Tag: Dak Prescott contract

Grading Dak Prescott’s four-year, $160 million extension: A+ for Dak, D- for Cowboys

Dak Prescott made out like a bandit with his new contract, because the Cowboys waited too long.

On Monday, it was announced that the Cowboys and quarterback Dak Prescott had agreed to a new deal worth $160 million over the next four years. Since the new deal can’t be official until the new league year, the Cowboys will have to place the franchise tag on Prescott for the second straight season — this will happen on Tuesday, March 9, the deadline for the tag to be applied, just to keep him safe from other NFL teams until March 17, when everything turns over. But it gives Dallas needed security at the game’s most important position, and it gives Prescott the earning power he deserves.

As a fourth-round pick in 2016 with a slotted financial picture based on draft order, Prescott made a grand total of $1,620,000 in his first three seasons. His base salary “jumped” to $2.025 million in 2019, which was still a massive bargain considering what he was giving the team in performance. So when the Cowboys gave him the tag in 2020 because a long-term deal could not be worked out, the one-year guaranteed salary of $31.409 million still seemed like relative chump change if you considered the dollars-to-talent ratio in the years before.

And as great as Prescott was in his first four seasons, 2020 was supposed to be the year he broke out into the stratosphere. Not that he had much to prove — from 2016 through 2019, his first four years in the NFL, the Mississippi State product had already done more than enough to be considered a franchise quarterback. In those four seasons combined, Prescott ranked seventh in the league in passing attempts (2,071), seventh in completions (1,363), sixth in passing yards (15,778) and eighth in passing touchdowns (97). His 36 interceptions tied with Matthew Stafford for the sixth-lowest total over that time among quarterbacks with at least 1,500 passing attempts. Prescott also ranked sixth in Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt (6.92), seventh in yards per completion (11.58) and seventh in passer rating (97.0).

So, Prescott had firmly established himself as a top-10 quarterback in every possible way even before the Cowboys selected speed receiver CeeDee Lamb out of Oklahoma with the 17th pick in the first round of the 2020 draft. Adding Lamb to a receiver corps that was already stacked with Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup? It appeared that Prescott was about ready to dive into the top five.

And until Prescott’s season ended in the fifth game of the season against the Giants due to a gruesome ankle injury, things were headed in that direction. Through the first five weeks of the season, Prescott ranked first in attempts (222), first in completions (151), first in passing yards (1,856) and tied for seventh in passing touchdowns (nine). While he also had four interceptions, there was little doubt that control of Dallas’ offense had switched from running back Ezekiel Elliott to Prescott.

The injury complicated negotiations as Prescott recovered, and it was thought that the second franchise tag was going to be more than a bridge until a larger-scale contract could be made official. But it’s good for the Cowboys that they made the deal, because the cap ramifications of a second tag would have been catastrophic. NFL rules dictate that a second franchise tag has to have a number at least 120% above the first franchise tag salary, so the Cowboys would have been on the hook for $37.68 million. Only Atlanta’s Matt Ryan ($40,912,500) would have presented a larger single-season cap obligation in 2021.

Prescott gets a per-year average of $40 million, which is the second-highest in NFL history behind Patrick Mahomes’ $45 million. Prescott also broke Russell Wilson’s record for the most first-year money in any NFL deal.

Prescott’s $126 million guarantee is the highest three-year guarantee in NFL history, exceeding Deshaun Watson’s $124 million. Per Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com, Prescott’s cap figure will drop from $37.68 million to either $25.5 million or $22.2 million depending on the presence or absence of void years in the contract. In the end, as Fitzgerald also pointed out, Jones and the Cowboys really stuck it to themselves by not successfully negotiating a contract extension with Prescott before the first franchise tag became necessary. Dallas’ financial commitment to Prescott will average $38.3 million per season with $157.4 million in guarantees, and there’s no question that would have been less before Mahomes’ 10-year, $450 million contract extension last July reset the market for every superstar quarterback.

Still, the Cowboys escaped the fire of their own making to a point, and Dak Prescott will be paid what the market will bear based on his performance and potential. As contentious as this has been all along for no good reason, that amounts to a win-win situation — it’s just that Jerry Jones negotiated himself out of a much better deal.

