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Todd Archer, ESPN Staff Writer
FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys’ 2024 offseason will be defined by what happens with Dak Prescott’s contract.
The quarterback has a $59.4 million salary cap figure, second largest in the NFL behind the Cleveland Browns’ Deshaun Watson. This is the final year of the four-year, $160 million deal Prescott signed after the 2020 season that included $126 million guaranteed.
Prescott’s contract stipulates the Cowboys cannot place the franchise tag on him in 2025. He also has a no-trade clause, though all that really means is he can be traded only to a team that meets his approval. Similarly, Russell Wilson had a no-trade clause and was dealt from the Seattle Seahawks to the Denver Broncos. Any such trade of Prescott would require a reworked contract to make it more palatable against the cap for the Cowboys, which is what happened to facilitate Aaron Rodgers’ trade to the New York Jets from the Green Bay Packers.
Still, a trade is unlikely for a variety of reasons, starting with the Cowboys want to win badly in 2024 and believe Prescott can help them do that.
But the Prescott question is not so much about 2024 as it is 2025 and beyond.
The Cowboys have three options with Prescott and his contract: do nothing, add voidable years to his deal, or sign him to a massive contract extension.
Let’s explore:
Do nothing
Can the Cowboys carry Prescott’s $59.4 million cap figure in 2024? Yes.
Does that make it more difficult to add players or retain the guys they want to keep? Yes.
But it’s not impossible. And it puts Prescott on the same win-or-else track as coach Mike McCarthy, who is also entering the final year of his contract. It also gives Prescott more leverage in negotiations, given that the team can’t tag him in 2025 and he would be facing true unrestricted free agency for the first time at age 31.
The Cowboys already plan to restructure the contracts of All-Pro guard Zack Martin and cornerback Trevon Diggs, who is coming back from a torn ACL, which could net them about $20 million in cap space. They can restructure the deal of right tackle Terence Steele, too. They can designate wide receiver Michael Gallup a post-June 1 cut and gain $9.5 million, although they would not add that space until June.
They can sign All-Pro receiver CeeDee Lamb to an extension that would actually lower his $17.99 million cap figure and make him the highest-paid receiver in the game.
The cap is not a myth, but there are ways to work around the cap and push dollars into the future.
Add more voidable years
Technically, Prescott is signed through 2026, but the last two years of the deal void at the end of the 2024 season.
The Cowboys can restructure Prescott’s contract again for 2024 and create about $18 million in cap room. They could create a little more if they converted his $5 million roster bonus. But that would increase the dead money in 2025, taking it to more than $54 million. And if the Cowboys sign him to a new deal after the 2024 season, the $54 million would be added into his 2025 cap figure.
The Cowboys can add two more voidable years onto Prescott’s deal in 2024 and create even more cap space this year, but the same dead money would be on the books for 2025. Adding more voidable years would allow the Cowboys to make 2024 an all-in season by spending money in free agency, but it would make things prohibitive in 2025 and beyond.
When a Super Bowl drought closes in on three decades, fans would be willing to do just about anything if it means having a better chance of winning a Vince Lombardi Trophy.
Sign Prescott to an extension
By signing Prescott to an extension of four, five or six years, depending on what the quarterback would agree to, the Cowboys will have fixed costs at the quarterback position, which is always a good thing when the numbers get this large.
And it would give them short-term salary cap relief.
It took the Cowboys quite some time to get Prescott signed in 2021. They thought they had a deal in place in 2019 and never really got close again. It wasn’t that they did not try to sign Prescott, which has become the oft-repeated narrative. It’s that Prescott chose to wait. He played a year on the franchise tag and got everything he wanted in his new deal even after a terrible right ankle injury.
Theoretically, he is in that position again because the Cowboys can’t use the franchise tag. And now quarterback contracts have soared to an average of more than $50 million per year. At $40 million, Prescott’s annual salary (as opposed to his salary cap hit) is tied for 10th highest among quarterbacks. Joe Burrow is atop the market at $55 million. He has gone to a Super Bowl and two AFC Championship Games.
After eight seasons as the starter, Prescott is still looking for his first NFC Championship Game appearance. Peyton Manning went to his first Super Bowl in his ninth year but already had two MVPs. Matt Ryan went to his first — and only — in his ninth season with the Atlanta Falcons. Since 1980, only the Bengals’ Ken Anderson started more seasons (10) before reaching his first Super Bowl.
Can Prescott buck the trend and get to one in his ninth season?
History suggests the answer is no.
And the Cowboys have to ask themselves this question: Would they be paying Prescott because they want to or because they have to?