Jerry Jones bet against Dak Prescott and lost

Jerry Jones and the Cowboys could have signed themselves a lot of money by just believing in Dak Prescott sooner.

HAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Sorry, I’m just having a good laugh at the expense of a man who fancies himself a shrewd businessman and knower of football for over-thinking what should have been a relatively straightforward contract negotiation with Dak Prescott.

Instead of getting a deal done last offseason when Prescott was coming off a fantastic season by every measure, Jerry decided to play hardball with the most important person in the organization. A year later, he was forced to give Prescott a record $123 million in guaranteed money as a part of a four-year, $160 million contract that includes “no trade” and “no franchise tag” clauses.

Let’s rewind a year. Prescott was coming off a season in which he finished…

  • 2nd in passing yards
  • 3rd in touchdown passes
  • 6th in yards per attempt
  • 4th in QBR
  • 4th in EPA per dropback
  • 1st in the heart of film grinders everywhere

OK, that last one isn’t real, but Prescott wasn’t just some statistical darling. His film (easily) passed the sniff test and it was clear that he had developed into one of the very best quarterbacks in the league.

Here’s a list of all the quarterbacks who finished in the top-6 of each of those categories listed above during the 2019 season:

  1. Dak Prescott

That’s it.

Jerry wasn’t convinced, though, and threw out weird metaphors to explain why the decision to pay his franchise quarterback was a lot more difficult than our feeble football minds could fathom. So instead of giving Prescott the four-year, $35 million deal he was reportedly seeking, Jerry decided to let him play the 2020 season on the franchise tag.

We were a few months into the coronavirus pandemic at that point and it was a foregone conclusion that the NFL would be lowering the 2021 salary cap to make up for the money owners would lose without fans in the stands during the 2020 season. So Prescott playing on the tag for a second year in a row wasn’t really a viable option because it would have cost the Cowboys $37.7 million against a reduced cap. The only way Dallas would save money on Prescott’s deal, then, is if he played poorly enough for his value on the open market to decrease.

That didn’t happen. Prescott looked even better early in the 2020 season before a season-ending injury. And the Cowboys’ subsequent offensive implosion with Andy Dalton behind center only shined a brighter light on Prescott’s importance to the team. It turns out that any quarterback CAN’T thrive with what has devolved into an overrated supporting cast that was actually being propped up by Dak instead of the other way around.

For some, it took a gruesome broken leg to happen, but Prescott’s contributions were finally appreciated. The Cowboys didn’t really have a choice. They had to give Dak whatever he wanted. They did on Monday night, finally ending this saga that should have never been.

That’s not to say the Cowboys were forced to overpay to lock up Prescott long-term. This is not an overpay by any means. Dallas paid the going rate for a top-shelf franchise quarterback, and if Dak continues on the path he’s been on since he entered the league in 2016, the Cowboys will get their money’s worth.

So I guess I can’t laugh too hard at Jerry. Even when billionaires lose, they still win.