Although the Cowboys have come up short in back-to-back road games against quality opponents, they have seen a bounce-back season from Dak Prescott. The clock on a Prescott extension is ticking, as 2024 presents an unfavorable situation for the team.
Prescott is signed through the ’24 season, but as detailed previously, the Cowboys have given their quarterback leverage that perhaps no active NFLer can match. Prescott is set to carry a $59.5MM 2024 cap number — which would shatter an NFL record — and holds a no-trade clause. Having been tagged in 2020 and ’21, Prescott will not be a tag candidate in 2025. These components, coupled with the quality season the eighth-year veteran has put together, set the stage for the NFL’s salary ceiling being raised again soon.
Joe Burrow‘s $55MM-per-year contract checked in $2.5MM north of the bar Justin Herbert set this offseason. Despite the four QBs who signed big-ticket extensions this offseason all being at least four years younger than Prescott, Bleacher Report’s Jordan Schultz notes the Bengals’ Burrow deal will likely be considered the floor for a Prescott contract (video link).
Mutual interest exists between Prescott and the Cowboys on a new deal, Schultz adds. As of late November, the sides had not begun discussions. The Cowboys have until March 2025 before Prescott becomes a free agent, but the team will likely push to finalize an agreement well before that point. Prescott, 30, maximized his leverage when he signed his current four-year, $160MM deal in 2021. After two years of failed negotiations, the QB did not re-sign until just before the 2021 deadline to tag players. The Cowboys tagged Prescott a second time as a procedural matter, making another tag — no player has been tagged three times since the 2006 CBA made that route prohibitive — out of the equation.
Prescott leads the NFL with 30 touchdown passes, giving him a third season with at least 30, and sits behind only Brock Purdy and Josh Allen in QBR. How the Cowboys fare in the playoffs will obviously be pivotal to Prescott’s reputation, a matter constantly scrutinized due to the team’s popularity, but he will enter the 2024 offseason in commanding position regardless of how Dallas’ season concludes.
The team took care of Trevon Diggs and Terence Steele this offseason, along with ending Zack Martin‘s holdout with player-friendly guarantee terms. Prescott and CeeDee Lamb are squarely on Dallas’ extension radar for…