The clock is ticking. But we’re coming down to the final seconds, and the Cowboys are out of timeouts.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler has reported that, according to his sources, “the Cowboys are trying” to get a contract extension finalized with quarterback Dak Prescott before Sunday’s late-afternoon kickoff versus the Browns.
The Cowboys front office and Prescott’s representatives are “working away at this,” per the network’s senior NFL reporter, to get a deal in place before the team takes the field in Cleveland, but Fowler concedes that “there is a gap here, certainly, that they would have to bridge.”
Owner Jerry Jones and executive vice president Stephen Jones have both said that an extension for last season’s runner-up to the league’s MVP award was a priority, but nothing has happened on that front in the seven months and change since their 2023 playoff run ended with a brutal home loss to Green Bay. Prescott is expected to become, perhaps, the highest-paid player in NFL history with his next contract, possibly topping $60 million in average annual salary.
But whether those checks will come from the Cowboys or another team remains to be seen. Prescott is currently set to play out 2024 in Dallas on the final year of his contract- he’s been a full participant all offseason- but without an extension in place, he would hit free agency the moment the Cowboys are finished this season.
There’s a “small chance it gets done” before Sunday’s season opener, according to ProFootballTalk.
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Technically speaking, there is no reason the two sides cannot come to an agreement at any point during the season. Prescott himself has expressed a desire to remain with the Cowboys and has said that Sunday’s Week 1 matchup is not a deadline for establishing a new working arrangement.
But the preference for all sides would be to have a new deal in place before play begins. The team will be embarking on a make-or-break year in which head coach Mike McCarthy and the entire Cowboys coaching staff are also working without contracts for 2025. Wideout CeeDee Lamb just inked his extension in recent days, and defensive superstar Micah Parsons will be among those expected to sign new deals in the very near future.
Going into such a campaign with every member of the organization facing nonstop questions about the long-term employment status of the face of the franchise after every single game- win or lose- would obviously not help the team stay “rooted” in their focus on their stated goals for this season.
Of course, the same could have been said about the entire 2024 offseason, training camp, and preseason.
And it all goes away with a handshake and the stroke of a pen.
“We still got time,” a source told longtime Cowboys reporter Clarence Hill Jr. of DLLS on Saturday night. “We are still working on it.”
But the Joneses had better have a fantastic last-ditch play drawn up in the dirt, because it’s suddenly Hail Mary time in Dallas.
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