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.