Amari Cooper doesn’t seem at all interested in negotiating publicly. When Cowboys Wire spoke to the No. 1 wideout this winter, on the day Kellen Moore was named offensive coordinate for the Dallas Cowboys, Cooper basically said the same thing he’s said numerous times since; he’ll let his agent deal with the contract extensions. Cooper has echoed those words interview after interview since, and continues to say things will be worked out whe things are right.

Cooper is a man who lets his play do the talking for him. His agent, apparently, is in no rush to do any talking on his behalf. At Thursday’s press conference to discuss Ezekiel Elliott’s new deal, Cowboys executive VP Stephen Jones went the route of letting the public know he isn’t hearing back from Cooper’s side.

Cowboys executive VP Stephen Jones: “There haven’t been a lot of negotiations with Amari (Cooper), period. And I’m not free to be able to share why. I think at some point we’ll start that. I don’t know what their parameters will be.” — Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) September 5, 2019

The Joneses have already let it be known they’ve made offers to pay both Cooper and QB Dak Prescott as top-5 players at their respective positions. But the more and more things take time to develop, the better it will be for Cooper.

Here’s why.

One of the staples of contract negotiations for stars is, what is going to be the worst-case scenario for keeping a player by using the franchise tag. Most superstar players look for guarantees that are related to what their compensation would be if there was no deal in place and the team needed to use the tag for the next two seasons.

The tag is a one-year contract for an amount no less than the average of the top five cap hits at the player’s position for the previous five years applied to the current salary cap.

Since the 2018 season expired, three wide receivers are now added to the top of the wide receiver pay totem. Michael Thomas inked for an average of $19.25 million a season with the New Orleans Saints. Antonio Brown renegotiated after a trade to the Raiders for $16.7 million a year. On Friday, Kansas City agreed to a new deal for Tyreke Hill that averages the same as Odell Beckham, $18 million.

All of this movement is before the Atlanta Falcons hand over a contract many expect to surpass $20 million a year to Julio Jones.

While Cooper hasn’t had the production these other receivers have over their careers, it’s certainly in his best interest to let the market be set by them. Each new deal pushes up the expected franchise tag amounts discussed earlier, which means they are pushing up Cooper’s per-year average and the all-important guaranteed money equation.

All without taking a single snap.

Cooper is playing on the fifth-year option in 2019, making a guaranteed $13.924 million, so he’s not in the same position Elliott was, or more importantly Prescott is as he’s scheduled to make under $3 million, a ridiculously low number for a franchise quarterback.

Signing a long-term deal without a significant increase in his 2019 take-home pay doesn’t make much sense from his perspective. The Cowboys would likely have to deliver a large signing bonus, which is something they haven’t been doing because of the 30% rule revolving around deals which extend past the 2020-expiring CBA.

That’s a rule that caps how much a contract can increase year over year.

With Hill signing, Cooper and the Patriots’ Josh Gordon will be the cream of the crop for 2020 free agency, with Gordon clearly having the suspension concerns swirling around any deal he makes. There’s probably little chance, after trading away a first-round pick mid-2018 for his services and seeing the direct impact he had on Prescott’s performance, the Cowboys would let him walk, giving the player a leg up in the negotiations.

If the Cowboys’ offer hasn’t yet reflected that, it makes perfect sense that Cooper isn’t in a rush to counter offer. The longer the two sides wait, the better the landscape is for Cooper. As he’s likely supremely confident he’s about to be an integral part in a much-improved offense, he is in a position to be as coy as he wants to be.