$255M salary cap gives Cowboys new flexibility in Prescott negotiations

Prescott had leverage on multiple levels, including timing. The new cap takes some of that away and provides the Jones family with more comfortable chairs at the negotiation tables. Here’s how, from @KDDrummondNFL.

It’s now easier for the Dallas Cowboys to walk away from Dak Prescott. On Friday, the NFL released the figures for the 2024 salary cap, $255.4 million, steamrolling past previous projections. Originally the number was rumored to be between $240 million and $245 million. The actual number comes in $13 million above the median of that range and Stephen Jones has to be ecstatic.

Why? Because it keeps them from being strong armed in the Dak Prescott contract negotiations. Don’t get it twisted, Prescott still has like 80% of all of the leverage here, but blowing things up just became a little bit more palatable for the Jones family. Even if they do end up signing Prescott long-term, the extra room means they don’t have to resolve Prescott’s situation before addressing other needs. If nothing else, the additional cap space buys the Cowboys time.

Prescott currently sits with a $59.5 million cap hit that can be easily reduced in many ways. The most likely way is that the team works out an extension that makes him the highest paid player in league history, but reduces the 2024 impact on the cap. But now, with this extra $13 million in space they can play a little more hardball because it’s not as catastrophic to their offseason to not get space from Prescott’s deal.

 

 

For Cowboys to be all-in, they need to re-sign Dak Prescott

“All in” can mean a number of things but if the Cowboys really intend to make a major effort in 2024, it means they have to re-sign Dak Prescott, says @ReidDHanson.

“The king is dead. Long live the king.” It’s a customary phrase said at the passing of a monarch. It symbolizes the turning of the page as the new king is coronated and serves to immediately shift focus from the past to the future.

For Cowboys’ fans – don’t worry, Jerry Jones appears to be in fine health – it illustrates the front office’s readiness to move on to the 2024 season. After such a disastrous ending to the previous campaign, the Cowboys are eager to pour dirt on the old season and immediate shift into 2024 mode in one fell swoop.

In discussions with reporters at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Jerry and Stephen Jones wasted no time hyping up the new season, giving just brief homage to the heartbreaking opportunity that was lost weeks ago.

“I think we’ll push the hell out of it,” Owner Jones said describing his level of aggressiveness in the coming offseason. “It will be going all in on different people than you’ve done in the past. We’ll be going all in…”

The, this year will be different vibe, was nothing new from Jones. The Cowboys’ master salesman does this every year about this time of winter, but use of the phrase “all in” was undoubtedly a new addition.

All-in is a strategy fans have been clamoring for, but the Cowboys have been avoiding. All in requires money and resources. It also could come at the cost of future campaigns. For a franchise that’s built on selling hope and hype each season, lean years are something they typically try to avoid.

But with fat new contracts approaching, the biggest window of opportunity appears to be closing. CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons will both be moving off their affordable rookie deals and into top-of-the-market territory. If Dallas wants to strike while the iron is hot and resources are available, 2024 is the time to do it.

Still, it’s difficult to hear the Joneses words without a certain degree of skepticism.

What is “all in?”

According to the most recent numbers from OTC, the Cowboys are over the cap already. Their -$22,805,299 in effective cap space ranks them bottom-six in the NFL this year. While most NFL fans know this cap number is highly malleable and not something that would inhibit a team from fulfilling their widest desires, the Cowboys typically paint the cap in a different light.

On countless occasions the Joneses have used the salary cap to explain and/or excuse their lack of activity in the offseason. They’ve used the excuse to avoid signing their own free agents and used it to explain why they didn’t sign good outside free agents.

The salary cap has served an important purpose for them and other owners. In many ways the salary cap was created by the owners to curb their own spending and justify it to their fanbases. It keeps their costs low and their profits high. It was made in the name of parity but used as a way to deflect blame.

When Jerry Jones says “all in” does he mean all that’s available today (which is nothing), a few dollars he’ll free up through restructuring deals in March (which is modest), or is he really talking about maximizing his spending power?

