More is coming out of the Cowboys-Dak Prescott situation. Although no offer has been made and no deal is imminent, CBS Sports’ Josina Anderson supplies some information in line with the team’s recently expressed stance.

The Cowboys still want to complete an extension with Prescott this year, according to Anderson, who adds the team is not planning on letting the reigning MVP runner-up reach free agency. Some hurdles exist on the path toward a Prescott extension, but even though nothing is close presently, the Cowboys should still be considered more likely than not to aggressively pursue a third contract with their quarterback before the 2025 league year.

[RELATED: Cowboys, Dak Prescott Begin Extension Talks]

As he did during the first round of Prescott extension talks, Jerry Jones made a pitch for a team-friendly deal this week. Jones centered that short pitch on how a monster Dak re-up would affect the rest of the Cowboys’ roster, but while Patrick Mahomes has indeed sacrificed (in the form of a 10-year extension that goes through 2031), none of the QBs to agree on extensions since that July 2020 accord have followed his lead. While some upper-crust QBs did not hold out for player-friendly accords (Josh Allen, Matthew Stafford), the market is now beyond $50MM per year for high-end passers. Prescott’s age and production would have him in line for such a deal — perhaps close to $60MM per year — and he certainly has the ammo to land player-friendly terms again.

Entering the final season of a four-year, $160MM contract, Prescott cannot be franchise-tagged in 2025. A recent restructure only saved the Cowboys $4MM, still leaving Prescott with what would be a record-shattering cap number ($55.1MM). This is assuming the Browns restructure Deshaun Watson‘s deal, which calls for a $63.8MM hit this year. If Prescott leaves in free agency, the Cowboys would eat $40.1MM in dead money due to previous restructures that added void years through 2028.

Positional value also works in Prescott’s favor. Despite the Cowboys’ playoff stumbling blocks — which have been present since Super Bowl XXX — remaining during the Dak era, they employ a three-time Pro Bowl quarterback who bounced back in a big way last season. The 30-year-old QB led the NFL with 36 TD passes in 2023; he has piloted the league’s top-ranked scoring offense in two of the past three years. The Cowboys, who have Trey Lance on an expiring contract, would not have a good way to replace their oft-maligned signal-caller were he to follow Kirk Cousins‘ path as a twice-tagged player to leave in free agency.

Deadlines have been semi-effective for the Cowboys and Prescott. The team could not get its QB to agree to a deal at the July 2020 franchise tag extension deadline but was able to circle back on an extension — after three offseasons’ worth of negotiations — before a second tag could hit the team’s payroll in March 2021. March 2025 would become the next true deadline, but another big season and the threat of hitting the market would only increase Prescott’s leverage. A deal earlier — one that would allow the Cowboys more breathing room compared to this $55.1MM cap number — would be in the team’s best interests, effectively creating an earlier deadline here.

Nothing is imminent, but given the numbers in play here, the topic of a Prescott extension will remain a key offseason talking point — just as it was from 2019-21 — during this NFL offseason.

5:54pm: The Cowboys are not closing the door on a Prescott extension, per Nick Harris of the team’s website. The team would not shut down talks during the season, though it remains to be seen if Prescott would do so. Nothing is on the team’s immediate radar, and past negotiations have produced deadline failures (2020) and successes (2021). This will obviously be a central storyline in the offseason months to come.

12:47pm: The last time the Cowboys and Dak Prescott engaged in extension talks, the process covered nearly two full offseasons and dragged into mid-March of a third. Long expected to take place this year, Prescott’s second round of negotiations are not yet off the ground.

Dallas restructured its ninth-year quarterback’s contract recently, dropping his cap number from $59MM to $55.5MM. The new number would still smash an NFL record, as no player has gone into a season with a cap number higher than $45MM. An extension would be the easiest way for the Cowboys to reduce that figure now, but no deal is imminent.

