It’s been two months since Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said regarding a contract extension for the team’s starting quarterback, “We’ve got to have a plan to ultimately extend Dak.”
Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles just altered the plan. Or at least shifted the parameters.
The defending NFC champs announced on Monday that they had reached an agreement to extend their field general with a record-breaking deal that makes Hurts the highest-paid player in NFL history. The 24-year-old’s new five-year deal is worth a reported $255 million, with $179.3 million of it guaranteed.
With an average annual value of $51 million, that’s a 27.5% increase over the pact that made Prescott a $40 million man for the Cowboys in 2021… and a significant faction of the fanbase was (and still is) clutching their pearls about that payday.
But life moves on, and positional salary resets happen pretty regularly in the NFL; no market-setting contract stays in the top spot for long. Deshaun Watson’s earth-shaking Cleveland deal that gave him $46 million average annual value- signed just 13 months ago- has already fallen to fourth-most lucrative upon the Hurts news.
Highest-paid QBs in the NFL in new money average per year:
1. Jalen Hurts: $51M
2. Aaron Rodgers: $49M
3. Kyler Murray: $46.1M
4. Deshaun Watson: $46M
5. Patrick Mahomes: $45M
6. Josh Allen: $43M
T-7. Daniel Jones: $40M
T-7. Matthew Stafford: $40M
T-7. Dak Prescott: $40M— Field Yates (@FieldYates) April 17, 2023
And so it will go with Hurts, too, just as soon as the next top-tier passer gets to the front of the line, whether it’s Lamar Jackson or Justin Herbert or Joe Burrow.
Or even Prescott.
No. 4’s contract with the Cowboys binds him to the team through 2024, but the club has an escape clause after this coming season. The Joneses did a restructuring of Prescott’s deal back in early March to free up roughly $22 million in cap space, and while that move hinted at the franchise’s commitment to their two-time Pro Bowler and reigning Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year, it hasn’t precluded the organization from talking pretty openly about possibly kicking the tires on a young quarterback on the final day of this month’s draft.
Uncovering a diamond in the rough (much like they did with Prescott himself in 2016’s fourth round) who is capable of winning on a modestly-priced rookie contract might just make a parting of the ways more financially palatable if Prescott has another underwhelming season in a new-look Dallas offense.
But in all probability, that extension for Prescott is coming, either this offseason or next. And the longer ownership waits, the higher the price tag will almost assuredly be. Cowboys Wire’s projection less than a month ago was for a five-year extension worth $255 million… or exactly what Hurts just signed for in Philly.
Both Jones and Prescott have alluded to such an agreement just happening, behind closed doors and at almost any time, without a lot of fanfare or buildup.
It just hasn’t happened yet.
“I checked in with some of my sources,” NFL Network Cowboys insider Jane Slater said Monday, “and they say that a conversation with Todd France, [Prescott]’s agent, hasn’t taken place.”
Slater predicts that Hurts’s new deal establishes a likely starting point of “anywhere between $45 and $50 million” when those talks do get underway.
But the next contract- signed by Jackson, Herbert, Burrow, or someone else- could move the bar yet again… and it ain’t moving any cheaper.
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