Jerry Jones may not want to wait long on Quinnen Williams.
The Cowboys have only had part of one season with the Pro Bowl defensive tackle, but the financial picture around him is already getting louder. Dallas brought Williams in because it believed he could anchor the front, and that idea hasn’t changed. What has changed is how quickly the price tag could climb.
Williams is still under the four-year, $96 million deal he signed with the New York Jets, with two years left on it. But Spotrac pegs his current market value at about $31.3 million per year on a new three-year contract, and that number could keep moving if Dallas waits. The longer the Cowboys hold off, the more they risk paying into a market that keeps resetting itself.
Jeffery Simmons just did that for Tennessee. His three-year, $105.8 million extension pushed the top of the interior defensive line market past $35 million annually and gave elite defensive tackles another new benchmark to chase.
Dallas has plenty of football reasons to keep Williams near the top of its priority list, too. He posted a 90.6 overall Pro Football Focus grade last season even after joining the Cowboys in the middle of the year. In seven games with Dallas, he finished with nine quarterback hits, three tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks, giving a shaky defense some much-needed stability.
There’s also a belief inside the building that Williams can still level up under new defensive coordinator Christian Parker. During minicamp, Williams said of Parker, "He's extremely smart when it comes down to the defense," and added that the coach's approach has "opened my eyes" to different ways of attacking offenses.
Of course, Williams isn’t the only expensive piece on Dallas’ financial board. The Cowboys also have to think ahead about George Pickens while managing major cap commitments for Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb.
So Jones is staring at the kind of decision teams hate: pay now, or pay more later. Locking Williams in early could save money. Waiting for another big season could turn a costly move into an even bigger one.
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