Quarterback Dak Prescott led the league in interceptions, so what do you say the Dallas Cowboys just make him the highest-paid player the NFL has ever seen? Does that sound like a good idea?
When you frame it that way it sounds a little absurd, but when you construct all the pieces of information into a clear picture, then that’s the outcome you’re likely to get.
You see, Dak is a good quarterback and good quarterbacks make bank. They just do. It’s how the business of the NFL works.
Teams fall into two categories when it comes to quarterbacks, and those categories are the “haves” and the “have nots.”
Luckily for the Cowboys, they have been drinking their water from the “haves” bucket for over 15 years thanks to Tony Romo and now Prescott.
If you’re one of the teams that have a good quarterback, then it’s pretty evident that it's going to cost you a good chunk of change,
unless they are still playing on their rookie deal. Second contracts = Bookoo Bucks.
Prescott is midway through his second contract, a contract that pays him an average annual salary of $40 million over a four-year stretch.
Soon, he’ll be on contract number three and the Cowboys front office has less than 15 months to get it done.
This deal will likely be completed prior to the start of the 2024 season. The reason we are suggesting this time period is three-fold.
First, they absolutely must reduce his almost $60 million cap hit for the 2024 season as that would be an incredible strain on the teams ability to stay under the cap and still keep pieces around him
The best way to handle that would be a new deal that would see a much lower first-year cap hit that comes with a low base salary and a much more manageable pro-rated portion of their signing bonus.
The second reason why it’s likely to get done next August/September is that the team cannot allow him to hit free agency in 2025.
If competing teams were allowed to be in on the Prescott free-agent sweepstakes, then his annual cost would be even higher. The Cowboys cannot allow that to happen.