The Dallas Cowboys’ current predicament proves Dak Prescott needs to get paid.
One of the biggest storylines prior to the 2020 NFL season was the lack of contract negotiations between Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys. Prescott was slapped with the franchise tag and eventually signed it (a one-year deal worth $31 million, per Spotrac), but there were definitely some frustrations that a bigger deal couldn’t get done.
The Cowboys lucked out with Prescott. They drafted him in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft and likely didn’t think he’d ever see meaningful playing time with them. Tony Romo was still the quarterback of the Cowboys at that time, but an injury before the season led to Prescott taking over and, well, the rest is history.
Prescott really came into his own last season, throwing for 4,902 yards, 30 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. It would have made perfect sense for the Cowboys to offer Prescott a massive contract then because of his efforts, but Jerry Jones didn’t budge.
Dak Prescott went down with an injury in Week 5 and the Cowboys haven’t won a game since.
While Dallas came close to handing the Steelers their first loss of the season this weekend, for the most part, they’ve looked really bad ever since Prescott suffered that gruesome injury in Week 5. They haven’t seen much success with Andy Dalton, Ben DiNucci or Garrett Gilbert (he didn’t play poorly, to be fair) and this should be all the evidence Jones and the Cowboys front office needs as far as paying Prescott goes.
It’s not easy to find a franchise quarterback and the Cowboys just so happened to find theirs in the fourth round four years ago. Prescott might not be Patrick Mahomes or Russell Wilson, but he kept them in every game he was a part of this year. That’s what franchise quarterbacks do. When the rest of the team is struggling, he picks them up and carries them on his back.
Prescott was on his way to another impressive season and he was likely going to throw for over 5,000 yards this year with how bad the Dallas defense is. The injury hopefully won’t prevent Prescott from getting the kind of contract he deserves and should have already received from the Cowboys organization.
Seeing how the other half lives at the quarterback position should be reason enough for the Dallas Cowboys to pay Dak Prescott when they get the chance.