What options do Cowboys have to move on from Prescott?

Diehardblues

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Before any other contract is signed, the Cowboys need to figure out what they want to do with quarterback Dak Prescott, who is entering the final year of his contract with a $59.45 million cap hit and a dead cap value of $61.91 million. The Cowboys cannot realistically construct a winning team with Prescott's contract as it is, so they'll inevitably have to either extend him, trade him, or cut him.


“If we get to March and the Cowboys, for whatever reason, have decided they don't want to extend Prescott… then things get interesting," ESPN's Dan Graziano said. "Prescott's 2024 money is not guaranteed. The Cowboys could cut or trade him prior to paying the March roster bonus and save $34 million on their 2024 cap."
Regardless of the salary cap, there isn't any clear path to a quarterback upgrade for Dallas. Kirk Cousins and Baker Mayfield will be the headliners of a lackluster free agency, and any trade will likely result in a downgrade at the quarterback position.

Finding a franchise quarterback is a daunting task, and Prescott is a three-time Pro Bowler who just had an All-Pro season despite coming up short in the playoffs again. Only a handful of quarterbacks would represent an obvious upgrade, and none of them will be available for trade. All that leaves are the quarterbacks that Dallas currently has on their roster . San Francisco gladly traded Lance away just two years after spending multiple first-round picks to draft him third overall, so it's unlikely that he's a viable answer.

"The Cowboys know how hard it is to get a good quarterback and Prescott is largely considered a top-10 passer in this league," ESPN's Jeremy Fowler said. "So, it would be mildly surprising if they moved on from him, but with that 2-5 playoff record, certainly that could be a negotiating point for Dallas that comes up over the coming months."

Extending Prescott is the most reasonable move if Dallas wants to remain competitive. And remaining relative and competitive is our owners first priority. He appears to be “ All In” on this current core of stars even recently stating we will go as far as Dak takes us.

Also worth noting is in McCarthys lame duck season without a contract extension it’s very doubtful they change QB’s. That leaves us basically negotiating how big and how long the extension.
 

BotchedLobotomy

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Diehardblues

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Cousins would be a better next level option.
Yea, Cousins or Mayfield are only FA options available this year.

Cousins coming off season ending injury. Are we ready to invest several years and a market type contract ?

And we’d consider that a considerable upgrade?
 

jujoboys

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If you want to go to the playoffs pay him, but if you want to win the Superbowl look somewhere else.
What’s your plan for finding this Super Bowl QB? That’s easy to say but harder to do. I don’t trust Jerry to find a QB. We lucked out with Romo. Got him as an undrafted free agent because Sean Payton knew about him because of the Eastern Illinois connection. Lucked out with Dak because the same year we drafted him they tried to trade up for Paxton Lynch and then we got saved because a team traded ahead of us to draft Connor Cook. Then last year we wasted a 4th round pick to trade for Trey Lance. I’m sorry but if Lance wasn’t successful with Shanahan mentoring him and having all those weapons on offense in SF then he sure as heck won’t do it in Dallas.
 

Diehardblues

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Someone on here stated a post June 1 cut would save us 34M. If we are not going with Prescott, we start Lance imo.
Yes, but we’d still have remainder of his contract on Cap hit which would be about 25 million.

And you think McCarthy and our ownership feel Lance gives us best chance this season?
 

Sandyf

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Good post and on point.

I see 2 very telling reasons that they stay the course with Dak. It is apparent that Jerry wants to win now with keeping McCarthy and even saying all in. If you were going to trade or cut or let him play on the current contract then you would not have kept McCarthy. Cutting Dak leaves you with also zero options at QB unless the team is not telling us how good or bad Trey Lance is. There is no chance we ride with Rush as the starting QB in 2024.

Trading Dak could be the start of a rebuild for what you would get for him which contrary to what the fans think would bring at least 2 1st round picks and more. But no trade is going to give you anywhere near what the productivity of Dak has been. We aren't getting any of the top 3 candidates at QB in the draft so forget moving up in the draft unless you are willing to give up 3 1st round picks. Regardless of what you think of Nix, Penex, or J J McCarthy, they appear to be not much better than Rush and definitely not ready to start in the NFL. (For that matter, the top 3 aren't as good as CJ Stoud IMO)

We could just ride with Dak this year on his current contract and hopefully draft one in 2025 but again McCarthy is going to do his best to win this year so expect another 12-5 season especially with I believe a much improved defense under Zimmer. Then you face the dilemma in 2025 with Dak a free agent getting far more than you could sign him this year for and no way to franchise tag him so drafting a QB late 1st hasn't been great for any team. Plus the fact your options for signing free agents this year would only come with quite a few restructures of other players. Sort of the rock and the hard place situation.

