Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence did something Thursday that Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has every right to replicate.
He secured his worth.
The three-year NFL veteran and one-time Pro Bowler agreed to a five-year extension worth $275 million. The $55 million annual average, tied with Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow for highest in the NFL, gave a staggering reminder of what Prescott can command in his upcoming third contract should he so choose.
But Prescott does have a choice.
While a bit eye-opening, Lawrence’s extension did nothing to answer the most important questions affecting Prescott’s long-term future in Dallas. Will Prescott, who turns 31 in July, insist the Cowboys pay him full market value before his contract expires in March? If comfortable receiving less to stay in Dallas, how much less is he willing to accept?
He alone can answer those.
“I think it just depends,” Prescott said last month when asked if he considers a contract to be synonymous with respect. “I think it depends on the person, relationships and honestly position and how much that pay can affect others. Understanding where I am, what my pay means to a team, to an organization, I don’t really take things personal.
“Maybe in my first deal, things were a little different than they are now. That’s, one, my age, of who I am, where I am in my life, and I guess the fact that the first deal got done, understanding that I have a lot of decision in this, too. I have a lot of say so, too.”
The 2023 league MVP runner-up would be entirely justified to pursue a contract that pays him market value, seeking more than $55 million annually from the Cowboys or, if talks prove unfruitful, that amount from another club in 2025.
Prescott holds significant leverage in that regard.
In 2021, agent Todd France strategically maneuvered on his client’s behalf to allow Prescott to score big on his third contract. France did a four-year deal instead of a lengthier one. He successfully fought for language prohibiting the Cowboys from using the franchise or transition tag next March when his $160 million deal expires. He also scored Prescott a no-trade clause.
That all was designed to prepare Prescott to cash in at this moment.
Paying him all he is worth, however, is not simple in Dallas.
Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb is poised to soon become one of the highest-paid non-quarterbacks in NFL history, potentially earning a figure close to the $35 million per year that Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson garnered this month. Hybrid defensive end Micah Parsons lurks close behind, on track to become the highest-paid non-quarterback in league history.
The latter could happen in 2025.
Paying three players elite money on the same team simultaneously is extremely challenging under the NFL’s salary cap. The Cowboys would become the league’s only club to compensate three players at least $30 million per year. The prospect becomes especially crippling when weighing the franchise’s 2025 cap situation. It is burdened with signing bonus prorations, void years and dead money from past decision-making, much of which was done to field more competitive teams that ultimately fell woefully short.
Lamb or Parsons cannot be expected to leave money on the table in their negotiations. A second contract generally represents a player’s first chance at accruing generational wealth. They have earned that right.
While also possessing every right to earn every dollar he can, Prescott is at a different career stage than them. There is precedent, too, for quarterbacks accepting less compensation in exchange for a more competitive roster. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and now-retired Tom Brady are among the recent examples.
Prescott’s contract in 2021 did little to help the Cowboys in that regard.
It is extremely difficult to envision a scenario in which Dallas can sign both Lamb and Parsons to a second contract and Prescott to a third without Prescott joining the quarterbacks before him who took substantially less than market value. Paying top dollar to all three is a strategy that does not appear conducive to winning.
To date, the trio own a 1-3 playoff record when more money was available to their teammates. After they were unable to sniff a conference championship game with more help, there is little logic in the Cowboys committing to a future that features less.
“I don’t play for money,” Prescott said last month. “Never have. Never cared for it, to be honest with you. Would give it up just to play this game. I’ll allow the business people to say what it’s worth, what they’re supposed to give a quarterback of my play, a person of my play, a leader of my play.”
Those two sentiments from Prescott are contradictory.
Deferring to his business people won’t be enough to keep him, Lamb and Parsons together. He would need to sign at a value meaningfully less than market worth.
For that reason, the popular interpretation that Lawrence’s blockbuster contract Thursday is good for Prescott and bad for the Cowboys mistakenly assumes Prescott plans to milk the team for all he possibly can. If that is the case, then the Cowboys have already lost, all but bound to move on from Prescott, Lamb or Parsons, or else be doomed to a future in which the trio lacks a realistic, championship-caliber supporting cast.
Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
