News: PFT: The Dak Prescott negotiations, in a nutshell

[Playmaker3128]

I still don't get not signing him for 4 years, or the franchise tag. If he wants more money after 1-2 years in both of those scenarios he needs to play well. I don't question dak's work ethic.

The more i think of this, its partially Jerry's fault. If we had won something the past 4 years you could justify giving Dak a big contract. I mean people would still complain, but they wouldn't be as mad. Jerry decided to waste those cap friendly years with Jason Garret at the helm.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

"By not swooping in and making Prescott an offer he couldn’t refuse the moment he became eligible for a second contract in early 2019, his leverage grew and grew and grew and now he has more of it than any quarterback in league history."

This is 100% true and I put the blame on Stephen Jones for it. He has now mishandled this team's past 3 big contract extensions.

But one key consideration that Florio has not accounted for is the potential impact of a Deshaun Watson extension. If the Texans follow their recent history, they will overpay Watson and reset the market and Dak's asking price.

I'm not sure if he has mishandled the last 3. Assuming you mean Dak, Zeke and D-Law, I really think he mishandled this one. Zeke was just a different situation, as a RB he was very aware that this next deal was likely to be the biggest of his career and I don't think it would have been handled any different by *most* teams. Even D-Law, given his inconsistent play, I understand why they tagged him after 2017. My only issue is, after 2018, get the deal done in enough time for him to have shoulder surgery and be 100% at the start of 2019.

But the Dak situation, there was no reason to not get the deal done after 2018. Yes the year started off rough, but Terrence Williams, Cole Beasley and a 36 year old Jason Witten were his primary targets. Add to that Travis Frederick was out the entire year. But once we traded for Amari, went 5-3 to make the playoffs and beat Seattle, they should have realized that his price would only go up. And pretty much the same group that didn't want to re-sign Dak prior to the conclusion of his fourth year are now the same people who are balking at paying him $35 million. And when Dak plays this season under the tag, they will be even more upset when his price CONTINUES to go up to $38 million+ APY...

 

[Stash]

I'm not sure if he has mishandled the last 3. Assuming you mean Dak, Zeke and D-Law, I really think he mishandled this one. Zeke was just a different situation, as a RB he was very aware that this next deal was likely to be the biggest of his career and I don't think it would have been handled any different by *most* teams. Even D-Law, given his inconsistent play, I understand why they tagged him after 2017. My only issue is, after 2018, get the deal done in enough time for him to have shoulder surgery and be 100% at the start of 2019.

Here are my issues:

• On Lawrence, they played tag and waited. And meanwhile the trade and deal for Mack and deal for Donald had the market go way up. If the Cowboys got ahead of it, they could have gotten a better and much cheaper deal
• On Zeke, I would have either let him sit, or outright explored trading him away. We not only paid top market money, but we did it early.

But the Dak situation, there was no reason to not get the deal done after 2018. Yes the year started off rough, but Terrence Williams, Cole Beasley and a 36 year old Jason Witten were his primary targets. Add to that Travis Frederick was out the entire year. But once we traded for Amari, went 5-3 to make the playoffs and beat Seattle, they should have realized that his price would only go up. And pretty much the same group that didn't want to re-sign Dak prior to the conclusion of his fourth year are now the same people who are balking at paying him $35 million. And when Dak plays this season under the tag, they will be even more upset when his price CONTINUES to go up to $38 million+ APY...

Yes, they should have gotten ahead of things and the market yet again but failed to do so. They're proceeding from this position of unearned sense of arrogance and a "we're the Cowboys" thing and it's cost them. Again, and again, and again.

 

[conner01]

I'd be OK with giving up a few less points but that's going to take more talent so how this, lets take that 40 and go out and sign some better players on the Defensive side of the ball.

What do you think?

I’d rather draft more good players on the defense
Buying other teams FA doesn’t always work out
Besides a 32 year old QB is probably what he’s gonna be and that’s less than what we have with Dak by any measure you use

 

[MaineBoy]

I soooo wish they had used the non exclusive tag with Dak. It was a win-win. His real market value would be set by the market, instead of Dallas bidding against itself. And if some team gave us two first round picks, we use them to get a franchise quarterback, and more. They overvalued Dak like they do so many players and coaches And we’re afraid to use non exclusive. They give big money to overvalued players and coaches and get 8-8 for it.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I’d rather draft more good players on the defense
Buying other teams FA doesn’t always work out
Besides a 32 year old QB is probably what he’s gonna be and that’s less than what we have with Dak by any measure you use

Drafting doesn't always work either but the point is, you can't complain about the Defense and expect to make that a serious point of discussion if you are basically knee capping the team by overpaying for Offense, continuously. We have poured a lot of cap into the Offense this offseason and assuming we sign Dak, it will be a lot more. We spent our first round pick on Offense and you can't condone those things and turn around and belittle the Defense. It's a zero sum game.

