Cowboys Restructure Prescott’s Deal – Dak Prescott is working in concert with the Dallas Cowboys while he continues to wait for a long-term extension from the organization.
Both sides agreed to rework the quarterback’s contract for the 2024 campaign, converting a $5 million roster bonus into a signing bonus, ESPN reported Monday. With the move, Prescott’s cap number for next season was lowered slightly to $55.455 million, freeing up $4 million in cap space for the Cowboys.
However, the restructure also adds a pair of void years to Prescott’s contract, giving him four void years total that run through the 2028 season. Prescott is going into the last season of his contract, so if the two parties cannot come to terms on a new deal and the star signal caller walks out the door for nothing in free agency next offseason, the void years will count as a dead cap hit for the Cowboys.
The contract restructure does not prevent the two sides from negotiating an extension. With the addition of two more void years, the Cowboys could be more incentivized to get a deal hammered out with Prescott sooner rather than later, to avoid the headache of having dead cap charges levied against them for the foreseeable future, as they also work to keep several other notable names in Dallas.
The Cowboys have been shockingly quiet in free agency in part because of upcoming paydays for All-Pro receiver CeeDee Lamb and star pass rusher Micah Parsons, who took home 2021 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors. Locking up Prescott and giving him long-term security beyond 2024, would make it easier to get deals done with Lamb and Parsons.
Dallas has only acquired one additional piece from another team so far in the free agency process, linebacker Eric Kendricks, on a one-year deal worth up to $3.5 million. The Cowboys added Kendricks while releasing linebacker Leighton Vander Esch, their 2018 first-round pick, on a failed physical designation after another neck injury last season. Esch, 28-years of age, announced his retirement on Monday, after suffering from recurring neck issues in his six-year career, all spent with ‘America’s Team’.
“I love the game of football so much, and my body won’t cooperate any longer. I cherished every moment of my NFL career, and it has been such a blessing to play the game for as long as I have played.”
Embed from Getty ImagesPrescott and the Cowboys both have said the right things in the media, that they aim to get an extension done this offseason, so he is not playing in a contract year, which is not too frequent for an established starting quarterback. The Cowboys have done that twice in the past though with Prescott, slapping him with the franchise tag twice after his rookie deal expired prior to agreeing to a four-year, $160 million deal in 2021.
Earlier this month, Prescott was optimistic that the two sides would agree to an extension.
“I’m definitely confident,” Prescott said on his contract situation. “Obviously, it helps the team. It’s important for the numbers. I think I’ve heard Jerry [Jones] say that. … It is a process. Both sides understand that. Everything’s great. “It’ll happen.”
Owner and general manager Jerry Jones seemed hopeful that an extension will get done somewhere down the line, telling reporters at the combine that he does not “fear” the 2024 season being Prescott’s last in Dallas. But Jones did not seem to be in a hurry when it comes to getting a deal done in the coming months either.
“We don’t need to [extend Prescott’s deal], but we can if everybody wants to solve it,” Jones said on Friday. “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.”
The 2024 season could be a prove it year for both Prescott and head coach Mike McCarthy. In the three seasons that Prescott has finished the year healthy playing under McCarthy, the Cowboys have had a heartbreaking end to the season in the playoffs. Last season might have been the most disappointing finish of them all, losing to the Green Bay Packers, 48-32, to become the first team to lose to a seventh seed in the playoffs.
Still, the 30-year-old Prescott arguably played the best football in his career in 2023. He had career-bests in completion percentage (69.5) and passer rating (105.9) and threw for the second-most yards (4,516) and touchdowns (36) in his eight-year career. He earned second-team All-Pro honors as a result.
Following the restructure, the Cowboys now have a little less than $9 million in cap space to play with, according to OverTheCap.com.
