Re-structuring rather than extending Dak Prescott

[CCBoy]

Re-structuring rather than extending Dak Prescott​

The Cowboys never learn when it comes to shooting themselves in the foot.

Right after seeing DeMarcus Lawrence's value increase when they played hardball, the Jones family decided to play hardball with Dak Prescott. They balked at a contract rumored to be $32 million per season in 2020 and instead, paid $31.4 million on the franchise tag. They tagged him again in 2021 before finally signing him to a deal worth $40 million per season. That means they cost themselves $8 million per season by waiting to pay the man they knew was the franchise quarterback.

In 2023, they're again proving they haven't learned. Prescott enters the year with just two seasons left on his deal and Dallas turned to him for cap relief. But instead of working out an extension, they restructured his contract — and he will now count for $59 million in 2024. Yes, they can extend him before next season and lower that cap hit but they will again have to pay a lot more. Right now, quarterbacks are signing for roughly $45 million per season but that will increase in a hurry — especially with Justin Herbert and the Chargers discussing a new deal.

This means Dallas is likely going to see Prescott command closer to $50 million — especially if he has a bounce-back year in 2023. They had some leverage entering the offseason but they ended up giving it all to him.

https://thelandryhat.com/posts/3-contract-decisions-haunt-dallas-cowboys-prescott-gallup

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

This is the genius logic of this fanbase..they don’t want to extend or restructure Dak now they want to wait until he performs well and then extend him and have to pay more. Makes zero sense to me. You make a decision on Dak now. Not later.

 

[CowboysRule]

Or...you bite the bullet for a season and let Dak go somewhere else and get that $50M per season.

 

[Sydla]

This is the genius logic of this fanbase..they don’t want to extend or restructure Dak now they want to wait until he performs well and then extend him and have to pay more. Makes zero sense to me. You make a decision on Dak now. Not later.

I get this logic but let's be honest here, Dak has done enough to warrant an extension but also not done enough to make one wonder if it's time to move on. I am fine with waiting out this season at this point before extending him. If he goes out and throws about 15 picks or so, the team against flounders come Jan (where he doesn't play well), I think a case can be made for the Cowboys to start thinking change. If he has a great season, plays well in the postseason (regardless of how far we go), then I can see extending him.

To me, a ton is riding on this season.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

I get this logic but let's be honest here, Dak has done enough to warrant an extension but also not done enough to make one wonder if it's time to move on. I am fine with waiting out this season at this point before extending him. If he goes out and throws about 15 picks or so, the team against flounders come Jan (where he doesn't play well), I think a case can be made for the Cowboys to start thinking change. If he has a great season, plays well in the postseason (regardless of how far we go), then I can see extending him.

To me, a ton is riding on this season.

This is my issue with it….you know what Dak is at this point. He’s pretty much a consensus top 10 by people….

At this point you have to ask yourself can you win with him? If you can re-sign him. It’s a risk but you can’t keep waiting until your guys hit certain milestones to increase their value and get them on crappy deals.

 

[John813]

His contract was made to be restructured multiple times. Restructuring him right away freed up millions in cap and allowed the FO to work on deals and put this on the back burner.
There was no need to rush to a new contract. Dak doesn't have to provide a "discount" nor does the team have to pay him top dollar right away as he's under contract through 2025.
The market has been reset already with Lamar. The Bengals and the Chargers also should re-sign their QB's but have yet to do so.

While I think Jerry and Stephen would like to genuinely keep Dak long term I'd have to assume they would also like to see how he does(along with MM himself) in the tweaked offense and his health.

AAV's are for bragging rights. With restructuring it really doesn't make a difference if his AAV next year is 54 or 56(3.5% difference) mil if they wait till 2024 to sign him to a long term deal.

Any deal now would bump up his cap hit this year. I'm not sure what the F.O. plan is with all the cap space they have. Could be used to be rolled over into next year to give them a cushion while they work on his extension. Or it could be for more pressing issues like Diggs new contract signing bonus prorate hit. And/or Lamb's deal.
I wouldn't expect any new deals till right around training camp if one were to occur for any player. Hell, they gave Romo's 3rd contract to him during the season.

