Cowboys options with Dak from Overthecap

[plymkr]

The 5th year option has to be given this offseason.

Why would Lance sign that deal? He can get a backup contract anywhere.

Well no I don't think it will happen either, but that's the scenario we're basically talking about.

That’s what Love did. It’s true he can get a backup deal anywhere but he has spent a year learning this offense. If he signed somewhere else that would be basically wasting a year and then learning a new offense would keep him off the field for more time. His best bet is to get on the field ASAP. Dak is injury prone. Lance knows the offense. His best chance to showcase his game is here. Going to a 3rd system in 3 years is not a good idea for him. His best bet is to sign on as Dak’s backup and be a backup until Dak retires or moves on. Similarly how Jordan Love did it. The bigger question is who would sign him to a contract with as little as he’s played besides us? If we cut him today no one else is going to pick up his 5th year option. So his best bet for continuity and being QB1 for any team is to follow Love’s example and stay with us.

 

[plymkr]

https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news...-lance-exercise-5th-year-option-dak-prescott#

 

[Mac_MaloneV1]

That’s what Love did. It’s true he can get a backup deal anywhere but he has spent a year learning this offense. If he signed somewhere else that would be basically wasting a year and then learning a new offense would keep him off the field for more time. His best bet is to get on the field ASAP. Dak is injury prone. Lance knows the offense. His best chance to showcase his game is here. Going to a 3rd system in 3 years is not a good idea for him. His best bet is to sign on as Dak’s backup and be a backup until Dak retires or moves on. Similarly how Jordan Love did it. The bigger question is who would sign him to a contract with as little as he’s played besides us? If we cut him today no one else is going to pick up his 5th year option. So his best bet for continuity and being QB1 for any team is to follow Love’s example and stay with us.

Love did what? He signed a 1-year deal that doesn't delay when he goes to free agency and gave him more money up front and, with bonuses, was potentially more than his fifth year.

He has 0 chance to showcase his game here unless there's an injury, so it'd be stupid for him to sign an extension as a backup here because it would mean never being a starter.

 

[dckid]

https://overthecap.com/looking-at-the-cowboys-options-with-dak-prescott

Yup, I am not a twitter personality or reporter and I laid out what needs to be done.
Cut him post June1 and move on with team building. There is no impact on signing CeeDee or Parsons if you want to keep them. Money talks. They both know they are not winning a SB with Dak. Let him go play somewhere else. He will find a starting job somewhere. He is a good QB but he has a ceiling. The biggest issue is paying elite money to a good player.
Never overpay a good player and you can never overpay a franchise guy...
Dak is replaceable with Minshew or Purdy types. For all your Romo lovers, Dak is like Romo. Hope that makes it easier to digest.

 

[John813]

Only way I see Dallas exercising the 5th year option on Lance is if they plan on letting Dak walk or cutting him this offseason.
The 5th year option will be around 25mil according to Archer and is fully guaranteed as soon as it's exercised.

That's a lot of cap space that can't be cleared by cutting him. and if he stays a backup here no team will want to take that on.

 

[erod]

All I know for sure is, paying Dak even more money for longer will NOT solve the problem.

 

[Jumbo075]

This isn’t true. Only if they cut him post 6/1. Which means they can’t use the cap savings until June 2nd when it’s virtually useless. A trade and he counts 60M against the cap this season. It’s in the article.

If the Cowboys trade Prescott prior to the roster bonus due date, their accelerated CAP hit for 2024 would be $61,915,000.

2024 - $13,200,000 (Signing Bonus proration) + $12,255,000 (restructure bonus proration) = $25,455,000
2025 (void year) - $13,200,000 (Signing Bonus proration) + $12,255,000 (restructure bonus proration) = $25,455,000
2026 (void year) - $11,005,000 (restructure bonus proration) = $11,005,000

 

[Cowboyny]

It’s really not that tough. If winning a championship was the primary objective for this front office , the decision is easy. You don’t extend Dak. Just like everyone here says and just like the guy who wrote the article suggested. However, that isn’t the primary objective for this franchise. So they will extend him.

Thing as if they don't trade him or don't touch his contract, they will have a very hard time improving the roster. In my opinion, he will get an extension, but they will be an out in his contact after two seasons. This will give them time to evaluate Lance and or groom his replacement. Cannot see the front office going blind again at the QB position like they did post Aikman.