The 51 best NFL free agents left on the open market

After the Dak Prescott and J.J. Watt deals, and eight franchise tag designations, here are the NFL’s 51 best upcoming free agents.

The 2021 NFL free-agency period, which officially begins at 4 p.m. ET on March 17, promises to be like few others in the league’s history. Due to projected revenue shortfalls in the age of COVID, the league has anticipated that the 2021 salary cap will be somewhere between $180 million and $185 million per team.

That’s down from $198.2 million in the 2020 league year, which obviously puts several teams in a major pinch. Right now, per OverTheCap.com, there are 12 NFL teams over a projected salary cap of $180.5 million, and teams like the Saints ($58,718,146 over before franchising safety Marcus Williams), Rams ($35,136,331 over), Eagles ($34,146,468 over, which is mostly the Carson Wentz aftermath), Chiefs ($22,984,019 over), and Steelers (from $26,131,664 over to $3,617,086 over after a lot of pruning), will have to engage in some highly creative accounting just to get into compliance — forget about making any big splashes.

On the other hand, we have teams like the Jaguars ($71,821,714 under the cap), Jets ($67,341,082 under), Patriots ($62,211,837 under before the Trent Brown trade), Colts ($44,681,614 under), and Bengals ($40,979,130 under). The radical disparity between the haves and the have-nots when it comes to the capacity to spend in free agency could lead to an unusually constricted market, especially for those players who are more rank-and-file than sheer superstar. Not that those players won’t have offers; but those offers might not be what they may have been in previous years. It’s not the fault of the players; it’s simply how the market lands in this particular time. This could result in a lot of free agents taking one-year contracts and shining it on until new television deals and the hope of a more “normal” world make things more equitable in the 2022 league year.

After the Cowboys signed Dak Prescott to a four-year, $160 million contract, the Cardinals signed J.J. Watt to a two-year, $28 million free-agent deal, the Buccaneers signed Lavonte David to a two-year, $25 million contract, and franchise tags were handed out to eight different players (Broncos safety Justin Simmons, Jets safety Marcus Maye, Saints safety Marcus Williams, Bears receiver Allen Robinson, Buccaneers receiver Chris Godwin, Panthers offensive tackle Taylor Moton, Jaguars offensive tackle Cam Robinson, and Washington guard Brandon Scherff), the free agency picture got shaken up, especially at or near the top of everybody’s lists.

So, let’s talk about remaining free-agent value, at least how we see it at Touchdown Wire. Doug Farrar and Mark Schofield have compiled their list of the top 51 players who should be available as unrestricted free agents, after tags have been applied and new deals were signed. Mark assembled the offensive players, Doug put together the defensive list, and they then compiled the top remaining free agents in the upcoming 2021 league year, regardless of position.

Why the new Dak Prescott deal is the best (and only) option for Prescott, Cowboys

The Cowboys took too long to give Dak Prescott the contract he deserved, and they’ll pay for that, but the new deal is a win-win.

On Tuesday, it was announced that the Cowboys and quarterback Dak Prescott agreed to a new deal worth $160 million over the next four years. Since the new deal can’t be made official until the new league year, the Cowboys will have to place the franchise tag on Prescott for the second straight season — this will happen on Wednesday, March 9, when the tag can be applied, just to keep him safe from other NFL teams until March 17, when everything turns over. But it gives Dallas needed security at the game’s most important position, and it gives Prescott the earning power he deserves.

As a fourth-round pick in 2016 with a slotted financial picture based on draft order, Prescott made a grand total of $1,620,000 in his first three seasons. His base salary “jumped” to $2.025 million in 2019, which was still a massive bargain considering what he was giving the team in performance. So when the Cowboys gave him the tag in 2020 because a longer-term deal could not be worked out, the one-year guaranteed salary of $31,409 million still seemed like relative chump change if you considered the dollars-to-talent ratio in the years before.

