It didn’t matter whether you were a Bears fan, Cowboys fan, or a fan of any of the other 30 teams in the NFL in Week 5. When Dak Prescott suffered his gruesome ankle injury against the Giants on Sunday, every NFL fan wept.
The official diagnosis for Prescott, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, was a compound fracture and dislocation of his ankle, which required immediate surgery Sunday night to repair.
The surgery was deemed a success.
Cowboys’ QB Dak Prescott is now out of surgery for a compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle, and the surgery that went “very well”, per a source. Cowboys Head Team Orthopedist Dan Cooper brought in noted foot and ankle doctor, Gene Curry, to do the repair tonight.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 12, 2020
What made Prescott’s injury even more difficult to stomach — beyond just the unnatural way his ankle was twisted — is his contract.
Prescott was slapped with the franchise tag this offseason and agreed to play on the one-year, $31 million terms in 2020 while he and the Cowboys continued to negotiate a mega long-term deal. Now, it’s reasonable to ask whether he’s played his last down as Dallas’ starting quarterback.
In fact, it’s not unreasonable to question whether his career will safely resume. We just watched Redskins quarterback Alex Smith take his first snap in 23 months after suffering a compound fracture of his leg. And while he had post-surgery complications, anytime a player’s bone is broken in half, there’s no guarantee they’ll take the field again.
This brings us to Bears wide receiver, Allen Robinson.
A-Rob is playing on the final year of the three-year contract he signed with the Bears in free agency in 2018, and much like Prescott, is taking a gigantic risk with each Sunday that he takes the field without a new deal.
In the span of just a couple of weeks, Robinson has witnessed both sides of how injuries can impact contract negotiations. Bears running back Tarik Cohen tore his ACL in Week 3; he signed his new three-year contract in the week leading up to that game. He’ll be OK. Prescott, on the other hand, must now rehab from a terrible injury while battling the uncertainty of what’s next in his career.
Robinson, who currently ranks fourth in the NFL in receptions and seventh in yards, deserves a new deal. He deserves a new deal right now. And with Prescott’s injury shining a light on how risky every snap of every game can be, it would be within Robinson’s right to begin making his contract frustration public.
Remember: Robinson generated a response from the Bears after out of frustration with the contract talks, he cleansed his social media accounts of any references to the organization.
It was a small step that produced big results. It may be time to go even further.
Robinson knows the risk of injury all too well. After a remarkable start to his career with the Jaguars, A-Rob suffered a torn ACL in the first game of the 2017 season. Much like 2020, it was the final season of his then-rookie contract. His standing in unrestricted free agency was unstable at best and resulted in a contract from the Bears (three-years, $42 million) that has proven to be significantly below his market value.
The Bears need to do right by A-Rob and make sure their most important offensive weapon — who’s given this team his maximum effort week after week and who’s become a classy leader in the locker room — is taken care of.