Getty Dak Prescott
In comparison to the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans, the Dallas Cowboys are the black sheep. Patrick Mahomes got a half-billion dollars. Deshaun Watson landed $39 million annually. Dak Prescott … nada.
It’s been reported ad nauseam: rather than cave to the Cowboys’ final reported offer — a five-year contract worth between $33-35 million per year with $110 million guaranteed — Prescott played the long game, settling instead for his fully-guaranteed $31.4 million franchise tag in 2020.
Though, it was, to quote the cool kids, 4D chess. Prescott takes home a monumental promotion from his $2.025 million 2019 salary, and he’s either tagged again next offseason, at a cost of $37.7 million, or nets a multi-year pact from Dallas or another team as an unrestricted free agent. In either scenario, the former Pro Bowler will earn a lot more than he would’ve under the Cowboys’ preferred arrangement.
Jerry and Stephen Jones spent 10 months negotiating with their cornerstone QB, and couldn’t close the deal. Kansas City and Houston, meanwhile, did them in a pandemic, with Mahomes’ record-shattering windfall — the richest contract in North American sports history — coming together particularly quickly.
The widely-held public belief is that Dallas’s front office severely botched the talks. And Stephen Jones, giving his most loquacious response to date on the Prescott saga, a brutally honest 412 words, didn’t deny it.
He won, we lost.
“It’s so difficult for us. As you know, we’ve never not gotten a player signed that we wanted to get signed, but this one’s been a little more difficult,” Jones said Friday on 105.3 The Fan. “We’re talking about a situation where he’s going to represent so much of your salary cap. I think he understands where we’re coming from. We’re trying to get into a situation where we’re trying to keep Dak surrounded by good players. The only thing Dak is missing from Patrick Mahomes is winning that Super Bowl. That’s what we want for him. I don’t think he would ever question our will and our want to surround him with great players. We took CeeDee Lamb with the first pick in the draft, and loading him up so he can be as successful as he possibly can be.
“I really don’t have any problem with the situation. I admire him because he never blinks. In hindsight, I wouldn’t have said that to my son two years ago. I would have said run in there and take that big guarantee and sign up. I do think he’s made money by playing it out. We’ll see what happens with the salary cap and how the virus affects our revenue for the next couple years. If we struggle from a revenue standpoint of no fans and reduced revenue, then that could affect his situation. But other than that, he bet on himself and he bet wisely.
“I think anyone would tell you (Dak and his agent) we put some very, very generous offers on the table. It’s more principle type situations on length of term. I think everybody’s got their hands around that’s the problem. Obviously, we want a longer term deal so we can spread the money out over more years and give us more room under the salary cap so we can keep these younger players around Dak. At the same time, he wants a shorter term deal because he’s seen how successful the league’s been. The sooner you come up for a contract, the sooner you get a bigger raise. That’s been the history of the NFL, so he’s not at fault either. I have nothing but respect for where he’s been. Up to this point, I don’t think it’s really hurt anybody. He’s, obviously, going to make a lot of money this year. We all know he’s going to make a whole lot more money in the future, and certainly we want it to be right here in Dallas.”