With the recent news the Cowboys are heavily considering moving safety Byron Jones back to the corner position, the debate over his value to the team has been rekindled. Hand-in-hand with the discussion over whether or not Jones has been misused the last two seasons is also the debate on what Dallas should do with him. The former first-round pick from 2015 is set to enter the final season of his four-year rookie deal.

The Cowboys have the option to invoke a fifth-year option on Jones that would secure his services through the 2019 season. Regardless of what any observer thinks about Jones and his potential move to cornerback one thing is for sure, Dallas needs to make that happen.

Here’s why.

The fifth-year option is a contractual tool which is heavily skewed towards the franchise’s favor. For a Top 10 pick, it can get expensive, as it’s the equivalent of putting a transition tag on the player. That player would make the average of the Top 10 players at his position from the prior year.

However Jones wasn’t a Top 10 pick. For players selected No. 11 through No. 32 of the first round, their fifth-year option is the average value of the third through 25th highest paid players at their position from the previous year.

As a safety, a Top 10 fifth-year option would cost Dallas $8.26 million. As the No. 27 pick, Jones’ option for 2019 is $6.17 million.

Suppose Byron Jones flourishes in his return to cornerback in 2018. The Cowboys would then likely have to franchise tag him as one year would be a difficult sample size to decide whether to dole out a huge contract. The franchise tag amount for cornerbacks will be $15.4 million in 2018. In 2019, that would likely move northward of $16 million.

By invoking the fifth-year option, it’s essentially $10 million cheaper than the franchise tag would be if Dallas had to go that route in 2019.

Here’s the kicker, the fifth-year option is only guaranteed for injury. As long as Jones doesn’t suffer an injury that puts his 2019 in jeopardy (or gets advised to have a not-so-necessary offseason surgery at an inopportune time), the Cowboys could walk away from the option anytime before the start of the 2019 league year that March.

This also allows the Cowboys to use the franchise tag on another position player, such as David Irving, who is expected to get a restricted free agent tag this season and would be unrestricted in 2019.

One interesting thing which may be in play is that if Jones plays 2018 at cornerback, his option year would be at the 3-through-25 average for the option year, not the year it was invoked. Even if that’s the case, $9.2 million for the option year is still $7 million below the franchise tender. $9.2 million would make him the No.13-highest paid corner, and that’s before any of the free agency deals of the next two offseasons. That could be as low as No. 20 by the time the 2019 season starts.

There’s really no downside for the Cowboys. They lock in a player for an extra year, cheaper than the franchise tag and can walk away before ever paying a dollar of it.

This situation is a far cry from when the club declined to put the option year on Morris Claiborne two years ago. Claiborne was oft-injured and a Top 10 pick. There was a big risk that bigger salary would’ve gotten locked in since it is guaranteed for injury. Jones has played all 48 games he’s been in the league for.

When it’s all said and done, by May 3 (the annual league deadline) the Cowboys will have Byron Jones locked in for the next two seasons to get a full understanding of what they have in the Connecticut product.