Under contract through the 2024 season, the urgency to re-sign Dak Prescott is not overly apparent. The seven-year veteran has been a staple in the Cowboys’ offense since joining the team as a fourth-round pick in 2016. And all indications are Prescott is happy and has zero plans to leave Dallas anytime soon.
Yet, even though the chances of losing him in 2025 are slim, the cost to delay the inevitable is steep.
Because of offseason contract restructuring, Prescott’s cap figure in 2024 is set to explode. Jumping from $26.8 million in 2023 to $59.5 million in 2024, the Cowboys have to do something before next season arrives.
Even with the expected cap growth in 2024, Dallas can’t afford to dedicate nearly $60 million to one player. And with $36,460,000 million already pushed to the void season of 2025, they can’t afford to cut bait or push money any deeper without adding additional years (aka re-signing/extension).
The Cowboys have made no secret of their plans to extend Prescott. Both sides are fully prepared to negotiate for a new deal so the only question at hand is when it all gets done.
Jerry and Stephen Jones are both known to live by the phrase, “deadlines make deals” but this could be a situation where they can’t afford to reach the hard deadline.
The unavoidable deadline is obviously the start of the 2024 season in March. Since the Cowboys don’t want to be stuck with a nearly $60 million cap charge, they need to work out an extension in advance. They know this and more importantly Prescott’s camp knows this. It’s safe to say the closer they get to that date, the more leverage goes to the player.
If that isn’t reason enough to get something done immediately, there’s an ominous unknown deadlines lurking in the shadows.
Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence (fifth year option hasn’t been picked up yet), Tua Tagovailoa and Jared Goff are all set to hit the market at the same time as Prescott (per OTC). Three of them are almost guaranteed to reset the market at QB while the other two could still very realistically surpass Prescott’s present APY of $40 million on their new deals.
With market values for top QBs rising with nearly every signing, it’s in the Cowboys’ best interests to get in front of this windfall of contracts.
2 years ago jaws dropped when Dak inked his new deal. Today, he’s barely top-10. The lesson: the sooner you can sign your QB1, the better because every day the 💰 goes up pic.twitter.com/d9G5XpF3io
— Reid D Hanson (@ReidDHanson) May 23, 2023
As far as pure performance, there’s every reason to think 2023 will be a bounce-back season for Prescott. In 2021 he played behind sub-par pass protection and threw to a subpar receiver unit. He still performed like a top-10 QB but the offense wasn’t its usual brilliant self.
All indications are the Cowboys improved both aspects of the offense in 2023. Seeing Prescott catapult back up into the top echelon of passers again is not unrealistic by any means. In fact, a case could be made, it’s likely.
This is also something Dallas wants to get in front of.
The reality is a deal will eventually get done so the only discussion to be had is when is the best time to get it done. Now. The answer is now. Because the price is only going up and the Cowboys can’t afford to wait for the 11th hour.
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