Getty Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones walks onto the field before an NFL game.
The Dallas Cowboys offseason is just beginning, but the wild quarterback rumors are already buzzing with former Pro Bowl signal-caller Boomer Esiason pondering a potential Tom Brady move to Big D. The longtime NFL quarterback floated the idea of Brady or Aaron Rodgers landing with the Cowboys given Dak Prescott’s struggles against the 49ers. Esiason dismissed the Rodgers move given the Packers do not want to deal the star quarterback inside the NFC.
“Yeah, I just don’t see how [Cowboys move on from Prescott]. It would be great to see either Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers in a Dallas Cowboy uniform, but that [Rodgers] will never happen with Dallas because [the Packers] are going to want to send him to the AFC,” Esiason explained during a January 26, 2023 episode of “Boomer & Gio.” “And Tom Brady is a free agent, there’s a possibility. …Could you imagine Jerry Jones and Tom Brady?”
Ultimately, Esiason admitted that the Cowboys are likely going to stick with Prescott for at least one more season given the dead cap hit the team would take if Dallas attempted to trade the quarterback. Brady is a free agent meaning the Cowboys could sign the star outright, but it is nearly financially impossible within the salary cap for Dallas to carry contracts for both stars.
The Only Pathway to Cowboys Signing Tom Brady Is to Trade Dak Prescott After June 1
105.3 The Fan’s Bobby Belt also sees the Cowboys sticking with Prescott for another season, but the insider detailed the one long shot pathway the team has in the unlikely case the team moves on from their QB1. Dallas could look to sign a veteran quarterback like Brady or Derek Carr (if released) but this plan presents its own complications of trading Prescott after June 1.
“Your only option if you wanted to do this [move on from Prescott] would be to trade him after June 1 to somebody who was fine waiting to get him until June 1,” Belt detailed during a January 25 edition of “Shan and RJ.” “Do it for capital only and then you go sign somebody like Brady. That would be your option, because then it’s like okay, we can make out a deal with Tom figure things out. Make it financially work and then we can hang on long enough to wait until June to trade Dak with the understanding they’re going to.”
Prescott still has two seasons remaining on his four-year, $160 million contract. As The Athletic’s Bob Sturm pointed out, Prescott is not exactly untradeable, but the cap hit to move on from the quarterback is problematic for the Cowboys. Prescott also has a no-trade clause which complicates his potential market.
“Another narrative I would like to detonate: “Dak is untradeable,'” Sturm tweeted on January 26. “Nonsense. He would cost a new team $30m in ’23 and ’24 with $5m in a roster bonus. $65m for two years? Easy. You could trade him tonight, if you wanted to. But, the Cowboys will never consider it, and properly.”
Tom Brady Hates the Cowboys
As if there needed to be more strikes against Dallas, the reality is that Brady has been open about his hatred of the Cowboys. Could the chance to win another Super Bowl outweigh these feelings? Back in November 2019, Brady admitted he has hated the Cowboys “since coming out of the womb.”
“I’ve really not liked the Cowboys since coming out of the womb as a Niner fan,” Brady said at the time, per Pro Football Talk. “But, no I’ve got a lot of respect for those guys and they’ve actually had a great winning organization. They’ve got a lot of great players in their history. Guys that I just, as a Niner fan, you’d play the Cowboys and every time they’d hand off to Emmitt Smith would be a 5-yard gain, and you would pull you hair out — and throw it up to Michael Irvin and Troy [Aikman] was such a great player, and the defenses, Ken Norton and Prime Time [Deion Sanders].”