Hours before they open the NFL season against the Cleveland Browns, the Dallas Cowboys have reportedly signed quarterback Dak Prescott to a record $240m, four-year contract extension, making him the highest paid player in league history.
Prescott and the Cowboys spent the offseason locked in negotiations on a long-term contract, and came to terms only 90 minutes before the start of their regular season. According to ESPN, Prescott’s new deal includes $231m in guaranteed money and will make him the first player to receive $60m a year on average.
Prescott was the MVP runner-up last season after leading the NFL with a career-best 35 touchdown passes. But the 31-year-old’s playoff record dropped to 2-5 when he threw a pick-six as part of a first-half meltdown for Dallas in a 48-32 home wildcard loss to Green Bay that was stunned the franchise from owner Jerry Jones on down.
Dallas entered the offseason with contract questions lingering over their star quarterback (Prescott), wide receiver (CeeDee Lamb), pass-rusher (Micah Parsons) and head coach (Mike McCarthy). After first inking Lamb to a long-term extension, the Cowboys have now tied down their quarterback for the next four years. Next up will be Parsons, who will be seeking a record contract of his own. But the coaching situation remains up in the air, with McCarthy entering his fifth year as the team’s head coach as a lame-duck.
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The Cowboys will kick off another season with Super Bowl aspirations. And while it took the majority of the offseason to figure out deals for two of their cornerstone pieces, securing deals for Prescott and Lamb will quiet the speculation that Jones was open to resetting the roster and rebuilding in 2025 if the current group disappoints this year.
Dallas wide receiver Brandin Cooks praised Prescott on Wednesday as the Cowboys step into the challenge of solving Cleveland’s toothy defense.
“The guy shows up every year, year in and year out. Putting up numbers, leading his team,” Cooks said of Prescott. “He can’t do it all by himself. A lot of those great quarterbacks that I’ve been with, Tom [Brady] and Drew [Brees], don’t get me wrong, they won a lot of games, won a lot of Super Bowls, but they had a lot of help around them as well, right?”
Prescott has won plenty of games – and now has a contract to show for it. But questions will persist until he wins the right ones, in the minds of the fans.
“You’ve got to love it, honestly. You’ve got to embrace it,” Prescott said this week. “That’s the challenge. Right now it’s about sticking together … not putting necessarily pressure on ourselves but understanding that this team won’t be the same after this. And that’s just the business of it. Yeah, it’s now. Period.”