Would Cowboys Use 'Nuclear Option' In Dak Prescott Contract Talks?
FRISCO - Literally within seconds of last weekend's Dallas Cowboys' signing of backup QB Andy Dalton, ProFootballTalk.com speculated - sans sourcing and some might argue, logic - that it might mean the end for Dak Prescott in Dallas.
PFT wrote: "The Cowboys' decision to sign Andy Dalton gives rise to this question: Would Dallas now consider rescinding Dak Prescott's $31.4 million franchise tender, making him a free agent at a time when there would be few options elsewhere?''
The notion was not only absurd on its face - why would a franchise one day be willing to write $175 million worth of checks to a centerpiece player but the next day willing to let him walk for nothing? - but also immediately denied by the Cowboys, who told me (also literally within seconds of the Dalton signing) that it "was not meant as a threat to Dak.''
I suppose it's only right, then, that a week after throwing the clickbait into the conversation, COO Stephen Jones would appear on PFT to urge Mike Florio and company to pull their bait from the water.
“Absolutely not,” Jones told PFT on Friday when Florio asked about the "rescind'' idea. “Absolutely not. Dak’s going to be our quarterback this year. He’s our quarterback for the future. We think the world of him. He represents our franchise in a very positive way in terms of what we want as a leader of our team. He’s just an outstanding man, and we would never rescind the franchise tag.”
The Cowboys of course have two offers presently on the table. One, as we've reported, is a five-year contract at $35 million APY featuring more than $106 million guaranteed. The other is the one-year franchise-tag guaranteed number of $31.409 million.
As we've pointed out often, there are other branches that spring from those trees, including the possibility of locker-room dissent the longer Dak declines to sign, and the possibility that Prescott gets tagged in consecutive years (like Kirk Cousins) and makes $69 million guaranteed over two seasons.
But at virtually no point would it be logical for Dallas to simply "give away'' a star player who might have a decade of NFL football ahead of him. The logic does not exist ... and Stephen just made it clear that the option does not exist.
Still ... PFT started this silliness and refuses to let it go, its story on its own interview with Jones stubbornly declaring that at some future date, "the Cowboys may feel differently.''
Of course, "some future date'' isn't the wording in the report that got this grist mill cranked up. PFT's initial report verbiage again:
"Would Dallas NOW (emphasis mine) consider rescinding Dak Prescott's $31.4 million franchise tender?''
NOW. Not "at some future date.''
PFT has the power and the skill to seek information and then to comment on it. This did not happen here ... all of which makes this is an excellent time for me to remind Cowboys Nation of a credo that gets lost now in the age of non-sourced Twitter quick-hits:
Everybody is not "entitled to an opinion.'' Because opinions without facts are less than worthless.