Cut, Duck, Brees or what? 6 ways Cowboys-Prescott negotiations could go

While the current deal Prescott plays under has the Cowboys put in a tough situation, there are always interesting ways the sides can move forward. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys are now two weeks into their offseason process. While they still don’t know what their defense is going to look like, the return of head coach Mike McCarthy means the attack is going to get a second year of Texas Coast. But McCarthy wasn’t given a new deal, he was retained to complete the final season of his five-year contract.

And that lame duck approach leads to huge questions to the other figure atop the leadership totem for the team, quarterback Dak Prescott. Prescott, 31, himself enters the offseason with just one year remaining on his deal. The ninth-year vet will be entering the final season of a four-year $160 million agreement that at the time signed made him the second-highest paid QB in terms of annual value.

Prescott, as was always going to be the case, now sits tied for 10th with Matt Stafford and Daniel Jones. He is set to earn a $5 million roster bonus in March and then cost Dallas $29 million in base salary for 2024. His total cap hit for this year is $59.46 million and due to bonus money allocated beyond the four-year agreement, already has $36 million on the Cowboys’ 2025 books.

On top of this, Prescott negotiated additional provisions in the current deal that limit Dallas’ flexibility in this round of negotiations. All in all, it leaves six viable paths for things to go, as laid out below. Don’t feel like reading anymore? Check out the Youtube video and follow along that way.

Follow the Money: Breakdown of Cowboys QBs salaries, cap hits

A breakdown of the cap spending at the quarterback position and how Dallas needs to address the group this offseason. | From @ArmyChiefW3

It should be no surprise that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones would never give up the final say. Be honest with yourself, would you give up control if you owned the Cowboys? From social media to deep-rooted content creators, there seems to be an endless supply of comments regarding what Dallas should do with their roster, but things will always lie in the hands of the Joneses.

And how have they allocated their large treasure chest when it comes to building a winner? This series takes a look at how Dallas has allocated their salary cap and what’s on tap for the 2024 season, prior to the start of the new league year.

First up, is the quarterback position. Hat tip to Over The Cap for the base numbers of each player’s contract.

The ‘What If…?’ Mock Draft: Cowboys, Bears swap Dak Prescott for Justin Fields

A thought exercise if Dallas and Dak Prescott can’t agree to an extension, how much he’d be worth in a trade, and then working with Chicago to upgrade both teams’ situations. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Marvel Comics Universe, better known as the MCU, has centered fictional characters for over a decade. Although it’s losing steam commercially over the last several years, One property has been able to recapture the magic, the two-season animated run of What If…?

What If,,,? is another comic convert, that takes well-known characters, but from alternate universes, and puts them in scenarios originally encountered by other heroes. We’re going to borrow this concept for a minute and walk an alternate universe path of what if the Dallas Cowboys were willing to hit the reset button on the franchise and trade Dak Prescott.

Prescott has a ridiculously high cap hit in 2024, along with both no-tag and no-trade clauses. The almost assured scenario is that not only will he return to Dallas for 2024, but he’ll do it as the league’s highest-paid QB.

But what if he didn’t?

What if the two sides are unable to work out an extension over the next 3-plus months and owner Jerry Jones hit the reset button? We already outlined all of the teams we believe would jump at the chance to acquire Prescott, and that list includes the Chicago Bears.

Mock drafts, especially ones in January, are as What If… as anything can get in sports. So before things get serious, we’ll use this iteration to play out a scenario where Dallas doesn’t hitch their wagon to Prescott and instead looks to find the next starting quarterback.

 

ESPN+: Prescott is 2023 MVP, 7 Cowboys make Walder’s top-100 ballot

The Cowboys have a ton of talent, and while it clearly doesn’t guarantee results when it matters, it is better than not having any. | From @KDDrummondNFL

ESPN’s Seth Walder is one of the finest analytical minds the football world has to offer. Walder is the face of metrics that help explain the why of what happens, such as pass-block win rates, double-team rates, motion-at-the-snap rates and others. He doesn’t do it by himself, of course, ESPN has a vast network of analytical guys and girls that pour hours into quantifying things beyond the eye test. Hopefully one day their work will be the driving force behind all of the talking-head opinions.