Edit: Also it takes both sides to tango. For all we know the FO may not be in a rush or Dak's agent knows the longer they wait, the bigger the payday is.

 

[TequilaCowboy]

Not shocked that this FO puts themselves in a position like this again. Idiots when they structured the initial extension and they continue to dump more cash in the toilet to move forward. The real problem was overpaying a bus driver on the initial extension and this thing just keeps getting weirder and weirder. The dimwitted duo strike again.

 

[Stash]

Ride it out.

 

[Chuck 54]

Dak will not get 50 million per year unless he gets us to the NFC championship game first. It doesn’t matter how well he plays. If the team isn’t at least knocking on the SB door, you don’t pay that much money.

FYI, let’s stop throwing around average contract money per year numbers. Unless you are in Jerry’s Will, you shouldn't care about anything but the QBs cap hit each year.

I wouldn’t pay any QB in the NFL, regardless of talent, 50 million per year until he’s been to a conference title game. If my team isn’t good enough to get there, paying the QB 50 million a year isn’t going to get the team there.

 

[jazzcat22]

I don't think they just wildly restructured his deal to create cap space for this year only, then dump him and eat $59 million next year, or over 2 years.
Unless he really sucks this season.

I believe they did it with an extension in mind. Rather it happens this year or next off-season.

 

[Mac_MaloneV1]

Dumb writer, dumb article.

The team knew when they gave him the tag that they'd end up signing a contract with a restructures built in and they knew then and know now he's going to get $50+m on his next contract.

Fans are stupid in their interpretation of restructures and are even dumber when they talk about "just extend him" as if the player has no agency to say no or any motivation to sign early.

 

[DanTanna]

Restructuring doesn't get him off the team though.

 

[gimmesix]

This is the genius logic of this fanbase..they don’t want to extend or restructure Dak now they want to wait until he performs well and then extend him and have to pay more. Makes zero sense to me. You make a decision on Dak now. Not later.

I don't think it matters all that much. You pay the going rate whenever you do it because the cap continues to go up. Dallas didn't sign Dak to a contract in 2020 because he wanted a shorter deal than the team wanted. The franchise tag essentially gave them an extra year. If we had signed him in 2020, then we probably would already have redone or be redoing his deal this year and be paying the roughly $45 million per season mentioned in the article because the "big" year of the deal would be this year.

The biggest benefit to signing him to a four-year deal in 2020 would have been not having to pay $31 million. His first year of his new four-year deal was $17.2 million, his second $19.7 and this year is $26.8. Note that none of those is $40 million per year. Yes, that's why a big chunk is due next year for all the money that gets pushed to the back end of a deal. And that's why you redo the deal next year if he's playing well. Then you go back to paying $20 million per year for the first three years before you finally have to take the big hit (which will be absorbed by other contracts and the likelihood that the next quarterback will be on a rookie deal).

I don't know if I would mess with the deal further this year because I don't know if the team gets much of a benefit out of it. Dak's base is $1.7 million this year, so it's not like you can reduce it to create more money to roll over into next year. Of course, we do have $20 million in cap space right now, so they could decide it's better to use some of that to start an extension now.

 

[KJJ]

Or...you bite the bullet for a season and let Dak go somewhere else and get that $50M per season.

If they let him go they’ll end up like Washington, playing musical chairs at QB every season, while missing the playoffs. I’ve seen posts by dopes on this board claiming the Cowboys would have won the Super Bowl had they stuck with Cooper Rush. Lol There’s fans on this board that think Dak is easily replaceable and that the team already has two better options in Cooper Rush, and Will Grier. Lol

 

[CowboyRoy]

Re-structuring rather than extending Dak Prescott​

The Cowboys never learn when it comes to shooting themselves in the foot.