The sides have reached an understanding regarding this situation, per NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport, who notes the Cowboys have not made an offer. Although extension talks began recently, the team does not appear the team is planning to submit one anytime soon.

Prescott’s contract expires after the 2024 season, and with the Cowboys not being able to use the franchise tag on their QB in 2025, free agency (and a big dead money bill) would stand to enter this equation if the former Offensive Rookie of the Year is unsigned. As of now, that prospect seems closer to reality than it once did.

The 30-year-old QB is no stranger to playing on expiring contracts. He played out his rookie deal in 2019 and played the 2020 season on the franchise tag. Despite suffering a season-ending ankle injury that year, the standout passer scored player-friendly terms from a Cowboys team that prefers longer-running extensions. Prescott signed a four-year, $160MM deal just before the Cowboys would have had to tag him a second time to prevent a 2021 free agency exit.

That deal wrapped a lengthy saga, which had begun when the QB became extension-eligible in 2019, but set the stage for another battle. As part of that 2021 extension, the Cowboys procedurally tagged Prescott; this took a 2025 tag off the table.

Jerry Jones would prefer his QB accept a team-friendlier contract this time around. This topic came up during Dallas’ previous Prescott talks, but the team eventually caved to its signal-caller’s demands. Prescott’s price steadily climbed before reaching that $40MM-AAV point. With the market now well beyond $50MM per year, Prescott has the leverage to command a deal in that neighborhood — perhaps a record-setting accord.

“As you address a player like Dak, you take away from his supporting cast,” Jones said, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Clarence Hill. “That’s not a sales job. Everybody realizes, if you get the bucks, someone else who can help you win doesn’t. That’s factual.”

Painting Prescott to be on the greedy side certainly could be a negotiating tactic on Jones’ part, as Patrick Mahomes‘ 10-year extension has benefited the Chiefs. But other QBs have not followed Mahomes’ lead. And the Cowboys will be battling uphill if they push this process toward the season. The Browns have not yet restructured Deshaun Watson‘s deal a second time; his fully guaranteed contract has the team set to carry a record-shattering $63.9MM cap number otherwise. If the deal is restructured, Prescott’s cap number would top the league. But the AFC North team did restructure its QB’s deal last year. Watson is also signed through 2026. Like Kirk Cousins, tagged twice in Washington, Prescott would have a clear path to free agency if no extension came about.

The Vikings are eating $28.5MM in dead cap this year; because of the recent restructure, the Cowboys would take on $40.5MM in dead money if they cannot extend Prescott before the 2025 league year. Due to his age and accomplishments, Prescott would stand to far outdo Cousins on the open market. The prospect of finding a suitable replacement also a rather notable part of this equation.

The Cowboys acquired Trey Lance via trade last year, but the ex-49ers No. 3 overall pick’s contract expires after this coming season. Again armed with a quality roster, Prescott will — barring injury — likely have Dallas in playoff contention, which would not give the team favorable draft real estate in 2025. While it would be easier to extend CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons with Prescott out of the picture, his 2025 dead money would make it more difficult to carry a top-market Lamb contract and a Parsons fifth-year option on the books next year.

While it would certainly be noteworthy if the Cowboys were serious about letting Prescott play out his contract, the leverage being skewed toward the QB make it premature to indicate Dallas is done negotiating.

Free agency has opened and the draft is rapidly approaching, but the Cowboys have another focus weighing heavily on their plate: a potential extension to the contract of quarterback Dak Prescott. According to a report from Calvin Watkins at Dallas Morning News today, Cowboys executive vice president, CEO, and director of player personnel Stephen Jones claimed that the team has had some talks with Prescott about an extension.

Now, we’ve reported plenty on mutual interest between the two parties in an extension and the seeming inevitability of a new deal in the spring, but lately, more and more sources seem to be of the opinion that an extension isn’t certain. ESPN’s Dan Graziano claimed two weeks ago that he was not convinced it was a sure thing.

