Cowboys’ Dak at $60M Per Year? ‘Not Concerned,’ Says Jerry of ‘Highest-Paid Ever’ Possibility
FRISCO – Yes, the high cost of doing business with Dak Prescott will likely go higher and higher as more success comes the Dallas Cowboys’ way.
And Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is ecstatic about it.
“I’m here like everybody else wanting him to be the MVP,” Jones said recently at the NFL owners meetings in Dallas. “We’re trying to win the Super Bowl. Obviously we got a better chance to win it with him at QB playing at that level.”
And, furthermore, in the category of “obviously” … if the QB is playing at that level, and pushes toward or even wins the MVP and then the Super Bowl?
“The better chance to win” on the field will demand “better” compensation at the negotiating table.
Most of this is unsurprising. The Cowboys long-ago made it clear at that they wanted to sign Prescott to a long-term contract extension, with a deadline of sorts being before the March 2024 start of the NFL business year.
Why then? Prescott will be heading into the final year of his four-year, $160 million deal that he signed in 2021 – a contract that at present brings with it an untenable $59 million cap hit in 2024
It was always the plan – even in 2022, when Prescott was involved in an uncharacteristic and NFL-leading 15 interceptions – to re-do the deal so the $59 million never hit the cap.
Leaving it as is would not only make Prescott a lame-duck able to leave Dallas for nothing after 2024; it would also preclude the Cowboys from doing any real roster-building because of the cap restrictions.
He’s under contract now, but we’d like to do this after the season,” COO Stephen Jones recently said. “Once the season is over, we will focus on that. Dak will be our quarterback.”
Prescott presently makes $40 million per year. It is clear that $50 million APY is the new threshold … or $55 mil? Or $60 mil? … and again, Jerry Jones does not seem to be balking at that, in part because of all the good things that might come to the 10-5 Cowboys that would set up Dak to possibly become the highest-paid player in NFL history.
“The idea of him not being our quarterback,” said Jerry, having called a rich new extension “inevitable, “has not crossed my mind.”
We discuss below, in the Fish Podcast and the Fish Report, that very “inevitability,” as well as what Dallas is planning on doing with its two backup QBs, Cooper Rush and Trey Lance.
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