With wide receiver CeeDee Lamb in the fold and back with the Dallas Cowboys on a four-year, $136 million extension, the contract talks and attention are now on quarterback Dak Prescott and his future with the organization.
Prescott is in the last year of the four-year $160 million deal he signed in 2021. He has a no tag clause and a no trade clause.
The baseline for any deal is $55 million annually and he could command $60 million or more on the free agent market after the season.
As a result, Prescott has all the leverage and will soon be the highest paid player in NFL history, either with the Cowboys or with another team.
It stands to reason that the Cowboys wouldn’t invest as much as they did into Lamb and not secure the quarterback to maximize his investment. Certainly, Lamb thinks it will get done.
“Go look at our numbers together,” Lamb said. “They’re at the top of the charts. I have no doubt they’re gonna get a deal done. We all know that I want him here. [Owner] Jerry [Jones] wants Dak here, too. So let’s get this under control and kill the speculation.”
Lamb has 313 catches for 4,151 yards and he’s scored 29 touchdowns in 49 games with Prescott in his career. He led the NFL with 135 catches and had 1,749 yards receiving with 12 touchdowns in 2023. He has set career highs in all three categories each of his four seasons with Prescott as his primary quarterback.
Jones is in lock step with Lamb. At least, that is what he thinks.
“I think I am. I am,” said Jones, who initially stuttered when asked if he was confident in Prescott being his quarterback in 2025 on a new deal. “But I understand completely. I understand our challenge. But confident is not a word for me here. I feel that I think that we can do it. We have not figured it out yet.”
Just don’t look for a domino effect following the Lamb deal and don’t expect something to get done before the start of the season.
The figuring out is not done and the Cowboys are focused on getting ready for the season with Prescott already committed to playing under his current deal in 2024 in what could be his last season with franchise.
“We don’t need to get this done before the season,” Jones told DLLS last week. “We just don’t need to get it done before the season. Because it’s in all of our interest, Dak and everybody, to have a great season. And as a matter of fact, that’s probably not realistic to think before the season. But my thought sitting right here is we’ll have Dak [as Cowboys quarterback in 2025 and beyond]. But all I’m gonna say is this: it’s not done yet.”
Don’t let that put any doubt in your mind about the Cowboys’ intentions.
Jones believes Prescott will be in Cowboys uniform at this time next season.
More importantly, Jones believes the Cowboys can win big with Prescott, despite his veritable lack of playoff success in his eight years as the team’s franchise quarterback.
Prescott is coming off the best season of his career, leading the NFL in touchdown passes and finishing second league MVP balloting. But a third straight 12-5 season ended with an embarrassing 48-32 wild-card loss to the Green Bay Packers.
Prescott wasn’t the biggest culprit but his two first half interceptions helped spur the carnage as he dropped to 2-5 all-time in the postseason.
“Yes, there is no question in my mind. Yes, we can win with Dak,” Jones said. “It’s just not a question in my mind.”
There is a thought process that if the Cowboys felt so strongly about being able to win with Prescott in the postseason they would have already signed him to an extension.
Does Prescott need to prove himself in the postseason in Jones’ mind?
“OK, just so we’re clear. Yeah, yes, we can win with Dak,” Jones said.
But then he added an addendum that Cowboys fans may not like that would come hand in hand with any record-setting contract for Prescott.
“I’m looking at having less supporting cast around him than he’s had any time in his career,” Jones said. “He’s going to have to make up for that and some because we haven’t gotten to the games we want to be playing in.
“And he’s going to have to do it in the future with less of a supporting cast. That’s what I’m fighting for.
“What kind of supporting cast can we have around Dak? I know you understand that. Do our fans? Do our fans know that Dak is going to have less of a supporting cast than his career has allowed him to have up until now.”
And when Jones says lesser players he said he means “younger players” and “journeyman” type players that are “not the top paid” at their position.
Does Jones believe Prescott can elevate a lesser supporting cast to possible trip to the Super Bowl?
Because that is the charge.
“He elevates people around him,” Jones said. “To answer your question, I believe he can.”
He will have to.
Jones said they were negotiating the Lamb contract with a possible contract for Prescott in mind. The same considerations were made for a coming deal with superstar pass rusher Micah Parsons, who is scheduled to be on the fifth-year option next season.
“So that process is what we’re going through, and that’s why you’re seeing us be so arduous, so tunnel vision over trying to work these contracts in tandem,” Jones said. “We’re trying to work them with consideration. We didn’t start that yesterday. No, we’ve been doing that.”
And the Prescott deal is still not done. It won’t be done before the start of the season.
But Jones “thinks” it will eventually happen and he will be the team’s quarterback in 2025 just as Lamb guaranteed.
