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Cowboys Want To Extend Dak Prescott Before Franchise Tag Deadline

February 7th, 2021 at 9:42am CST by Rory Parks

The Cowboys hope to get an extension with quarterback Dak Prescott hammered out before the March 9 deadline for applying the franchise tag, as Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com report. That suggests that there are no concerns over Prescott’s health, which is in keeping with the periodic updates that the team has provided over the past few months.

Of course, stories about negotiations between Dallas and Prescott are not unfamiliar to NFL fans. The two sides were said to be close to signing a long-term deal on multiple occasions in recent history, but they have not been able to strike an accord just yet. The most recent reports suggested that Prescott was prepared to accept a five-year contract worth $35MM per year before the July deadline for extending franchised players, but that the Cowboys would not agree to include a provision saying he could not be tagged at the expiration of that contract.

If that’s true, that would be an odd hill for Jerry Jones & Co. to die on, as it’s unlikely Prescott would have made it to the end of that contract without another renegotiation. Rival execs posit that Jones’ refusal to give in on that issue might have cost him roughly $40MM, as the quarterback market has only continued to boom, even in the midst of the pandemic. Prescott could now fetch a deal worth $42MM-$43MM per year, and the guarantee he gets now might be higher than it would have been in July.

But the Cowboys are in a bind, as they cannot let their 27-year-old franchise quarterback just walk away. Obviously, Prescott knows that, so it’s unclear if he will be willing to accept an early extension or if he would rather take negotiations down to the wire again this summer and to really force Dallas’ hand.

An extension before March 9 would certainly be in the Cowboys’ best interests, as they would otherwise have to tag Prescott again for a price of roughly $37.7MM and perhaps carry that full cap hit through free agency. A multi-year pact, on the other hand, would give them considerably more payroll flexibility in the coming months, which will be especially important given the expected salary cap decrease.

Pelissero and Rapoport also write that, in addition to the surgery that Prescott underwent in the immediate aftermath of the brutal ankle injury he suffered in October, the two-time Pro Bowler went under the knife again several months later. The second surgery was not directly related to the October procedure, but it did help to improve the structure and integrity of the ankle and further accelerated Prescott’s recovery. He is expected to be ready to return to the field well in advance of the 2021 regular season.

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