Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Dak Prescott is currently scheduled to enter a contract season. The prevailing thought was that the Cowboys would sign Prescott to a lucrative extension this offseason. After all, quarterbacks with Prescott's abilities rarely play out the terms of a contract before signing an extension. Every day that passes without Prescott and the Cowboys reaching a long-term deal brings the team's intentions into question.
Prescott's contract has experienced little movement. The Cowboys converted a $5 million roster bonus earlier this month by adding voidable years through 2028. Prescott now counts for slightly less ($55.45 million) against the 2024 salary cap than his previously scheduled cap charge of $59.45 million.
Prescott currently possesses all of the leverage through slow-playing negotiations. If Prescott doesn't sign an extension with the Cowboys before the start of the 2025 league year, he'll carry a sizable $40.46 million charge against the 2025 salary cap thanks to the multiple restructures the Cowboys have made throughout his current four-year contract. Can the Cowboys afford to shoulder such a large financial penalty for Prescott to play elsewhere? The Broncos are experiencing something similar with Russell Wilson, but the answer for Dallas is no, probably not.
The Cowboys also don't possess the luxury of franchise-tagging Prescott. Prescott also has a no-trade clause. Those details were negotiated into his current contract. The paths ahead are straightforward. Incur a massive financial penalty by moving on from Prescott after the 2024 campaign or sign him to a multi-year extension that meets his demands.
There’s a good reason the Cowboys aren’t necessarily panicking, though. They’re projected to be $100.6 million under the 2025 cap (estimated at $260 million), according to Over The Cap, even with Presoctt’s scheduled $40 million cap hit accounted for. It’s worth noting that money could, and will, quickly disappear once the likes of CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons are sorted through. DeMarcus Lawrence, Zack Martin, and Brandin Cooks are also entering the final seasons of their contracts (with future void years slated to kick in).
Prescott signed a four-year extension worth $160 million with the Cowboys ahead of the 2021 campaign. Prescott earns $40 million annually. The price for franchise quarterbacks has increased with annual inflation since then. Patrick Mahomes has the largest contract among all quarterbacks from a total value perspective at $450 million. More notably, Prescott is currently the 10th-highest-paid quarterback in the league on an annual basis. Recent extensions for Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, and others have bumped Prescott down that list. His No. 1 goal will be to climb back up near the top five.
A four-year extension worth $190 million qualifies as realistic. I can't see Prescott getting five-plus years via an extension since he'd technically be entering his age-32 campaign when the contract kicks in for 2025. Prescott would earn $47.5 million annually, making him the sixth-highest-paid quarterback in the league, placing him back ahead of quarterbacks he's better than like Kyler Murray and Deshaun Watson, who simply took advantage of the price increase by signing their extensions after he did.
Things could get interesting if the Cowboys suffer through a disappointing 2024 season. They're certainly asking Prescott to shoulder the load after losing offensive starters such as Tyron Smith, Tyler Biadasz, Tony Pollard, and Michael Gallup this offseason. The Cowboys haven't signed an offensive player in free agency to replace any of them.
No franchise is more desperate to reach a Super Bowl, an achievement they haven't played for since 1995. The Cowboys are still reeling from a shocking postseason road upset at the hands of the Green Bay Packers in 2023, a younger, inexperienced squad that wasn't perceived as contenders like the Cowboys were. Yet another premature exit (or missing the playoffs altogether) could bring Prescott's future in Dallas into question. That would mean Prescott failed to usher them to a Super Bowl for a ninth consecutive campaign.
Prescott's 2025 scheduled cap charge would make it incredibly difficult, no, borderline impossible, for the Cowboys to replace him with another proven veteran quarterback. The alternative is a rebuild at quarterback, which the aging Jerry Jones doesn't have the patience for (understandably so given his hunger for a Super Bowl). The most straightforward solution is a four-year extension that pays Prescott nearly $50 million annually.
