What The Cowboys Fear: On the Exclusive Tag for Dak Prescott at $33 Million

The Easiest Option Would be for the Dallas Cowboys and Dak Prescott to Agree to a new contract. But a $33 Million Option Looms, too.

FRISCO - What is the logic of planning to use the exclusive tag vs. the non-exclusive tag on Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott? Frankly, we're not sure there is much. Unless ...

CAA's Todd France and Prescott and the Cowboys continue to work on a long-term extension that will make him the highest-paid player in franchise history. Of course, should a deal not be reached by March 12, the end of the tag window, he'll be tagged at locked into a salary that, in terms of single-season salary is also the biggest number in team history.

If Dallas uses the non-exclusive tag (while continuing to negotiate until the mid-July deadline, at which point talks stop and the one-year deal is locked in), Prescott's salary is $27 million.

But, if as NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport reported Friday, Dallas opts to use the exclusive franchise tag on Prescott, that salary becomes about $33 million.

There are two differences in the tags. The non-exclusive tag equals the average of the top five salaries at the player's position over the last five years (that's the $27 mil), while the exclusive tag is worth the average of the salaries for the current year (that's the $33 mil).

And the other difference: The "non-exclusive'' means another team can steal the player by offering him a new contract and giving the former employer two first-round draft picks. The "exclusive'' means the player is not available to other teams.

Why would the Cowboys bother with the more expensive tag? Is there really a team that threatens to steal Prescott by a) giving him a contract greater than what Dallas would offer and b) giving the Cowboys two first-rounders?

Rapoport's note tells is the Cowboys do harbor that fear. Maybe it's irrational. Maybe it's paranoid. Maybe it's a waste of the extra $6 million. But that Dak-stealing team must exist ... either in the NFL, in a threat suggested by CAA, or in the imagination of the Joneses, who wish to take no risks of losing their new "family member'' in Dak Prescott.