Cowboys news: Dak Prescott extension talks still need to happen

 NFL Rumors: Dak Prescott, Cowboys Still Expected to Talk Contract After Playoff Loss – Joseph Zucker, Bleacher Report

The Cowboys are intent on running it back with their current core and that begins with extending Dak Prescott.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports that the Dallas Cowboys and quarterback Dak Prescott are still anticipated to negotiate a contract extension. Rapoport mentioned Prescott’s substantial 2024 salary cap hit of $59.5 million, which gives the Cowboys a strong incentive to negotiate a new contract as soon as possible.The two parties “are expected to convene at some point and talk for a while,” according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN on Monday.

Prescott is regarded as one of the best ten passers in this league, and the Cowboys are aware of how difficult it is to acquire a quality quarterback, according to Fowler. “Thus, it would be somewhat unexpected if they let him go, but given his 2-5 playoff record, Dallas may bring up that as a negotiation point in the upcoming months.”

Prescott defended head coach Mike McCarthy in the moments following Dallas’ 48-32 NFC Wild Card Round loss to the Green Bay Packers. If that was the state of affairs with coaching, he essentially stated that McCarthy and him should be facing the firing line at that point.

Thanks to his massive cap hit, the Cowboys have little choice but to give Prescott a new deal keeping him on the payroll beyond 2024 as well. They’re on pace to be $11 million over the cap, so they need to free up a lot of cash in order to not only get into the black but also create enough flexibility to strengthen the roster. Lowering Prescott’s salary commitment helps to achieve that.

Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy not expected to get extension, sources say – Adam Schefter ESPN

When it comes to the head coach, the Cowboys are not ready to commit long-term with Mike McCarthy.

Mike McCarthy is not expected to receive any sort of extension from the Dallas Cowboysand will coach the 2024 season on an expiring contract, league sources told ESPN. Ever since Cowboys owner Jerry Jones announced this week that McCarthy would return in 2024, there have been questions about whether McCarthy’s contract could be adjusted in some way — even something as simple as having one more year tacked on.The answer, simply enough, is no.

Jones said he believes that a person in the last year of a contract is challenged in a different way, and it often can bring out the best in people — which he is banking on happening in 2024 with McCarthy. Jones expected and asked the same of McCarthy’s predecessor, Jason Garrett, who twice coached into the final year of his contract. The first time Garrett coached in the final year of his contract was in 2014, when he went 12-4 and landed five-year extension. The second time was in 2019, when he finished 8-8 and did not return to the Cowboys, who replaced him with McCarthy.

Three days after a disappointing wild-card loss to the Green Bay Packers at AT&T Stadium, Jones made McCarthy’s return in 2024 official with a 260-word statement that lauded McCarthy’s regular-season winning percentage and his “demonstrated postseason success,” even if it came with the Packers. The Cowboys are 67-42 in the regular season and have won two NFC East titles in the past three years, but are just 1-3 in the playoffs under McCarthy.

McCarthy said he is more motivated by legacy than money, and said the lack of an extension was not an issue to him. But the fact that he will be coaching in the final year of his deal will hang over McCarthy and the Cowboys, and will create unavoidable issues. Some sources around the league say that McCarthy could have a more challenging time filling potential openings on his coaching staff since he will be in the last year of his deal. Others say that, during periods of adversity, McCarthy’s lack of an extension could hover over the team.

3 Defensive Moves the Cowboys must make this off-season – Mark Heaney, Inside the Star

The Cowboys defense has shown that while they can change games with their takeaways, they have a lot of areas to improve.

New Look Linebacking Corps

As sad of an end as it is, the career of former-first-round pick, Leighton Vander Esch, is likely over. ESPN’s Ed Werder reiterated this likelihood on Thursday. When you combine that with a mediocre, at best, group, it becomes clear that linebacker is perhaps the biggest need for Dallas heading into 2024.

This season, the Cowboys played safeties at linebacker, were forced to give practice squad-level players snaps, and got bullied in the run-and-pass game for it. The one safety-to-linebacker player that worked out was Markquese Bell, who will be a big piece for Dallas next year as well. Yet, even Bell, and the other semi-bright spot, Damone Clark, struggled mightily against Green Bay. The point is, this off-season needs to be about buffing up the starting linebackers and the depth at the position. I believe that starts with free agency.

The Cowboys’ must make signing Titans linebacker, and impending free agent, Azeez Al-Shaair, a top priority. Truth be told, they should have acquired him at this year’s trade deadline, but they will have another chance this spring. Al-Shaair immediately becomes the best linebacker on the roster for Dallas; he is coming off a 163 total tackle season, with four passes defended, nine tackles for loss, and six quarterback hits.

At just 26 years old, this guy can lead the front seven for the next 3-5 years. Secondly, a great fit for Dallas in this year’s draft is Texas A&M linebacker, Edgerrin Cooper. Likely to be either a first or second-round pick, Cooper brings the intangibles Dallas has been lacking. Dallas will also get a boost from 2023 fourth-rounder, DeMarvion Overshown, making his return from a torn ACL.

Why the Dallas Cowboys were right to retain Mike McCarthy – David Howman, Blogging the Boys

An argument for keeping Mike McCarthy.

The frustration over yet another early playoff exit is certainly valid, but the decision to actually fire a coach must be more than just a response to such frustration. Everyone wants to see the Cowboys make a deep playoff run and, ultimately, get back to the Super Bowl. There is not a single soul in the building for this franchise that doesn’t understand what the goal is. But there is also the simple fact that winning a Super Bowl is hard.

There are only four head coaches in the present era who have won the championship game, and Andy Reid, who has two rings, is the only one who has done so more than once. Though he has won it six times, Bill Belichick is undoubtedly the exception in this case and is currently unemployed.

To illustrate how difficult this is, even Belichick had only made one postseason appearance in the previous four years (he was 0-1 in that season). Not only is it hard to win the Super Bowl, but it’s hard to win in the playoffs at all. Just five head coaches currently in use have a winning postseason record—six if we count Belichick. That represents hardly 20% of the league.

Several prominent coaches with a losing record in the postseason include Doug Pederson and Mike Tomlin, the champions of the Super Bowl, Kevin Stefanski, who is a strong candidate for Coach of the Year, and Matt LaFleur, who just eliminated the Cowboys.

To put things in perspective, each season there are thirty-one teams that are not the Super Bowl winners. It is typical for approximately six teams to replace their head coach following the season, meaning that approximately twenty-five teams annually remain with their current head coach despite not winning the Super Bowl. That represents more than 78% of the league that chooses not to rotate its leadership each year.

Tennessee replaced Mularkey with Mike Vrabel, and early results seemed encouraging. Vrabel went 41-24 in his first four seasons, reaching the playoffs three straight seasons and even advancing to the conference championship game in 2019. However, things fizzled out, and Vrabel was just fired after two straight losing seasons.

The last time a team fired their coach after consecutive playoff appearances was John Fox, whom the Broncos fired after the 2014 season. Fox was 46-18 in four seasons in Denver, making the playoffs each year and even reaching the Super Bowl once. He won 12+ games in his last three seasons, but Denver opted to move on in an attempt to maximize their Super Bowl window with Peyton Manning.

The decision was successful, as Gary Kubiak’s Broncos won the Super Bowl the following season. Though he was benched for Brock Osweiler and saw a significant decline in performance that season, Manning was able to regain the starting position just before the postseason got underway. After Kubiak retired and Denver missed the playoffs the next year, the franchise hasn’t even had a winning season, much less made it to the playoffs, since then.

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