Haha. Still, in looking back on the 2023 regular season — it’s a shame the playoffs were totally cancelled this year and the NFL won’t return until September, right? Right?? — Walder has once again objected to the AP only going five deep when it comes to the MVP award. Instead, he rolls out his ballot that goes all the way to 100. Sitting atop the perch? Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott.

Prescott was one of three Cowboys to land in Walder’s top-eight, and one of seven to make the rankings overall. Not a lot of solace with such a disappointing end to the season, but Dallas does have a ton of talent on their roster. While it clearly doesn’t guarantee results, it’s certainly better to have than not.

‘I sucked tonight’: Cowboys’ Dak Prescott stands by HC Mike McCarthy after epic playoff collapse

If Mike McCarthy’s job is in jeopardy after Sunday’s loss, Prescott says his should be, too. That’s unlikely as a rocky offseason begins.

It took Dak Prescott just nine seconds into his Sunday evening press conference to find the word that Cowboys fans had been feeling all afternoon.

“Just shocked, honestly,” he told reporters as he tried to explain the opening-round postseason loss to the Green Bay Packers that was far more humiliating than the 48-32 score alone would suggest.

Shocked. Yep.

The 12-5 Cowboys had, shockingly, just been wiped off the field- their own field- and prematurely sent into the offseason by the lowest-ranked playoff seed in the conference. And following an outing in which Dallas had no answers in any phase of the game, the leader of the offense was just as lost for suggestions on what needs to happen next to get this regular-season powerhouse over the hump into actual contention for a title.

“I wish I had that answer for you, honestly.”

A growing number of outside observers have plenty of ideas, though, and many of them start with making a change at head coach.

Prescott, for one, isn’t ready to give up on Mike McCarthy. In fact, he doubled down on what the 60-year-old in his fourth year with the club has meant, to the organization and to him personally.

“He’s been amazing,” Prescott said when asked about this latest postseason collapse putting McCarthy’s job in jeopardy. “I don’t know how that can be, but I understand the business. In that case, it should be about me as well, honestly. That guy, I’ve had the season that I’ve had because of him. This team has had the success that they’ve had because of him. I understand it’s about winning the Super Bowl. That’s the standard of the league and damn sure the standard of this place, so I get it. But add me to the list, in that case.”

The dollars and cents, though, would seem to put Prescott and McCarthy in different categories as far as guarantees of their future employment in Dallas goes.

The head coach is now entering the final year of his contract, in a league where lame-duck head coaches are exceedingly rare; common sense says owner Jerry Jones will either- this offseason- extend McCarthy or buy out his final year and move on.

Prescott has a budget-crippling $59-plus million dollars coming his way in 2024 salary cap numbers, a no-trade clause in his deal, and language preventing the team from using the franchise tag on him again. A reworking of his terms is almost certainly coming… unless Jones is embarrassed and devastated enough by Sunday’s total no-show to blow the whole thing up and truly start over.

McCarthy bet on himself for 2023 by firing offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and installing himself as offensive play-caller. When it worked, the Dallas offense was a juggernaut, and the Cowboys led the league in scoring… albeit mostly against bad teams.

But there were several games- including, inexplicably, their playoff bout against his old club- in which his Cowboys looked completely uninspired and wholly unprepared.

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Prescott led the NFL in interceptions a year ago and vowed to turn that around. He did, throwing more touchdowns than anyone this season, earning his first All-Pro bid (second team), and being a legitimate contender for the league MVP award.

But the eight-year veteran said that the team’s wild-card train wreck renders all those accomplishments meaningless.

“A thousand percent,” he explained from the podium. “I’m not a guy that lives in the past, so where my feet are and at this moment? Yeah, I sucked tonight. And that was it.”

For a leader who has been so consistently good during the regular season, Prescott was unable to provide insight on why it never- apart from last year’s opening-round postseason win over 8-9 Tampa Bay- seems to translate to the playoffs, for him or for the Cowboys as a unit.

“It’s tough to give you that answer when I just went out there and we just did that. Unfortunately, that’s what the offseason’s for. And it’s a long, long one.”

