Dak Negotiations Needs: A Jerry Face-To-Face And One More Cowboys Obstacle
FRISCO - "Deadlines Make Deals.''
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones first used it, in a football context, anyway, 31 springs ago. But it applies now, as much as ever, as the Cowboys and quarterback Dak Prescott are once again at a contractual crossroads. And it says here the two parties need to reach two "mini-agreements'' on the way to then traveling down the same road together.
One, sometime before the (planned-on) 3 p.m. CT Tuesday franchise tag deadline (at which point Dallas would put the tag/placeholder on Prescott for the second straight year, this time at a cost of $37.7 million), Cowboys point man Stephen Jones, and Jerry or anyone else with muscle, must meet with agent Todd France.
And with Prescott himself.
Face-to-face.
Two, any concessions the sides are willing to make eventually ... must be made now. Possible keys: The Cowboys saying "yes'' to Prescott's requests on contract length (why not three years with two additional "voidable years''?) and the Cowboys giving in on a "no-tag'' clause as part of the agreement.
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Face-to-face isn't an automatic deal-closer; the Cowboys and France did that at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis in 2020, and still ended up stuck on the $31.4 million tag for Prescott.
Nor is making concessions - though had one side or the other budged on term a year ago (as we reported at the time, the Cowboys wanted a five-year deal, France wanted four), this would've been done then.
Another wrinkle to those talks is something we've suggested this time around: Dallas can write into the contract a "no-tag'' clause so when Dak is free after this contract, he's truly free. As it turns out, per ESPN, Prescott asked for that a year ago, and was denied - but might've said "yes'' to the rest of the Cowboys' proposal had they budged on only that.
So a "no-tag'' clause for six summers in the future was the blockade? A frustrating factoid.
The Cowboys are unlikely to "win'' these negotiations now; as Jerry has conceded, Dak "has all the leverage.'' But concessions ... plus face-to-face ... can serve to make "the other side'' seem less like a foe and more like a teammate.
The Joneses have a history of negotiating success in that face-to-face department (even as some agents view it as their job to prevent that from happening, so emotions don't take over.) That's true from DeMarcus Lawrence choosing to get directly involved in the 2019 negotiations, taking charge to some degree (and then getting one of the richest contract in franchise history) to way back in the mid-1990's, when Jerry and Michael Irvin played their game of "El Paso.''
We were there that night, invited to celebrate with Jones and Irvin, after they'd agreed to a new deal. The gathering was at Cowboys Cafe. Between Champagne toasts, Irvin told us how Jerry had turned down his previous proposal.
"El Paso,'' Jerry said to Irvin.
"El Paso, yeah, the town, what about it?'' Irvin replied.
"No, Michael,'' Jerry said. "El Paso'' is Spanish for, "I'll pass on your contract proposal!''
They laughed. They hugged. Then they signed the deal ... and then traveled down the street, to Cowboys Cafe, together, to laugh and hug some more.
"Concessions'' and "face-to-face.'' Deadlines don't really make deals without 'em.
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