The Dallas Cowboys want Dak Prescott back, but it’s going to come at a price.
The biggest topic surrounding the Cowboys as they enter the 2024 NFL draft is the future of their three-time Pro Bowl quarterback. The 30-year-old has one year left remaining on his deal and both sides have yet to sign an agreement that will lock him up with the franchise for the long term.
While team owner Jerry Jones re-assured the media that the Cowboys still want to re-sign Prescott, he did so with one major caveat — the supporting cast will likely be less as a result of paying the veteran quarterback money on his new deal.
Via Jon Machota of The Athletic:
“There’s no question we’ve been operating on the credit card,” said Jones on Tuesday, April 23. “That’s how we’ve had Dak Prescott plus his great supporting cast around him for the last three or four years. You can’t keep that if in fact, all of a sudden, the system causes that to go up and you’ve got to start depreciating it down. So if you decide to have a key player and you pay him to that extent, then he’s going to have less supporting cast around. Look around. That’s the way it works. That’s the way it’s been working in the NFL.”
Cowboys Have Made Only 2 Free Agency Signings
Jones was basically providing the reason for why the Cowboys have had such an inactive offseason. In fact, they’ve only had two major signings in free agency in former Pro Bowl linebacker Eric Kendricks and veteran running back Royce Freeman.
Outside of Prescott, the Cowboys also have looming deals with the likes of CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons. Jones is essentially saying the reason for the lack of signings in free agency is due to the future deals of Prescott, Lamb and Parsons.
“We have known that you were going to basically have to have less in order to have some of the players that we want to have at the prices they are,” says Jones. “You got to have less supporting cast. There’s no getting around it.”
Jerry Jones Says Cowboys ‘Want Dak Prescott’
And while the Cowboys and Prescott haven’t made major strides as far as getting a new deal done, Jones has reiterated to the media that he wants to sign the MVP runner-up to a new deal.
“We want Dak Prescott,” Jones said. “That’s that. … I give Mike a lot of credit for (Prescott’s improvement last season). That improvement demonstrated to me there’s more as far as ultimately winning what we’re trying to do here. The question nails it for me. We want Dak. We think that there’s room for growth.”
However, Jones also gave a puzzling answer for why the Cowboys have not gotten a deal done yet with Prescott.
“We’d like to see some more leaves fall,” Jones said. “We’d like to see some more action. It’s called option quarterback
Prescott is coming off of arguably his best season to date, leading the league in touchdown passes (36) while also posting career-highs with 410 completions, a 69.5% completion rate and a 105.9 passer rating.
However, the Cowboys lost to the youngest team in the NFL in the Green Bay Packers in a huge upset playoff loss at home. The latest loss dropped Prescott’s postseason record to 2-5. According to Brandon Lee Gowton of SB Nation’s Bleeding Green Nation, that is the lowest win percentage among quarterbacks to win multiple postseason games.
We’ll see if the Cowboys end up getting a deal done with their franchise quarterback. But the lack of action when it comes to progress on a new deal for Prescott may potentially have to do with his struggles in the playoffs.
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