 

[jterrell]

Good breakdown.

Cowboys have pinned themselves into a corner.
All options should be on the table but you aren't getting better QB play so start with that reality.
Dak just finished a top 5 QB season with an awful playoff showing but it was a great showing by his own standards and most anyone else's.
But he is NOT worth 60M a year by any means.
So you either take a step back now, throw all cap caution to the wind and build a deep, vet team in 24/25 or you run it back with no changes and likely win the division again only to lose early in the playoffs.

This team isn't good enough.
All the focus is on the QB but that's like changing out the flooring while you still have a leak.

Dak doesn't play LB or RB or RT or any of the number of massive holes this team has.
But you cant pay a guy 60M who can't overcome that and that is basically everyone but Pat.

 

[jterrell]

Thing as if they don't trade him or don't touch his contract, they will have a very hard time improving the roster. In my opinion, he will get an extension, but they will be an out in his contact after two seasons. This will give them time to evaluate Lance and or groom his replacement. Cannot see the front office going blind again at the QB position like they did post Aikman.

Trading him isn't an option unless they want to just let Lance cook and live with results.
His cap hit would be stuck at 60M for next year.
Their best bet for immediate success is extend him but with no real outlay of upfront cash beyond his 35M salary plus roster bonus in 2025.

Make it large roster bonuses and such (that don't Zeke renew).

BUT they have to partner with Dak IMO. Bring him in and have him play 5th horseman with the brain trust in exchange for a team friendly deal.

Dak was only the 10th highest paid last year. He outplayed that astonishingly but any new deal that sees him emerge at top 3 would be awful.

It is a tough tough spot to be in.

The fan base is frustrated every year come playoffs but wait til they experienxce 17 games of a non top 30 QB...
And you do that then draft Justin Fields....

 

[Proof]

Jones in no way named his price. He took a well below market rate offer. His contract is less than the contract Dak accepted 3 years prior.

The Giants may suck but at least they didn't chain themselves to an anchor like the Cowboys did.

yes they did. they did it for a shorter timeframe, but still anchored themselves. they paid him 40 mil this year and started tommy devito and had a legit argument of who they should start next year. "named his price" may have been poor wording, but he absolutely was able to negotiate a far far far bigger contract than anyone wanted to give him, or that he would have gotten on the open market. it's relative to qb's of his caliber, not franchise qbs.

 

[Coogiguy03]

Remember, Dak has to agree to a restructure, or an extension. Dak could deny the restructure because he senses it means he is done in Dallas after this year. Without the possibility of a trade he really is holding all the cards. Jerry really boxed himself in with the first deal.

Think about not extending Dak, letting him walk and getting nothing but a 3rd round comp pick in return - a late third round comp pick. But it is what it is. Jerry is an awful negotiator. His next deal needs to have that trade clause and a built in in out. Give him roster bonuses instead of salary and signing bonus. This would be incentives for Dak to perform. Of course he might not allow it. But Jerry needs to decide if he wants Dak to hamstring him and his team for 5 more years. Then again, if he let's Dak go Jerry will have an undetermined number of year before the Cowboys even return to winning.

I prefer he extend Dak but only if it is a fair deal for Dallas. The only leverage Jerry has over Dak is a willingness to let him walk in 2025. Use that to get what he can, and if it is not enough, the shake hands and walk away from the table.

Use the 3rd rounder to get our future QB, dak was a 4th!! The 3rd round should be better in hindsight right?? lol jk

 

[TwoCentPlain]

This isn’t true. Only if they cut him post 6/1. Which means they can’t use the cap savings until June 2nd when it’s virtually useless. A trade and he counts 60M against the cap this season. It’s in the article.

Not exactly. Players and agents will know Jerry has the money and it will be available on June 2nd. There will be those willing to wait. Jerry and the agents can talk before that and agree with a wink, nod, and handshake.

The teams that pay the earliest overpay. Better to wait given the Cowboys position with the cap and present roster.

 

[Vtwin]

yes they did. they did it for a shorter timeframe, but still anchored themselves. they paid him 40 mil this year and started tommy devito and had a legit argument of who they should start next year. "named his price" may have been poor wording, but he absolutely was able to negotiate a far far far bigger contract than anyone wanted to give him, or that he would have gotten on the open market. it's relative to qb's of his caliber, not franchise qbs.