That, to me, is just the truth of it.

 

[PUSHfold]

These are the types of things that happen when you have a lousy front office. They also had to pay Coop more because they failed to have an extension worked out at the time of the trade

What bro? At the time we traded for him unless it was a ridiculously low offer why would we have signed him to an extension? Yeah we gave a first to him but I feel like they wanted to see how he could play here before signing him to an extension which at the time was completely reasonable. He had led the league in drops multiple times along with his pro bowl appearance. I remember how badly these forums blew up over us giving a late first round for him. I liked this move personally but most people didn't, they hated it. It wasn't until he came in and lit the world on fire that people changed their minds over the following months.

It was completely reasonable for our FO to not sign him to an extension at that point.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

Here are my issues:

• On Lawrence, they played tag and waited. And meanwhile the trade and deal for Mack and deal for Donald had the market go way up. If the Cowboys got ahead of it, they could have gotten a better and much cheaper deal
• On Zeke, I would have either let him sit, or outright explored trading him away. We not only paid top market money, but we did it early.

Yes, they should have gotten ahead of things and the market yet again but failed to do so. They're proceeding from this position of unearned sense of arrogance and a "we're the Cowboys" thing and it's cost them. Again, and again, and again.

I guess with D-Law I just view that as a hindsight is 20/20 situation. Lawrence's play was pretty inconsistent and had we signed him to a deal close to what he ultimately got and he gave us a dud in 2018, everyone would be saying the opposite.

With Zeke, I don't know, they were all aware of the value of RBs when they took him #4 overall. Knock that decision all day, but I don't think there was a palatable deal to be had. We at best could have gotten, what a second round pick in 2020? Probably a 3rd if we're being honest. Given the expectations given to players drafted that high, and the shelf life of the position he plays, I didn't see this ending any differently.

The Dak situation is just obvious though. They had him for a bargain in years 1-4 and passed on the opportunity to extend him prior to the 2019 season where there was more incentive by Dak to get a deal done. Last year, he had to compare getting paid $2 million vs the probably $30 million that Dallas was offering. This year, it's $31.5 million or so vs the $35 that Dallas is "reportedly" offering.

A deal where he was offered say

2019 - $32 million APY
2020 - $32 million APY
2021 - $32 million APY
2022 - $32 million APY
2023 - $32 million APY
Total - $160 million

is superior to

2019 - $2 million (last year of rookie deal)
2020 - $35 million APY
2021 - $35 million APY
2022 - $35 million APY
2023 - $35 million APY
Total - $142 million

This was a world class bungle

 

[Idgit]

People forget going into last year how “smart” the team was for making Dak demonstrate he deserved to be paid like a franchise player. Dak took a big risk and then delivered. You get paid when you do that, and you’re supposed to. In return, what the team gets is more certainty that they’ve got their guy before the long-term extension. They have to pay a premium for that.

Personally, I’d have been comfortable extending Dak at any time after the end of the 2017 season. But then again, it takes two parties to get the deal done. It’s very possible Dak was intent on betting on himself from 2016 on, once the exploded on the scene and played so well. He was in the driver seat from that point on. He’s a confident dude. It’s served him really well.

 

[Kaiser]

People forget going into last year how “smart” the team was for making Dak demonstrate he deserved to be paid like a franchise player. Dak took a big risk and then delivered. You get paid when you do that, and you’re supposed to. In return, what the team gets is more certainty that they’ve got their guy before the long-term extension. They have to pay a premium for that.

Funny how all the "Dak spazzes out in the pocket" people are quiet now.

 

[Redball Express]

"By not swooping in and making Prescott an offer he couldn’t refuse the moment he became eligible for a second contract in early 2019, his leverage grew and grew and grew and now he has more of it than any quarterback in league history."

This is 100% true and I put the blame on Stephen Jones for it. He has now mishandled this team's past 3 big contract extensions.

But one key consideration that Florio has not accounted for is the potential impact of a Deshaun Watson extension. If the Texans follow their recent history, they will overpay Watson and reset the market and Dak's asking price.

Oh my..

This is what happens when a pandemic hits and people have not stocked enough liquor.

Drinking, staying up all night and posting about Dak and no work tomorrow.

Bad combinations.

Watson, Mahomes, Big Ben..

clearly Watson will pull exactly what Dak is doing and his agent is going to sign all these contracts to new deals doing the same thing everytime.

Its a copycat league.

So warnings about the next landslide coming is like the sky is falling.

So what.

 

[conner01]

Drafting doesn't always work either but the point is, you can't complain about the Defense and expect to make that a serious point of discussion if you are basically knee capping the team by overpaying for Offense, continuously. We have poured a lot of cap into the Offense this offseason and assuming we sign Dak, it will be a lot more. We spent our first round pick on Offense and you can't condone those things and turn around and belittle the Defense. It's a zero sum game.