And as great as Prescott was in his first four seasons, 2020 was supposed to be the year he broke out into the stratosphere. Not that he had much to prove — from 2016 through 2019, his first first four years in the NFL, the Mississippi State alum had already done more than enough to be considered a franchise quarterback. In those four seasons combined, Prescott ranked seventh in the league in passing attempts (2,071), seventh in completions (1,363), sixth in passing yards (15,778), eighth in passing touchdowns (97), and just 36 interceptions, tied with Matthew Stafford for the sixth-lowest total over that time among quarterbacks with at least 1,500 passing attempts. Prescott also ranked sixth in Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt (6.92), seventh in yards per completion (11.58), and seventh in passer rating (97.0).

So, Prescott had firmly established himself as a top-10 quarterback in every possible way even before the Cowboys selected speed receiver CeeDee Lamb out of Oklahoma with the 17th pick in the first round of the 2020 draft. Adding Lamb to a receiver corps that was already stacked with Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup? It appeared that Prescott was about ready to dive into the top five.

And until Prescott’s season ended in the fifth game of the season against the Giants due to a gruesome ankle injury, things were headed in that direction. Through the first five weeks of the season, Prescott ranked first in attempts (222), first in completions (151), first in passing yards (1,856), tied for seventh in passing touchdowns (nine), and while Prescott also had four interceptions, there was little doubt that control of Dallas’ offense had switched from running back Ezekiel Elliott to Prescott.

The injury complicated negotiations as Prescott recovered, and it was thought sure that the second franchise tag was going to be more than a bridge until a larger-scale contract could be made official. But it’s good for the Cowboys that they made the deal, because the cap ramifications of a second tag would have been catastrophic — because NFL rules indicate that a second franchise tag has to have a number at least 120% above the first franchise tag salary, the Cowboys would have been on the hook for $37.68 million. Only Atlanta’s Matt Ryan ($40,912,500) would have presented a larger single-season cap obligation in 2021. And for a team that was already over an estimated 2021 salary cap of $180.5 million… well, Jerry Jones said all along that “deadlines spur deals,” and you can see from the Cowboys’ perspective that this was absolutely the case.

As for Prescott, he gets a per-year average of $40 million, which is the second-highest in NFL history behind Patrick Mahomes’ $45 million. Prescott also broke Russell Wilson’s record for the most first-year money in any NFL deal.

Prescott’s $126 million guarantee is the highest three-year guarantee in NFL history, exceeding Deshaun Watson’s $124 million. Per Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com, Prescott’s cap figure will drop from $37.68 million to either $25.5 million or $22.2 million, depending on the presence or absence of void years in the contract. In the end, as Fitzgerald also pointed out, Jones and the Cowboys really stuck it to themselves by not successfully negotiating a contract extension with Prescott last year before the first franchise tag became necessary. Dallas’ financial commitment to Prescott will average $38.3 million per season with $157.4M in guarantees, and there’s no question that would have been less before Mahomes’ 10-year, $450 million contract extension last July reset the market for every superstar quarterback.

Still, the Cowboys escaped the fire of their own making to a point, and Dak Prescott will be paid what the market will bear based on his performance and potential. As contentious as this has been all along for no good reason, that amounts to a win-win situation.

One long-shot QB candidate off board for 49ers

The Dallas Cowboys gave QB Dak Prescott a massive contract, taking him off the board for the San Francisco 49ers.

The San Francisco 49ers were never likely to be players for Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott this offseason. If Dallas didn’t agree to a long-term extension with their star signal caller, they could’ve placed the franchise tag on him and kicked the contract down the road. The Cowboys on Monday agreed to a long-term deal with Prescott though that ended what was the 49ers’ long-shot chance at landing the two-time Pro Bowler.

One of the other road blocks to a 49ers-Prescott union was the massive contract he was going to command. He wound up earning a four-year deal worth up to $164 million with the Cowboys per NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport. Prescott will also got $126 million guaranteed and $75 million in the first year of the contract.

Up to $41 million per year was far outside the realm of possibilities for the 49ers given their salary cap situation even in the off chance Prescott had come available.

The goal for the 49ers is to find a quarterback like Prescott that they’re comfortable hinging the franchise’s future on with a deal worth more than $40 million per season. It doesn’t look like going into free agency that they have that player on their roster, and finding him is going to be the single biggest challenge facing head coach Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers’ front office going into this offseason.

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