The Dallas Cowboys will be embarking on a new era for the 2020 season, the first year without a Jason Garrett led offense since 2006. With the COVID-19 virus derailing the transition to Mike McCarthy’s scheme, the Cowboys will be behind where they would be in a normal offseason.
On Monday, the league announced the delayed offseason would start on April 20 for clubs with new head coaches, like the Cowboys and division rivals from New York and Washington. This is a two-week delay from the original start date. The rest of the league will get going a week later, April 27. Instead of in-person workouts and teaching sessions, everyone will be learning through virtual classes to maintain the social distancing edicts around the nation. Everyone, except quarterback Dak Prescott, it appears.
Without a long-term deal, franchise-tagged QB Dak Prescott won't be participating in the Cowboys' virtual offseason program https://t.co/ONUIyPQ4Mm
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) April 14, 2020
Pro Football Talk’s report states “a source with knowledge of the situation, Prescott will not take part in the stay-at-home preparations for the 2020 season, unless and until he has a long-term deal.”
The source seems to be reiterating what Prescott himself said in the winter.
If true, this is another hit to the Cowboys, who are trying to catch a Philadelphia Eagles team that will start work a week later, but are the only returning coaching staff with system already installed in the division.
Not having their most important player preparing for a new offensive system puts the team further behind the eight ball.
Prescott has progressed as a player in each of his first four seasons due in part to his incredible work ethic. Not participating in the offseason program isn’t an ideal way to start learning a new offense. In an offseason that involves a steeper learning curve with a new coach who is bringing his own offensive ideas, it’s essential that Prescott be around to absorb the changing scheme.
Prescott’s stance is understandable, he wants a long-term deal and one chip to play in his stare down with the Cowboys is to stay away from the team. The QB shouldn’t be willing to put himself at risk while he doesn’t have the financial stability he craves.
The tactic isn’t a new concept, for years players who have been unhappy with the franchise tag have stayed away from their team. Dallas only has to look at last offseason to find a similar case.
RB Ezekiel Elliott participated in last year’s offseason workouts in hopes of getting a long-term deal, but then chose to holdout in training camp. Elliott was in the middle of his deal and not under the franchise tag as Prescott currently is (and hasn’t yet signed, meaning he isn’t under contract), but staying away from workouts remains an option in contract disputes.
The bigger issue for the Cowboys is that Prescott is their franchise quarterback, and without him, they don’t have a chance of winning a Super Bowl. They don’t have an alternative plan to succeed without Prescott and there is no back-up QB on the roster capable of winning games consistently.
Prescott means too much to the Cowboys to not have him around and immersed in the offseason program, even virtually. Any delay in picking up McCarthy’s system could prove to be a detriment to the offense.
Nothing has changed, the Cowboys need to get a deal done with Prescott. The easiest way for Dallas to put themselves in the best position to win is to have an engaged-and-committed player.
Any delay in getting a deal done is just wasting time and putting a successful season under a new coach in jeopardy.
If the quibbling is over the length of the deal as some intimate, then the Cowboys may be essentially throwing away their best chance to compete in 2020 for the right to have Prescott relatively cheap in 2024.
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