That, to me, is just the truth of it.

I think everyone wants more defense but we have signed and drafted help
Hopefully we’ve improved at the drafting part because taco and hill were wasted picks
That’s what really hurts you is to waste a premium pick when the signs were there telling you they were mistakes

 

[visionary]

What bro? At the time we traded for him unless it was a ridiculously low offer why would we have signed him to an extension? Yeah we gave a first to him but I feel like they wanted to see how he could play here before signing him to an extension which at the time was completely reasonable. He had led the league in drops multiple times along with his pro bowl appearance. I remember how badly these forums blew up over us giving a late first round for him. I liked this move personally but most people didn't, they hated it. It wasn't until he came in and lit the world on fire that people changed their minds over the following months.

It was completely reasonable for our FO to not sign him to an extension at that point.

If you believe in a player enough to trade your rd 1 pick for him in the last year of his contract then you better believe in him enough to sign him to a long term deal

otherwise you will be paying a lot more for him later and he will have all the leverage

every good FO does this

it was a big mistake and cost us a lot of money

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I think everyone wants more defense but we have signed and drafted help
Hopefully we’ve improved at the drafting part because taco and hill were wasted picks
That’s what really hurts you is to waste a premium pick when the signs were there telling you they were mistakes

Way too early to declare on Hill but having said that, draft picks are not going to get you there. Byron Smith was good player,, regardless of what the masses here think. He is gone because we valued Offense over Defense. You can draft all the good players int he world but unless you get serious about how you manage your cap and how you value them, it's never gonna make any difference and so you can't really say that it's on the Defense. It's a two way street to me so you gotta kinda understand that it rings hollow in your ears when the team says one thing but shows exactly the opposite in terms of actions.

 

[Verdict]

Yes Zeke held out with two years left and you're cool with that?

FYI, Tank was pretty good last year too. Sack aren't everything.

I didn’t say I was fine with Zeke holding out. I am saying that Zekes contract is far better value than Tanks is.

Sacks are a stat for a reason. They matter. Tank is not performing up to his contract.

 

[Verdict]

I agree, it would have been beneficial to sign Dak as early as possible.

However, I have seen nothing from Dak or his agent that remotely suggests Dak would have, indeed, signed early. I think, regardless when the contract discussions began, we would still be where we are today.

That’s entirely possible. I’m not sure why people can’t see that.

 

[31RoyW31]

Start by not insulting them with $25 million a year and then not talking for six months.

Start there.

Dak is a good QB, that's it. He is not great. He is not a top five QB. He would never win games all by himself with limited weapons. He couldn't even win against good teams with great weapons, although I do blame the coaching staff for most of that, you would think he could have done it at least once last year. Or maybe beat the eagles when it mattered and the Eagles were playing with their QB and a bunch of PS players. 25 million a year is the most that Dak is worth.

Play Dalton, get some picks for Dak and show him the door.

 

[ghst187]

I thought Wilson’s contract was ridiculous but let’s face it...he has a lot more facts to back his leverage to that contract than Dak...therefore, that contract should be the benchmark for Daks to be just lower than...end of story.
And I like Dak

 

[Cowboys0988]

Im a Dak fan..A supporter, have been for the last 4 seasons. Dak said after a game last season, He has Not earned the right to be the highest paid QB in the NFL and won't be asking for that type of money, now, 6 months later and an 8-8 record he has earned that right? Seriously, What changed? Im to the point, let him walk, dont even care about getting any compensation for him. Roll with Dalton this year and try to trade up and draft a new QB next year. Rookie QBs are coming into the NFL and are having success, it's not like it used to be when drafting QBs in the 1st was a 50/50 gamble... There are a lot of good young QBs now, with systems being tailored to their strengths... Dak just inst worth this type of money, and the fact he's asking for this much after going 8-8, and a few Terrible games, then telling the world he hasn't earned the right to be the highest paid is even more reason to let him go.
Is Dak really worth $35 to $45 MILLION dollars a year more than Dalton? 35 Mil could pay for 2 Byron Jones'...

...........Its been cool Dak.. Take care bro.

 

[Preoccupied]

The Dak Prescott negotiations, in a nutshell - ProFootballTalk

The Cowboys are focused on getting quarterback Dak Prescott signed to a new deal before the July 15 deadline for finalizing multi-year contracts with franchise-tagged players. And regardless of whatever has been said or speculated or reported or whatever regarding the negotiations, only two things matter at this point. First, neither side is going to [more]

Read Full Story

Reality if he does not sign by July 15th and it drags on, make a Dak Prescott sub forum for all things DP.