Stephen Jones: Cowboys Super Bowl would ‘create more value’ for Prescott’s new deal

Cowboys fans were crestfallen when the deadline for a long-term deal between the club and quarterback Dak Prescott passed uneventfully on July 15. Prescott is still locked in as the starter, and, having previously signed his tender, was bound to play 2020 under the franchise tag. So it’s not like Prescott is suddenly wandering the streets handing out his resume to opposing NFL teams.

Glass-half-empty types immediately assumed, though, that the final countdown has started. They must be banking on rookie Ben DiNucci to be the next diamond in the rough. Or maybe they’re coveting Trevor Lawrence in the Class of 2021. It’s obviously the beginning of the end of the Prescott era in Dallas.

Only, don’t tell that to Stephen Jones.

The organization’s chief operating officer sat down with DallasCowboys.com and explained that there no hard feelings between the front office and Prescott. In fact, Jones seemed to double down on the franchise’s faith that No. 4 can take the Cowboys to the promised land.

“We had a great visit with him at the deadline. We pushed to try to have a few more changes here and there to see if we could get it done. But he’s got such a great outlook on the Dallas Cowboys, our football team, and he’s ready to go out and win a Super Bowl, which would only create more value for him, more value for the Cowboys.

“So we’re fired up about it and still have nothing but 100 percent belief in Dak and his future with the Cowboys, and that we can ultimately get a deal done. He’s special. As Jerry and I have said, we are 110 percent behind him, and ultimately feel like we’ll get this done.”

Of course, that’s the same rosy picture that the Joneses painted all along, giving every indication that a deal would come together before July 15, even if the two sides pushed things right up to the deadline.

And according to Jones, they did.

“I don’t want to use ‘close’ in terms of negotiations. You either get a deal done or you don’t,” Jones said. “We didn’t quite get it done. I wouldn’t put blame on either side. It’s just one of those things, when you’re talking about a deal as big as this is- for our team, not just for Dak but our entire team, the ramifications that it has- we certainly want to get it done right. I know he’s respectful of Jerry and myself of what we’re trying to get accomplished, just as we are with him.”

As Charean Williams of NBC Sports points out, “It’s one of the few times in Jerry Jones’s ownership of the Cowboys that the team didn’t get a contract worked out when it really wanted to work out a contract.”

To hear Jones tell it via videochat, the global COVID-19 pandemic that has made everything else so much more difficult added a level of complexity to the Prescott talks, too.