Right after seeing DeMarcus Lawrence's value increase when they played hardball, the Jones family decided to play hardball with Dak Prescott. They balked at a contract rumored to be $32 million per season in 2020 and instead, paid $31.4 million on the franchise tag. They tagged him again in 2021 before finally signing him to a deal worth $40 million per season. That means they cost themselves $8 million per season by waiting to pay the man they knew was the franchise quarterback.

In 2023, they're again proving they haven't learned. Prescott enters the year with just two seasons left on his deal and Dallas turned to him for cap relief. But instead of working out an extension, they restructured his contract — and he will now count for $59 million in 2024. Yes, they can extend him before next season and lower that cap hit but they will again have to pay a lot more. Right now, quarterbacks are signing for roughly $45 million per season but that will increase in a hurry — especially with Justin Herbert and the Chargers discussing a new deal.

This means Dallas is likely going to see Prescott command closer to $50 million — especially if he has a bounce-back year in 2023. They had some leverage entering the offseason but they ended up giving it all to him.

https://thelandryhat.com/posts/3-contract-decisions-haunt-dallas-cowboys-prescott-gallup

They are already getting 50 million per season.

 

[erod]

Dak is an oft-injured QB in decline and losing what limited athleticism he had, and I hope they know that.

 

[Kingofholland]

This is my issue with it….you know what Dak is at this point. He’s pretty much a consensus top 10 by people….

At this point you have to ask yourself can you win with him? If you can re-sign him. It’s a risk but you can’t keep waiting until your guys hit certain milestones to increase their value and get them on crappy deals.

I take a similar view on this. At this point the team is built to compete now so I don't see us casting a new QB in the near future. It would be a lot for a rookie to step right in and be expected to be as good. Possibly in a few years, but that's far from a guarantee and by then perhaps they're rebuilding at certain spots and not as good elsewhere.

Even if they wanted to get out of the contract they would have to designate him a June 1st cut and take 30 million in cap hits for 2 years straight. So let's be real he's likely headed for an extension, but in the mean time we continue to wait for the price to go up and roll money into dummy years.

For others we did handout some contracts early we shouldn't have like with Jaylon Smith, Tyrone Crawford, and Zeke that in hindsight could have saved money waiting. However, premium positions especially at QB I don't think it makes sense to wait for if they're a player in the prime of their career.

 

[thunderpimp91]

They are already getting 50 million per season.

Agreed.....$50MM is pretty much the floor for a guy like Dak at this point unless he just implodes this season....even then he probably gets a Derek Carr style contract. Herbert/Brurrow/etc are going to continue to push that QB contact numbers up and up, and Dak being 30 next season can still cash in for one more monster deal at minimum, maybe two if it's a nother 4 year type deal.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

I take a similar view on this. At this point the team is built to compete now so I don't see us casting a new QB in the near future. It would be a lot for a rookie to step right in and be expected to be as good. Possibly in a few years, but that's far from a guarantee and by then perhaps they're rebuilding at certain spots and not as good elsewhere.

Even if they wanted to get out of the contract they would have to designate him a June 1st cut and take 30 million in cap hits for 2 years straight. So let's be real he's likely headed for an extension, but in the mean time we continue to wait for the price to go up and roll money into dummy years.

For others we did handout some contracts early we shouldn't have like with Jaylon Smith, Tyrone Crawford, and Zeke that in hindsight could have saved money waiting. However, premium positions especially at QB I don't think it makes sense to wait for if they're a player in the prime of their career.

Good point. But I don’t think they would’ve saved money on those guys. It’s a risk to do it early but it’s about trusting your evaluations.

 

[shabazz]

Dak is an oft-injured QB in decline and losing what limited athleticism he had, and I hope they know that.

It doesn’t matter when they don’t draft or sign a FA viable option…..it’s like the leverage they had when they caved into Daks demands last contract….Jones was bidding against himself with no viable alternative

I don’t blame Dak for that one bit……Jerrys business acumen and reputation surely doesn’t come from player contract negotiations