One of the most debated subjects going into the offseason for the Dallas Cowboys is the status of Dak Prescott’s contract. Going into 2019, the final year of his rookie deal, Prescott is scheduled to make $2 million after the proven performance escalator kicks in. Prescott is considered one of the best bargains in football right now, just like Russell Wilson once was for the Seahawks before he received his monster contract after going to two Super Bowls and winning one. For Prescott, it doesn’t get much better than winning 2 divisional titles, 32 games, and AP Offensive Rookie of the Year all within your first 3 seasons. With all of that success Dak is looking to get paid…big time paid.
Sure, Prescott has his detractors with respect to his footwork, his decision making within the pocket, his taking of too many sacks, so on and so forth. For all of Prescott’s critics though, the one thing that he has continued to do is win and with QB1’s at a premium in the NFL, he’s in line to be paid like of the top QB’s in the league. Which brings us to this $200+million number that he MIGHT get.
K.D. Drummond of The Cowboys Wire outlines how Prescott could get a 7-year, $203 million contract, with $87 million of that guaranteed. You may be thinking; ‘that’s outrageous for a guy that’s only won 1 playoff game’ Here’s how it could play out though. The Cowboys could simply let Prescott play out the 2019 season and franchise tag him for the 2020 season. If they like what they see and don’t want to give him an extension at that point they could tag him again for the 2021 season. The only problem with that; it could cost the Cowboys nearly $62 million in tags if the cap continues to rise as projected by 2020 to over $200 million.
The tag in 2020 for quarterbacks could be $28 million and the tag in 2021, if the current CBA stays intact, could be a whopping $33.6 million. For the Cowboys, that would mean starting with a minimum of nearly $62 million guaranteed, just to get Prescott to the table. According to Drummond, it would be much better financially (especially based on the QB play of some of the game’s best who had similar results as Prescott through 3 years such as Wilson, Roethlisberger, Ryan, etc.) to get him paid now rather than wait.
With unknown factors such as potential CBA changes, market resets, tag rules, etc. It may be time for the Cowboys to pay Prescott now. Financially it makes sense. Front load Prescott’s contract over the first few years, spread out his guaranteed money to avoid significant salary cap hits, and if his play regresses and he has to be released; the Cowboys aren’t strapped with significant dead cap money. If Prescott exceeds his contract then he and the Cowboys can re-negotiate to provide him more guarantees immediately.
So when you look at it, $203 million may be a bargain given how QB contracts continue to explode, especially with Kirk Cousins’ absurd $84 million guaranteed contract for the Vikings. It remains to be seen if Prescott would be willing to provide a hometown discount to the Cowboys though. He recently stated that he’s not taking the Tom Brady route with respect to team friendly contracts. Mainly, he doesn’t have a supermodel wife to go home to who’s net worth is $400 million. Hello Gisele. This offseason is an important one for the Cowboys and it’s franchise QB. If Prescott has anything to say about it, he’ll be a very rich Cowboy very soon.