In his first words since making quarterback Dak Prescott the highest paid player in NFL history, owner Jerry Jones said he was simply happy to get the deal done ahead of Sunday’s season opener against the Cleveland Browns.
Prescott got a four-year deal for $240 million. It includes $231 million guaranteed and an $80 million signing bonus.
No player in NFL history has received a $60 million annual salary.
But that was the market for Prescott, who was in the final year of a four-year, $160 million he signed in 2021 and was on the brink of unrestricted free agency after the season if the Cowboys didn’t sign him to an extension.
The opener season was the unofficial line of demarcation and the Cowboys got it done right under the wire, hours before kickoff against the Browns.
“Relief? No, I’m happy that it’s done,” Jones said. “This was the time when it was right there for us to do. We were all set to go. That’s so critical…Opening day, up here against Cleveland, this was a great time to make it happen.”
Jones said it was never a question about Prescott’s future or their feeling about him as their franchise quarterback.
It was about trying to find a way to make it work and momentum starting building this week to get it done now.
“I think we all felt a little energy to come on in and so to speak get to a point where we could say yes,” Jones said. ” I’ve really known all along what a great player Dak is. I’m satisfied that everybody understands that I really do think he’s a great player. Having said that, this was just a good opportunity to do it here on opening day.
“I’ve seen too many very important deals not work out just because of miscalculating. The right time when everybody’s ready to go. It was apparent to me over the last few days that we were ready to go and could put this in place. That’s, from having done a lot of deals — not just football deals — you strike when the crosshairs get in the target and we did and he did. Our fans will be rewarded, I know.”
Jones said he always knew a deal would get done with Prescott, even as far back as last week when he seemed to suggest that it wasn’t necessary to get a deal done before the start of the season.
So why did he stress out Cowboys fans?
“I think it’s for our fans that I wanted to put them through it,” Jones joked.
He added that the it takes time to do record-setting deals.
“I’m talking about making him the highest paid player in the history of the NFL. That’s what I’m doing for the fans,” Jones said. “No matter what some of the technical aspects were, at the end of the day, we had to believe in our future with Dak. And Dak as quarterback, both from a talent standpoint and as a person. I think it goes without saying we do that. And Dak’s making a commitment to us, which I think is very special. You have to be someone special to merit what we’ve done here with him and I think he is that.”
Jones said the money was something he had to reconcile in his mind because they more than he ever envisioned.
It harkened back to when he signed Hall of Famer cornerback Deion Sanders to record-setting contract in 1995.
“$231 million guaranteed I know these numbers are beyond anything I could have ever imagined. When I gave Deion Sanders a $12 million bonus, before I gave it, flew to my hometown where I grew up when 50 cents was big time. And I walked down my old street before I did the deal with Deion. And I saw an old post I’d knocked the chip out of with a baseball bat or something when I was 12.
“But I went over there to see if I lost my bearings or I’d lost my sense of where we are. As I walked past my old house with Deion Sanders, I said, ‘That was then — this is now. To hell with it. Let’s go, Deion’.”
There is a huge difference between Sanders’ $12 million and what Prescott got Sunday.
But the goal is the same: to put the team in the best position to win the Super Bowl.
The Sanders deal ended with the Cowboys winning the third of their three Super Bowl titles in the 1990s. It has been 28 years since then and the Cowboys have just five playoff wins in the interim.
“Certainly things have changed since that particular time but the same things was there: It’s going to be always be a test and a measurement when you come to planning ahead and that’s a big thing,” Jones said. “We sit on a loading sand and things change every year. My assessment of where we’re going to be going in the future: We’re going to be able to handle this, we’re going to be able to get players around him that give us a chance to compete for a Super Bowl. He was our best chance of getting one.”
