining five games on the schedule. “News” that Dallas would begin contract talks with Cooper or Prescott after the season is over isn’t exactly something that anyone is unaware of, but if you weren’t ready to believe it maybe you are now.