But this offseason in Dallas is also going to be a rocky, rocky one.

And maybe that’s not so much of a shock.

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Cowboys McCarthy, Prescott at crossroads after humiliating wild-card loss

If the Cowboys want to turn the page on their head coach, they can, but while it’s not impossible it’s implausible they’ll move on from their QB this offseason. Here’s why.

The Dallas Cowboys 48-32 loss has once again ended a season in a manner that feels premature. Last year’s 12-win team made it to a road divisional game in San Francisco. While there was hope the club could advance over an inexperienced QB, results from 2023 have confirmed that Brock Purdy and the 49ers are the real deal and that loss was not the embarrassment it seemed like at the time.

But this loss, to the seventh-seeded Green Bay Packers is much different. Dallas will have to take a long look in the mirror and determine whether or not they’ve hit their ceiling with this head coach and quarterback combination. Both sides of the team shoulder equal blame for the disaster on Sunday, but as the faces of the franchise, Mike McCarthy and Dak Prescott are at a crossroads, and in the crosshairs.

There’s going to be a lot to unpack about both roles over the next 24 hours, but the options Jerry Jones and company have are wholly different for the two men.

Dak Prescott up for FedEx NFL Air Player of the Year Award

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys QB led the league in TDs and completions, and he led his fellow finalists in both completion percentage and interceptions.

The NFL removed Dak Prescott from its season-ending ballot for FedEx NFL Air Player of the Week after voting had already begun a few days ago, causing a bit of a stir for fans who felt the Cowboys quarterback was being disrespected despite a four-touchdown performance versus Washington.

Maybe that blow has been softened somewhat, because the league has No. 4 up for an even bigger honor now.

Prescott has been named a finalist for the FedEx NFL Air Player of the Year Award, alongside 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy and Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

Prescott led the entire league in touchdowns and completions, while Purdy finished with the top overall passer rating, and Tagovailoa ranked first in total passing yards.

Player Comp Att Comp% Yds TD INT Rtg
Dak Prescott 410 590 69.5 4,516 36 9 105.9
Brock Purdy 308 444 69.4 4,280 31 11 113.0
Tua Tagovailoa 388 560 69.3 4,624 29 14 101.1

Even after the balloting snafu for the season finale, the Cowboys quarterback won the weekly version of the award twice in 2023, in Dallas’s Week 10 win over the Giants and their Week 12 Thanksgiving Day victory over Washington.

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Tagovailoa won for Weeks 1 and 3, while Purdy was honored in Weeks 11, 13, and 14.

Fans will be able to vote for the player of their choice via the NFL’s official X account (formerly Twitter) or the NFL app. The winner will be announced Feb. 8 at NFL Honors.

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Cowboys Twitter reacts to NFL removing Dak Prescott from FedEx Air ballot

The NFL initially thought Dak Prescott’s performance was worthy of accolade, but removed him from the poll. Cowboys Nation was not happy.

If Dak Prescott gets inspired by slights, real or perceived, the world certainly keeps providing him ammunition. After a season where risky passes, wideout mistakes and tip drills led to an uncharacteristic 15 interceptions in just 12 games, Prescott vowed to stay aggressive but limit the turnovers.

He did that and more, turning in a campaign that is worthy of MVP accolades. That was cemented by his Week 18 performance. Prescott shook off his ninth interception of the season and proceeded to finish with 279 passing yards and four touchdown passes before being lifted midway through the fourth quarter.

It was certainly one of the best performances of the weekend and the NFL knew this, putting him up for FedEx Air player of the week. For a stretch. Inexplicably, the NFL took Prescott off the ballot after fans had begun voting, and replaced him with Josh Allen.

Allen, whose Buffalo Bills scored 14 points in the fourth quarter to defeat Miami and take the AFC East title, had 359 passing yards. He also only had two touchdown passes which were matched by two interceptions. Allen also lost a fumble on a strip sack in Miami territory.

What reason did whatever NFL division responsible for the weekly award have for changing the roster? Cowboys Nation certainly had their own takes, and responded on Twitter accordingly.