While it certainly makes the most sense for the organization as it attempts to avoid a $59.46MM cap hit (the second-largest for the 2024 season), Prescott has more leverage than the team would like to admit. Prescott heads into a contract year and also holds a clause in his contract that prohibits the Cowboys from applying the franchise tag on him when his deal is up. Graziano points out that Prescott hasn’t been an easy sell in the past, either, so it’s not likely that we’ll see him waive that clause for the ease of the deal.

Team owner/president/general manager Jerry Jones spoke on the topic to the media at the NFL scouting combine, as well. “We don’t need to (extend Prescott),” Jones said, “but we can if everybody wants to solve (our cap space issue). You can get in and get on the same page and see if you can come to an agreement. If you can’t, what we have in place works. And so obviously, if you do it one way, you’ll be working through some of the other areas on the team in a different way, but you can’t really plan on that until you see when you’re there.”

Jones made sure to clarify that, should an extension not come to fruition, he doesn’t believe it changes to team’s long-term future plans. He still believes that Prescott can be the future in Dallas, but his comments seem to put a lot of responsibility on Prescott to be a team player, or else that money will have to come from elsewhere.

If a deal can’t get done, Graziano speculates that Dallas could convert some of Prescott’s 2024 base salary into a signing bonus in a restructured contract in order to save about $18.5MM. The team would have to be able to do that, though, without adding any additional void years to the three already on the tail-end of his current deal. Doing this could result in a potential $55MM cap hit in 2025, even though Prescott would not be under contract for that season and could possibly be playing elsewhere.

With all this in the forefront, another factor to keep in mind is the recent allegations of sexual assault involving Prescott. According to Watkins and his colleague, Lana Ferguson, Dallas police are investigating claims that Prescott raped a woman in the parking lot of a Dallas strip club in 2017. Nearby, Prosper police are reportedly looking into claims from Prescott that he is being extorted by that same woman for $100MM. Investigations are likely to follow, but for now, both the NFL and the Cowboys have declined to comment on the situation.

At this point, it’s become fully clear that both the Cowboys and the quarterback Dak Prescott are intent on further extending their time together. With that expectation fully established, we can turn our attention to what that could look like and when that could occur.

The Cowboys have no intention of letting Prescott leave Dallas. The Cowboys are likely also not too excited about the $59.4MM hit to the team’s salary cap that Prescott is posed to deliver in 2024, the second-highest figure in the league. Those two motivators are sure to steer Dallas in the direction of an extension and soon. This week is known as an opportunity for agents to get together with team officials at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis to broach such topics.

Obviously, no one is expecting a deal to get done in the next few days, though. Prescott is due a $5MM roster bonus on his current contract come March 18, but the Cowboys are likely more than willing to sacrifice that for a bit more time to craft a new extension. Still, Calvin Watkins of The Dallas Morning News claims that the team has every intention “of extending Prescott at some point this spring.” So whatever discussions are being had in the infamous Cowboys team bus in Indianapolis this week should lay the groundwork to get a new deal done relatively soon.

Prescott’s previous four-year, $160MM extension back in 2021 was massive at the time, but nowadays, the deal pales in comparison to the most recent contracts we’ve seen going to passers that are starting to inch towards $60MM per year. Currently, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow holds the league’s highest annual average value at $55MM. Yes, Burrow has led his team to a berth in the Super Bowl to earn that figure, but Chargers passer Justin Herbert is making $52.5MM per year with a regular season record of 30-32 and a loss in his single playoff appearance.

In comparison, Prescott has led the Cowboys to a 74-41 regular season record and five playoff appearances. People will draw attention to the 30-year-old’s 2-5 playoff record and the team’s inability to advance past the Divisional Round, but other quarterbacks have cashed in more with less. Also, despite the lack of playoff success, in 2023, Prescott led his team to their best record since his rookie year and led the league in completions and passing touchdowns. The expectation is that Prescott will once again set the mark for quarterbacks.

