Dak Prescott: New, Richer, Longer Cowboys Contract Coming?
FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys have made their bed with Dak Prescott.
Now they must figure out the most financially sound way to sleep in it.
Once we logic our way through the nonsensical, cap-disastrous notions of cutting or trading Prescott, we land on the realities.
He is signed through 2024. So Dallas is locked in to two more years of Prescott.
He is set to count $49 million against the 2023 salary cap. So Dallas is going to have to make cap adjustments in 2023 just to keep together its competitive roster.
That leaves two options.
OPTION 1: The first one is difficult to stomach, and would largely be the result of Dallas deciding that even after making him a $40 million APY quarterback, that "Dak isn't 'the guy.''' Owner Jerry Jones tells us quite the opposite, insisting that he'll take his "chances with Dak, again and again, every time.''
That faith doesn't erase the playoff failure against the San Francisco 49ers and it doesn't erase those 15 interceptions. But faith it is.
In the difficult-to-stomach scenario, the Cowboys stick with Dak and his contract as is, hope to win for the next two years, and then say goodbye after 2023. The roster wouldn't likely improve. Nor - with the faith gone - would Dak.
Maybe along the way Dallas drafts a successor to Dak. ... though frankly, finding QBs even as good as he is represents a challenge.
But in the end ... Dallas decides it doesn't really like Dak and says a long, probably painful, two-year goodbye.
OPTION 2: The easiest way to make the roster-building finances work is to (gulp!) extend Prescott’s contract. That was always the plan - as was Prescott and the Cowboys being Super Bowl-level successes - and it probably still is the plan.
Simply, Dallas would add four years to his existing deal while also paying him a signing bonus that would be spread, cap-wise, over the years, while also carving down his base salaries to the point where there is room to add to the roster around him.
This is dollar-wise and it is commonplace. The Rams last March did this with Matthew Stafford, giving him a four-year extension worth $160 million. He got a $63 million signing bonus ... and L.A. got his 2022 and 2023 base salaries down (amazingly) to $1.5 million ... and his cap impact down to $13 million and $20 million.
Imagine the 2023 Cowboys whittling Dak's $49 million cap number in 2023 down to $13 million and voila! ... You just magically invented $36 million of cap room that can eventually help you sign Trevon Diggs, CeeDee Lamb, Micah Parsons and, maybe a "big fish'' outside free agent.
This was definitely the plan when Dallas did its big four-year, $160 million deal with Prescott in March of 2021. Even as many want Dallas to move off Dak (again, not viable), this likely remains the plan.
In short, March 2023 might be the time when "a new contract for Dak Prescott'' becomes a pretty common headline. ... Because all that's really changed for the Cowboys is the level of comfort they should really feel in this bed.
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