The deal is done. Dak Prescott contract watch has officially ended.
After months of waiting, and months of shots across the negotiation table, and months of lingering doubt about their future together, the Cowboys and Prescott finally came to terms on a new extension that will make him the highest-paid player in NFL history. The deal, according to multiple reports: four years for $240 million — an average of $60 million per year.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones talks a lot about pie when it comes to navigating the team’s salary cap. Prescott is about to have whole bunch of pie on his plate.
There was never really a doubt that Prescott would get paid. Despite the end result, there was increasing doubt that it would ultimately be Jones and the Cowboys that paid him.
From the beginning of this off-season, Prescott has held the leverage at the negotiation table. Because of previous negotiations between the Cowboys and Prescott’s agent, Todd France, Prescott held a no-tag clause and a no-trade clause. That means Prescott could go to free agency if he wanted, and the Cowboys couldn’t stop him. Prescott also led the league in touchdown passes, limited his interceptions to nine last year, and finished second in MVP voting.
If Prescott hit free agency, there would likely be no shortage of teams willing to pay him what he believed he deserved.
The Cowboys did have one negotiation point on their side. Prescott grew up a Cowboys fan. The Cowboys drafted him in 2016 and quickly made the 4th round pick their starting quarterback — a role he’s never relinquished.
Prescott has been around long enough to know what comes with being a Cowboys franchise quarterback. He also knows the responsibility that comes with it, especially since the Cowboys last won a Super Bowl roughly three decades ago.
“What motivates me on being here, honestly, [is] to be the quarterback who does it, who wins it,” Prescott said about chasing a Super Bowl with the Cowboys specifically. “I don’t think winning it any other place would be the same as winning it here. That is A, No. 1 in wanting to be here, to be honest with you.”
Now Prescott and the Cowboys will have the chance to chase that title together.
