Dak never regains the Dallas starting job:
Dallas has a surprisingly successful season with Dalton at the helm (gets resigned on a much cheaper team-friendly deal than Dak's contract demands/the QB franchise tag); or
Dallas sucks the rest of the season, and hence an opportunity to draft/or slightly trade up for a top-notch cheap young healthy QB in the 1st round on a rookie contract (Justin Fields, for instance.).
It is a business.
It is a business.
Correct.
I think that is what shapes Dak and his decisions.
That and his agent that is who has been pounding Saks ear about playing things just right.
The agent knows Dallas wants to keep Dak. The agent knows Dak wants Dallas.
So the agent has shown Dak how to play the game. You make your an offer beyond what is really what you will take..
And you keep moving the goal posts so the team raises their offer closer to where you will sign. Then you mull that offer and slightly move the goal posts again to watch the response.
That is clearly what is happening.
In the meantime Dak accepts the $32 mil Tag and he has gotten a huge hurdle accomplished. He has now been slotted with the other Top 5 Qbs in the league.
Now the injury fallout. Dak is not playing. He really can't be evaluated over the course of the year. We do not know how he would finish the race for his next contract. We can only look at 5 games.
Now what?
This is the business side rearing its head.
I think despite all the verbal ques we see from Stephen and Jerrah about Dak is our QB..
everybody knows conditions are uncertain going forward.
Dak knows b/w pandemic and Tagging there is a disconnect. His agent knows it too. The landscape has changed. The old negotiations are a wash.
No longer relevant.
I think it has changed so much that Dallas will have to rely on letting Dak be a FA to see what other teams will offer Dak.
This lets all parties evaluate with the same information. The fly in the ointment is that other teams know that unless their offer is magnitudes above Dallas' ability to match an offer..
Dak more than likely returns to Dallas.
Therefore offers from other teams maybe lower than a Dallas offer and that works against Dak. If it's higher than Dallas then Dak has to evaluate if that team has their roster complete enough that in a reasonable amount of time he can be added to their roster with enough to compete for SB rings.
It's a tough decision for Dak especially with little to no history about how he will play post recovery from his ankle injury. Teams won't know.
I really think Dallas will resign him. But for what and how long I could not begin to guess.
But I do know we will all follow this and debate this the whole way.
It's what we do.