With two more major QB deals completed, what else do the Cowboys and Dak Prescott need to discuss?

OXNARD, Calif. — For months, whenever the Dallas Cowboys front office discussed important internal matters that needed to be addressed, Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons were in the spotlight together. A week into training camp, the three are separated.

Parsons doesn’t seem to have a problem waiting until 2025 to sign a contract. Lamb is determined to get started right away, and the groundwork for that has been laid by Justin Jefferson in Minnesota.

With Prescott there is more nuance.

Prescott is entering the final year of a contract that pays him $40 million APY (average per year) but carries a much larger cap hit in 2024 (around $55 million) due to previous restructurings. The Cowboys have said they want Prescott long-term, and Prescott has said he wants to stay in Dallas for years to come. Both sides have also acknowledged they will go their separate ways going forward. Prescott’s current deal comes with a no-trade clause, and the Cowboys cannot tag him after the season. Prescott has leverage and could test the open market if he goes that route.

That is the basic framework of the situation, which has been the case since the beginning of the off-season. The temperature of the situation has fluctuated slightly over time, but the essence remains the same.

See you this weekend.

Developments in Miami and Green Bay have made things very interesting. Tua Tagovailoa and Jordan Love signing monster contract extensions for $53.1 million and $55 million APY, respectively, isn’t a shock, nor are they the only quarterback dominoes falling ahead of the Cowboys-Prescott saga in 2024. Looking at the quarterbacks by APY list, four of the top five players signed this offseason:

Jared Goff’s deal came to fruition in May, while Trevor Lawrence signed last month. Tagovailoa and Love got their extensions over the weekend, just days before Prescott’s 31st birthday on Monday. There’s been a lot of talk from both sides.

On Thursday, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said he doesn’t think this will be Prescott’s last year as a Cowboy. In the same press conference, Jones said he doesn’t always get what he wants. Later in the day, Prescott reiterated his stance that he wants to be in Dallas, but also acknowledged — after a moment of hesitation on stage — that other great quarterbacks haven’t always played with one team. Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said the team is in healthy discussions with Prescott’s agent, Todd France, and that the team made Prescott another offer last week.

Dialogue is not pointless, but actions speak louder than words.

Before the Tagovailoa and Love deals, the Cowboys might have tried to leverage Prescott’s shortcomings on the big stage to get the price under Joe Burrows’ $55 million APY. Age and future potential could be seen as a differentiating factor between Prescott and Lawrence’s $55 million.

But now Love, with his 18 regular-season starts and 1-1 postseason record, is getting $55 million? Tagovailoa comes in just under that number?

GO DEEPER

Dak Prescott has made peace with the fact that this might be his last year with the Cowboys

The Cowboys have waited long enough for $55 million to move from a negotiating figure to a starting point in talks. That’s the floor now, and if you’re Prescott’s camp, staring at a weak 2025 quarterback draft and limited options on the open market in free agency, why settle for the floor?

Stephen Jones can talk about Patrick Mahomes and his absurdly team-friendly deal all he wants, he recently did that on 96.7 FM The Ticketand his points about how it affects team building may be valid. Whatever one thinks of Prescott’s stance on what he’s looking for in his next deal, using exceptions — which Mahomes is, in talent and in contract situation — as a negotiating tactic rarely works.

If there are other issues besides the numbers that keep the two sides apart from a deal – which cannot be ruled out given that France gave Prescott a no-trade agreement – And No-tag clauses on his last deal — that might be worth discussing at the negotiating table. But when it comes to the numbers themselves, there’s not much to talk about in the wake of the Tagovailoa and Love extensions.

If the Cowboys really want to sign Prescott long-term, his APY will most likely be north of $55 million.

Because the Cowboys have dragged out such a big contract situation in recent years, they’ve become an easy target for ridicule as the league passes them over in handing out deals to superstars. That’s a fair way to interpret the situation with Lamb, who has only gotten better in each of his four years in the league and whose contract terms were fairly clear even before Jefferson’s deal but are even more vivid now.

Prescott’s situation requires more reading between the lines. Could the Cowboys be so inept that they’d like to re-sign their franchise quarterback but can’t make it happen? It’s possible, but it’s just as possible that the Cowboys are nice about their words publicly but take a much stricter approach internally to what they expect from Prescott before they hand out a massive extension.

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When Jerry Jones spoke on Saturday, he answered a question about Prescott’s contract situation in relation to Love’s new contract extension.

“I get in trouble when I make comparisons,” Jones said. “I get in trouble. Obviously we had a head-to-head matchup with Green Bay last year. We all took that in our stride. I’m eager for Dak to get his chance to prove he’s the best with a Cowboys star on him.”

Translation: Let’s see how Dak handles his business in January, like Love did against him. Maybe he’ll get the contract he wants, just like Love did.

(Photo: Ryan Kang/Getty Images)