With how things are trending, a $60MM per year deal doesn’t seem out of reach. It’s simply the direction things continue to go towards. Yes, the Cowboys have other stars like Micah Parsons and CeeDee Lamb who will need new deals in the next two years, as well, but unless a team is willing to go back to a rookie contract and start from scratch, they will need to pay their quarterback. The higher-than-expected increase to the league’s salary cap this year makes $60MM a bit more palatable, and future rises to future salary caps make deals with Parsons and Lamb seem doable, as well. Not to mention that a new deal would result in a lower cap hit in 2024 for Prescott, freeing the Cowboys up to make some other moves to improve the team this offseason.

So, we expect conversations to be taking place this week to set the stage for a Prescott extension sometime this spring. And we expect that extension to once again move the bar for paying quarterbacks in the NFL. At this point, it all seems like a matter of time and details.

Although the Cowboys have come up short in back-to-back road games against quality opponents, they have seen a bounce-back season from Dak Prescott. The clock on a Prescott extension is ticking, as 2024 presents an unfavorable situation for the team.

Prescott is signed through the ’24 season, but as detailed previously, the Cowboys have given their quarterback leverage that perhaps no active NFLer can match. Prescott is set to carry a $59.5MM 2024 cap number — which would shatter an NFL record — and holds a no-trade clause. Having been tagged in 2020 and ’21, Prescott will not be a tag candidate in 2025. These components, coupled with the quality season the eighth-year veteran has put together, set the stage for the NFL’s salary ceiling being raised again soon.

Joe Burrow‘s $55MM-per-year contract checked in $2.5MM north of the bar Justin Herbert set this offseason. Despite the four QBs who signed big-ticket extensions this offseason all being at least four years younger than Prescott, Bleacher Report’s Jordan Schultz notes the Bengals’ Burrow deal will likely be considered the floor for a Prescott contract (video link).

Mutual interest exists between Prescott and the Cowboys on a new deal, Schultz adds. As of late November, the sides had not begun discussions. The Cowboys have until March 2025 before Prescott becomes a free agent, but the team will likely push to finalize an agreement well before that point. Prescott, 30, maximized his leverage when he signed his current four-year, $160MM deal in 2021. After two years of failed negotiations, the QB did not re-sign until just before the 2021 deadline to tag players. The Cowboys tagged Prescott a second time as a procedural matter, making another tag — no player has been tagged three times since the 2006 CBA made that route prohibitive — out of the equation.

Prescott leads the NFL with 30 touchdown passes, giving him a third season with at least 30, and sits behind only Brock Purdy and Josh Allen in QBR. How the Cowboys fare in the playoffs will obviously be pivotal to Prescott’s reputation, a matter constantly scrutinized due to the team’s popularity, but he will enter the 2024 offseason in commanding position regardless of how Dallas’ season concludes.

The team took care of Trevon Diggs and Terence Steele this offseason, along with ending Zack Martin‘s holdout with player-friendly guarantee terms. Prescott and CeeDee Lamb are squarely on Dallas’ extension radar for 2024, with Micah Parsons also becoming extension-eligible next year. Lamb is having an All-Pro-caliber season, while Parsons will command a defender-record deal. Prescott’s leverage complicates those contract timelines, and the Cowboys have the luxury of waiting until 2025 on Parsons — due to the fifth-year option — and would have a 2025 tag available for Lamb.

With each of the team’s three prime-years pillars on the extension radar for 2024, the Cowboys are set for another high-stakes offseason. Prescott finishing up his ’23 campaign strong will only strengthen his case for a deal that tops Burrow’s and approaches the $60MM-AAV mark.

