Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is heading into the final season of the four-year, $160 million contract he signed in 2021. He is currently expected to count on the team’s books for the sum a staggering $55.1 million in 2024, more than any NFL player except Deshaun Watson. Prescott’s contract will also be void after the upcoming season, and once that is the case he will be an unrestricted free agent as there is a clause in the contract that prevents the Cowboys from franchise tag him during the next offseason.
And yet, even after owner Jerry Jones infamously declared that the Cowboys would be “all-in” for the 2024 season, the team didn’t touch Prescott’s contract aside from converting a $5 million bonus in signing bonus and take away $4 million from it. the ceiling for the year. They have yet to extend wide receiver CeeDee Lamb or linebacker Micah Parsons to create additional cap maneuverability.
Additionally, instead of adding pieces in free agency, as expected following Jones’ all-in declaration, Dallas let starters Tony Pollard, Tyron Smith, Tyler Biadasz, Michael Gallup, Dorance Armstrong and Jayron Kearse leave in free agency, while also losing Leighton. Vander Esch retiring and allowing Stephon Gilmore to go unsigned. They only signed two outside free agents all offseason, signing linebacker Eric Kendricks to a one-year deal and then signing journeyman running back Royce Freeman earlier this week.
Coupled with the team bringing back head coach Mike McCarthy on a lame-duck contract and signing defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer and new defensive staff to one-year deals, it looks a lot less like the Cowboys are ” thoroughly” than that. they’re preparing to reset everything after the 2024 season. And Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones added fuel to that fire Friday by showering No. 3 quarterback Trey Lance with praise and making even a favorable comparison to Prescott.
“He is [Lance] has only made us even more excited since he worked here all of last season and in the offseason, in terms of his work ethic and skill level. We’re very happy,” Jones said during a radio appearance, via Athletics. “He exhibits everything you would think a top-five or top-ten pick would exhibit. … Trey exhibits a similar work ethic. [to Prescott]. Obviously, Trey is a very good athlete and the most important thing is his arm. He has a very lively, very strong arm. He continues to improve with his footwork and accuracy.”
When we consider that at the start of this offseason, there was already reports that Prescott would effectively play out the final year of his contract without getting a new contract (despite his stated confidence that a contract would be reached at some point), these comments are particularly noteworthy. But they’re also notable because, like Prescott, Lance is heading into the final year of his contract, so the Cowboys don’t have him under team control for next season either.
If they allow Prescott to enter free agency, he would surely command one of, if not the largest free agent contract in NFL history. He’s coming off a season where he finished second in MVP voting and was named second team All-Pro, and he’ll only be 31 when free agency begins next March. He’s going to make a huge deal. And if that happens, Lance would have the Cowboys over a barrel if they wanted him to stay and be Dak’s successor. And that’s before we get into the impact of Prescott’s massive blow if he leaves in free agency.
All of this is to say that if the Cowboys truly aren’t willing to pay Prescott a market-defining contract and want to move on to Lance or someone else after this season, they have been extremely negligent in the way they have managed this offseason.
Prescott has a no-trade clause, but if the Cowboys had no intention of re-signing him, they should have contacted him to work out a nice trade so they could at least get something in return for him, and so they could limit the length of time they would have his contract on their books, whether through active salary or dead cap space. Instead, it seems like they’re going to roleplay an era in which they don’t seem to have much confidence, while hamstringing themselves for the next era of Cowboys football due to their abject refusal to think about proactively instead. reactively when it comes to building a list.
They dug themselves a similar hole early in Prescott’s career, thanks to their repeated restructuring of Tony Romo’s contract, so they didn’t actually benefit from a top-flight quarterback on a contract. fourth round rookie wide. They dug an even deeper hole by delaying Prescott’s extension by two full years and costing themselves millions in the process, plus having to accept carrots like no-trade and no-tag clauses, and doing things like signing Ezekiel Elliott and Jaylon Smith made market-defining deals years before they got paid.
Dallas made a similar mistake by not extending Lamb as soon as he was eligible last offseason, when he was already a two-time Pro Bowler and Second Team All-Pro, and now they’re going to have to pay him at the top of the team. ranking. market after a season in which he led the NFL in receptions and was named first team All-Pro. And it looks like the Cowboys are about to do the same thing with Parsons, who has arguably been the best defensive player in the league since he debuted three years ago and is absolutely going to get a contract that will make him the best league player. -Defender paid at some point. The only question is whether the Cowboys will allow someone else to raise prices in this market before making their deal.
The Cowboys seemingly refuse to learn from the mistakes of their past and are not only willing but seemingly determined to repeat them. When you not only haven’t won a Super Bowl, but you haven’t even been to a conference championship game in almost 30 years, that’s a surprisingly short-sighted way to operate.