Then there is the Jerry factor. I do believe that he wants to win now because his time isn't another 10 years and the rebuilding takes more than year especially with a toss up of 50-50 on a rookie QB. Don't think he is willing to go down that road. Yet again that could be something about Trey Lance we don't know that change everything.

The first part of March is the key though. By March 13th we have to be under the cap in order to sign free agents. We have other free agents on the team currently we want to keep so getting those signed and getting under the cap makes the decision on Dak that more urgent. If we are going to trade him, first he has to agree to the trade to that team and second Dallas has to agree on the compensation for him. Dak is going to want a new contract from the new team so before he accepts to be traded then the new team will need to come to terms with him also. The betting is that Dak will get roughly $60 million a year for 5 years on his new deal. That's a lot of things to happen over the next 3 weeks.

So if we want to trade Dak, then the most likely place he would agree would be Atlanta because they have the most ready team to win on both sides of the ball. Minnesota and Pittsburgh would be next up because Dak isn't going to go to a rebuilding team unless it is $70 million a year contract and most of it guaranteed. Forget Justin Fields because if you don't like Dak, Fields isn't going to be any better and Fields is likely to go to Atlanta at a much lower cost.

So options are limited and Dak being extended for more than most care, will probably happen. So we must hope Jerry is really serious about all in to improve the defense especially in stopping the run, improve the OL, and improve the running game or we will keep posting the same old things in 2025.
 

Diehardblues

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Good post and on point.

I see 2 very telling reasons that they stay the course with Dak. It is apparent that Jerry wants to win now with keeping McCarthy and even saying all in. If you were going to trade or cut or let him play on the current contract then you would not have kept McCarthy. Cutting Dak leaves you with also zero options at QB unless the team is not telling us how good or bad Trey Lance is. There is no chance we ride with Rush as the starting QB in 2024.

Trading Dak could be the start of a rebuild for what you would get for him which contrary to what the fans think would bring at least 2 1st round picks and more. But no trade is going to give you anywhere near what the productivity of Dak has been. We aren't getting any of the top 3 candidates at QB in the draft so forget moving up in the draft unless you are willing to give up 3 1st round picks. Regardless of what you think of Nix, Penex, or J J McCarthy, they appear to be not much better than Rush and definitely not ready to start in the NFL. (For that matter, the top 3 aren't as good as CJ Stoud IMO)

We could just ride with Dak this year on his current contract and hopefully draft one in 2025 but again McCarthy is going to do his best to win this year so expect another 12-5 season especially with I believe a much improved defense under Zimmer. Then you face the dilemma in 2025 with Dak a free agent getting far more than you could sign him this year for and no way to franchise tag him so drafting a QB late 1st hasn't been great for any team. Plus the fact your options for signing free agents this year would only come with quite a few restructures of other players. Sort of the rock and the hard place situation.

Then there is the Jerry factor. I do believe that he wants to win now because his time isn't another 10 years and the rebuilding takes more than year especially with a toss up of 50-50 on a rookie QB. Don't think he is willing to go down that road. Yet again that could be something about Trey Lance we don't know that change everything.

The first part of March is the key though. By March 13th we have to be under the cap in order to sign free agents. We have other free agents on the team currently we want to keep so getting those signed and getting under the cap makes the decision on Dak that more urgent. If we are going to trade him, first he has to agree to the trade to that team and second Dallas has to agree on the compensation for him. Dak is going to want a new contract from the new team so before he accepts to be traded then the new team will need to come to terms with him also. The betting is that Dak will get roughly $60 million a year for 5 years on his new deal. That's a lot of things to happen over the next 3 weeks.

So if we want to trade Dak, then the most likely place he would agree would be Atlanta because they have the most ready team to win on both sides of the ball. Minnesota and Pittsburgh would be next up because Dak isn't going to go to a rebuilding team unless it is $70 million a year contract and most of it guaranteed. Forget Justin Fields because if you don't like Dak, Fields isn't going to be any better and Fields is likely to go to Atlanta at a much lower cost.

So options are limited and Dak being extended for more than most care, will probably happen. So we must hope Jerry is really serious about all in to improve the defense especially in stopping the run, improve the OL, and improve the running game or we will keep posting the same old things in 2025.
Yep!!
This isn’t what many of us want to hear but it’s the reality under the current circumstances.
 

Diehardblues

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Jethro isn’t in his “ All In” campaign on McCarthys lame duck season to start over at QB. Not this year anyway.

Now if this season tanks or even disappoints like this year then perhaps we begin to look in different directions in 2025.

The egg Dak laid in playoffs could help in our negotiations. Possibly we only extend a couple years. And hopefully it helps in not over paying as much as last time.
 

Havic

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Yes, but we’d still have remainder of his contract on Cap hit which would be about 25 million.

And you think McCarthy and our ownership feel Lance gives us best chance this season?

If Mm is a lame duck, we roll with Lance. If he wants to save his job, he will advocate for Prescott imo
 
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