The news that the MVP quarterback, Dak Prescott, and the Dallas Cowboys were “ready” to start contract negotiations for an extension—the MVP quarterback will be entering the final season of his present deal in 2024—was more significant. Cowboys COO Stephen Jones was questioned on Tuesday about a Dak deal and much more while the team was in Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine. Furthermore, we would describe Jones’ answers as “confident” but “cautious.” “Confident” in what way? “Our whole thing with Dak is him being a Cowboy,” he stated. “That’s all that’s on our mind.”
Dallas “absolutely” wants to negotiate an extension with its MVP quarterback, according to Jones. Furthermore, how is “cautious”? in two different methods. “We won’t be expounding on those types of things with our negotiations,” stated one Jones, emphasising how private he intends to keep the talks. That’s undoubtedly a concern; hopefully, we’ll keep talking and moving forward, but we won’t be providing updates on how things are progressing.”
In fact, Jones refused to even accept that an in-person meeting with agent Todd France is planned for this “football convention” in Indianapolis. (Spoiler alert: there is such a scheme.) And two, in reference to “caution”? For the first time ever, Jones conceded that Prescott’s 2024 cap hit could be changed in some fashion, even in the absence of the desired deal. “We’ve got ways to adjust his cap number for this year,” he stated. What is the “way” other than an extension given that Dak has a sort of deadline of March 13 to remain cap-compliant and that a move on his current $59.4 million cap hit the impetus for ultimate change?
OPTION 1) Stick with the original plan of believing in Dak and give him an extension, maybe worth $60 million APY, that would make him the highest-paid player in NFL history. … but one that would also provide Dallas with $20 million of cap room. OPTION 2) Let it ride. Leaving that $59.4 million as is would be crippling in terms of roster-building, because it wouldn’t provide that aforementioned cap room. But if there is a distrust of what Prescott is as a QB? Let him be a prove-it lame duck, just like coach Mike McCarthy. And then either pay him later … once he’s winning playoff games … or don’t. OPTION 3) Flip the Switch, Apply the ‘Band-aid.’ As we’ve written before, most Cowboys contracts include “automatic conversions,” what we call “flipping a switch” that “converts base salary to bonus” … and pushes money into future years. In Dak’s case, there are already two voidable years on the contract after 2024. So the Cowboys could “flip a switch” and knock his $29 million salary for 2024 down to the league minimum of $1.21 million. That might end up being the “way” do deal with Dak, who as usual earned praise from the boss. “He certainly does everything in his ways to make everybody better and hold people accountable,” Jones said. “He sets a high bar and a high standard.”
