Dak Prescott’s contract guarantees he’ll be with Cowboys, for multiple more years

Dak Prescott’s contract guarantees he’ll be with Cowboys, for multiple more years

It seems there was some doubt as to whether head coach Mike McCarthy would return to the Cowboys. They will without a doubt welcome back quarterback Dak Prescott.

It has nothing to do with his play, which was excellent in the regular season but insufficient in the Cowboys playoff loss. It is entirely related to his contract.

Rather of wearing the second franchise tag, Prescott signed a four-year contract, which he is now entering its last year of. He was franchise-tagged for the first time when his four-year rookie contract expired, and he reached the second tag because the Cowboys declined to renew his rookie contract after three years. The situation gave him considerable leverage in early 2021. He did with it exactly what team owner Jerry Jones has done throughout his entire life when he has had considerable leverage.

He took full advantage of it.

Prescott’s cap figure will thus soar from $26.832 million in 2023 to $59.455 million on opening day of the 2024 league year. To avoid paying the hefty cap charge, the Cowboys are forced to extend his contract before then. Prescott has a lot of power once more because of the circumstances. How is he going to act?

What would Jerry do, then?

Prescott will surely walk away from the talks with another agreement at market value. In a sense, he can set his own price. The predicament stems directly from Jones’s obstinacy and thrift following the 2018 and 2019 seasons, respectively.

When the Cowboys opted in early 2021 to avoid Dak playing under the franchise tag for a second year and then Kirk Cousins-ing his way to unrestricted free agency in early 2022, the Cowboys signed Dak to a four-year contract, $160 million contract that necessarily would force them to eventually sign him to another deal, ideally after 2022 (it didn’t happen, even though the Cowboys wanted it to) and at the latest before the $59.4 million cap charge kicks in on March 13.

The Cowboys can’t trade him. While he’s due to make only (only?) $34 million in 2024, a pre-June 1 trade would trigger a $61.9 million cap charge. Cutting him before June 1 would result in the same dead money number for 2024.

Beyond the leverage that comes from the $59.4 million cap number for 2024 is that, given the structure and terms of the deal, the Cowboys can’t tag him in 2025. (Even if they could, the cap number would be 144 percent of his 2024 cap number — $85.5 million — since the Cowboys applied a second franchise tag before he signed his extension.) Thus, he’ll be an unrestricted free agent next March, without an extension.

And even if they decide to deal with the $59.4 million cap number and let him become a free agent in March 2025, they’ll still have to deal with $36.46 million in dead money from the contract next year. That’s more than the $35 million Tom Brady left behind this year for the Buccaneers.

In short, the Cowboys are doomed. Dak is aware of it. Three years ago, he realized it and took the same action that Jerry would have. Why wouldn’t Dak follow Jerry’s example this year?

Thankfully, Dak performed well enough in 2023 for the Cowboys to deserve a big contract. For instance, if they had offered him a $55 million contract each year had he thrown 15 interceptions and 23 touchdown passes, as he did in 2022, it would have been extremely strange.

However, it would have made sense. The Cowboys mishandled him following his third and fourth seasons. Instead of allowing Dak to play in 2021 with the $37 million tag and become a free agent in March 2022, they disgracefully

 

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