The Dallas Cowboys and Dak Prescott dilemma is going to be an ongoing one, complete with the usual drawn out negotiations the club has undertaken with almost all of their stars in recent years. DeMarcus Lawrence took multiple offseasons and two franchise tags before a deal was reached. Running back Ezekiel Elliott sat out a summer before the team gave him his extension. A few years prior, wideout Dez Bryant was away from the team until the franchise tag deadline was right around the corner. Now, it may be Prescott’s turn to push things to the wire. Or will it be?
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Tuesday the Cowboys have locked in on the date they would like to have signed Prescott by. The date the Dallas front office has mentioned as the target is March 10, or the last day to franchise tag a player.
The #Cowboys are going to try to buck history, attempting to get a deal done with QB Dak Prescott by the close of the franchise tag window on March 10. A lot will have to happen for a deal to come together. pic.twitter.com/Csl9LVvvB9
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 11, 2020
“Historically this has been incredibly difficult to do,” Rapoport said about teams trying to reach long term agreement with a player before using the franchise tag.
If a deal isn’t done by March 10, the Cowboys plan use the franchise tag on Prescott, keeping him on the team for another year but not long term as both sides want. The two sides would be allowed to continue negotiating towards that goal until July 15.
The non-exclusive tag would pay Prescott the average of the top five salaries at his position over the last five years, which will come in around $27 million or so.
It was reported Prescott declined a $33 million a year offer, but further details were not known at the time.
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The pressure would seem to be on the Cowboys for multiple reasons.
Houston’s Deshaun Watson is now eligible for a contract extension and any established QB market price could be shattered when the Chiefs lock up Patrick Mahomes long term. It could be crucial that Dallas strike a deal with Prescott before Mahomes resets the market for quarterback contracts, which could come at any time.
Dallas also has a new head coach and Mike McCarthy is an offensive mind, meaning a holdout by Prescott ruins the chance to integrate the new concepts and risks the chance of impacting the coming season.
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Whether a deal with Prescott will agreed be upon or not is still in the air. However, it is highly unlikely Dallas lets Prescott test free agency. The franchise tag would keep Prescott in Dallas until the two parties can hopefully come to terms on a multiple year contract, and Dallas has two of them to use in consecutive years.
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