The Cowboys are once again positioned to make a postseason run, in no small part due to the play of Dak Prescott. Dallas’ franchise quarterback is set to be a central storyline this offseason due to his contract situation, but no developments on that front are expected in the near future.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has left the door open to in-season negotiations on a new Prescott contract, but since last month the expectation has been talks on another extension will wait until after the campaign. Indeed, no discussions have taken place at this point concerning a re-up, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reports.

Jones has made it clear numerous times that keeping Prescott in the fold well beyond 2024 (the final year of his current deal) is a priority for the ograniztion. The idea of an extension gained steam this offseason, with multiple restructures having spiked Prescott’s cap hit for next year to an untenable $59.46MM. After earning a four-year, $160MM deal in 2021, the two-time Pro Bowler will again be set up nicely for a lucrative pact.

Prescott, 30, sits in a tie (with Daniel Jones) for 10th in the NFL in terms of annual compensation on his current deal. His next one will move him up the pecking order significantly, especially if his 2023 performance (which includes a career-high completion percentage of 70.1%, along with touchdown and interception rates better than his career averages) can be continued down the stretch. Coming to terms on a second extension will be pricey for the Cowboys, but it will mark one of several major financial priorities.

Dallas has not only Prescott’s contract to sort out, but also new deals for the likes of edge rusher Micah Parsons and wideout CeeDee Lamb to work on. The latter two players have had standout campaigns, putting them in line to move at or near the top of the market of their respective positions with their second contracts. Clarity on how much room the team has for Parsons and Lamb in particular is something Dallas has long been eyeing as it pertains to Prescott’s re-up.

The Cowboys are currently projected to find themselves near the bottom of the league in 2024 cap space, though plenty of financial maneuvering is yet to take place until the new league year begins in March. Flattening out Prescott’s cap hit for that season – while ensuring his future in Dallas for years to come – will certainly help in the team’s other efforts to maintain its young corps. It will be interesting to see how much progress will have been made by that point on the NFL calendar.

The Cowboys are currently on their bye week, and their attention understandably remains on the immediate future (something which may or may not include moves in advance of the trade deadline). After the year, though, all eyes will be on the team’s handling of quarterback Dak Prescott‘s contract.

The two-time Pro Bowler is on the books for one more season and is due $34MM next yea. As a result of a restructure, however, his 2024 cap hit is currently scheduled to reach $59.5MM – which would comfortably set a new record for the largest cap burden a player has carried in NFL history. To no surprise, Dallas will look to get another extension worked out around the new league year.

“He’s under contract now, but we’d like to do this after the season,” Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones told Dianna Russini of The Athletic during last week’s league meetings (subscription required). “Once the season is over, we will focus on that. Dak will be our quarterback.”

Dallas has remained firm in the team’s commitment to Prescott on a number of occasions, but not much in the way of negotiations on a long-term pact took place this past offseason. The former fourth-rounder is currently playing on his four-year, $160MM deal, one which places him in a tie for 10th in terms of AAV at the quarterback position. The market on that front saw four passers (Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow) eclipse the $50MM-per-year mark in recent months, and a number of other signal-callers will be in line to benefit as a result down the road.

Another Prescott extension has long been on the Cowboys’ radar, but a number of other candidates for new pacts are in place as well. The team was busy in that regard this offseason, but wideout CeeDee Lamb and edge rusher Micah Parsons headline the list of players who already are eligible for a re-up or will be after the season. The latter in particular figures to command a massive investment from Dallas, and the team’s cap situation for future years could see plenty of changes depending on how their next round of extensions shakes out.

In the meantime, Prescott will as always face considerable scrutiny through the rest of the season. The 4-2 Cowboys currently rank sixth in the league in scoring at 25.7 points per game , but they sit only 18th in terms of passing yards per game. Prescott’s performance in 2023 has been in line with his career averages in many respects, but Dallas’ red zone woes have contributed to him throwing only six touchdowns and posting yards per attempt (7.0) and passer rating (91) figures slightly short of his usual numbers. By season’s end, however, his focus and that of the Cowboys will turn to the negotiating table.