gjkoeppen
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I'm no expert but this seems reasonable for BOTH sides.....
How a six-year deal could be a compromise for Cowboys, Dak Prescott
The proposed compromise would be a six-year deal that voids to four years.
Both sides can then claim a win. The Cowboys can get their salary-cap flexibility in the first two seasons of the deal when teams will be paying somewhat of a price because of the coronavirus pandemic (the NFL's salary cap is projected to be down, at roughly $180 million for the next year), and Prescott can be back on the market in 2025.
A perfect solution? Probably not, but there has to be some compromise in a situation that has played out going on its third offseason.
Here's how it would work:
We know the Cowboys offered Prescott a $50 million signing bonus last year. Let's keep that the same, so that would cost $10 million against the cap from 2021 to 2025 because bonuses can be prorated for only five years.
Now the base salaries:
2021: $20 million (fully guaranteed)
2022: $20 million (fully guaranteed)
2023: $32.5 million ($25 million fully guaranteed)
2024: $32.5 million
2025: $32.5 million
2026: $32.5 million
That's six years, $220 million for an average of $36.7 million a year. In reality, it's a four-year deal worth $155 million for an average of $38.75 million with $115 million fully guaranteed at signing. He would make $90 million over the first two years of the deal.
The cap numbers under this deal would be:
2021: $30 million
2022: $30 million
2023: $42.5 million
2024: $42.5 million
2025: $42.5 million
2026: $32.5 million
How do the Cowboys gain cap flexibility in the second year of the deal? With a tool they have commonly used on all of their major signings. They can turn more than $18 million of Prescott's 2022 base salary into signing bonus for cap purposes and create $14.4 million in room in Year 2 of the deal. Based on a proposed $2 million base salary in 2022, it would add $3.6 million to each of the aforementioned cap numbers from 2023 to 2026.
2022: $15.6 million
2023: $46.1 million
2024: $46.1 million
2025: $46.1 million
2026: $36.1 million
That looks so fine on paper except for one thing, well 3 things. First the Cowboys have to see this the same way. Second Prescott has to see this the same way. Third and this is the biggest problem since everybody knows that Prescott wants a 4 year deal so he can get one more big contract which means there's a huge chance he'll void that contract after 4 years and then it will put 17.2 mil of dead money on the cap. Even if by 2025 the cap rises like prior to the mess their are in now for 2021, 17.2 mil is a big chuck of dead money for a single player. I's rather see the signing bonus just stretched out over the 1st 4 years adding just 2.5 mil to each cap and limiting the dead money when Prescott voids out after 4 years to be just 7.2 mil from restructuring the 2nd year. No matter how it's done we're talking about a lot of money and it's either have a little bit bigger hit each year or take a really big hit after Prescott voids out after 4 years.
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