I'm no expert, but it looks like they can move on from him after next year pretty easily, if I'm reading the Spotrac details correctly. Assuming they don't restructure him this off season.

The Giants did probably feel the pressure to sign him. He actually played pretty well the season prior. Surprised me. I had written him off the season prior to that.

Both the Giants and the Cowboys should have used the non-exclusive tag. Let the market determine the outcome. Really nothing to lose assuming the QB's wants to stay. I doubt Dak was getting more than the top tier deal he got, from anyone else, and he might have gotten a wake up call on how the league viewed his value. Jones would likely never see the offer he took from the Giants from anyone else, giving the team all the leverage.

Derek Carr is another one who signed last year for less than Dak got, three years prior. His deal wasn't even as good as Jones' deal.

Dak should have gotten similar deals as those guys, adjusted to the time he signed it.

 

[JBS]

Thing as if they don't trade him or don't touch his contract, they will have a very hard time improving the roster. In my opinion, he will get an extension, but they will be an out in his contact after two seasons. This will give them time to evaluate Lance and or groom his replacement. Cannot see the front office going blind again at the QB position like they did post Aikman.

Dak won’t agree to a contract that allows the club to get out after 2 season

 

[Proof]

I'm no expert, but it looks like they can move on from him after next year pretty easily, if I'm reading the Spotrac details correctly. Assuming they don't restructure him this off season.

The Giants did probably feel the pressure to sign him. He actually played pretty well the season prior. Surprised me. I had written him off the season prior to that.

Both the Giants and the Cowboys should have used the non-exclusive tag. Let the market determine the outcome. Really nothing to lose assuming the QB's wants to stay. I doubt Dak was getting more than the top tier deal he got, from anyone else, and he might have gotten a wake up call on how the league viewed his value. Jones would likely never see the offer he took from the Giants from anyone else, giving the team all the leverage.

Derek Carr is another one who signed last year for less than Dak got, three years prior. His deal wasn't even as good as Jones' deal.

Dak should have gotten similar deals as those guys, adjusted to the time he signed it.

yeah they signed him to essentially a 2 year deal, but still paid him 80 mil for that. they couldn't franchise him because of how they gave it to saquon. Jones was basically able to leverage that, his surprising 2022, and the fact they had no real other options into forcing them to massively overpay him. Like you say though, they may not be too worse for the wear since they can move on next year, but that's due to bottoming out this year after overpaying him.

 

[CowboyFrog]

I love how people want to roll with Trey Lance next year without talking about the fact that, if he's good, they're going to have to give him the same $60m in 2025 lmao.

2024: Lance rookie deal
2025: Lance franchise tag
2026: Lance $65m

THINK PEOPLE

your asking too much for the Dak War folks..some of them actually believe Jerry had this thing rolling before the "Dak" mistake..lol..28 years later and we are still "a QB" away from winning this thing!!!!

 

[plymkr]

Love did what? He signed a 1-year deal that doesn't delay when he goes to free agency and gave him more money up front and, with bonuses, was potentially more than his fifth year.

He has 0 chance to showcase his game here unless there's an injury, so it'd be stupid for him to sign an extension as a backup here because it would mean never being a starter.

Check out the article above the post I just quoted. It talks about how the Cowboys are approaching Lance’s contract.

 

[khiladi]

Realistically they have three options....

1) Cut/Trade Dak and roll the dice on Lance doing a Trey Lance impersonation or finding a Baker Mayfield in free agency
2) Extend Dak, keep things mostly as is and continue to win 10-12 games next year but have a likely early playoff exit.
3) Keep Dak, have an aggressive "all in" type of offseason and actually give yourself a shot at a deep run

Spoiler alert....The Cowboys pick option 2

10-12 wins with this deteriorating roster. It’s going to get worse for Dak and his chances with a defense that’s no longer leads the league in TOs and an aging OL, with Smith retiring soon and ZM at the latter half of he career.

 

[khiladi]

Option 3) Spread rumors - make Dak feel completely unwanted so he would want a trade out of Dallas. Tell him he cannot come to the facilities.

I mean they technically wouldn’t be rumors then..