Dallas Cowboys are taking part in a harmful ready recreation with Dak Prescott

The 2025 offseason is shaping as much as be the Spring of Dak within the NFL. Dallas Cowboys’ QB Dak Prescott hasn’t signed an extension with the crew but as he enters the ultimate yr of a four-year, $160 million contract. As well as, celebrity WR CeeDee Lamb and EDGE Micah Parsons are going to be asking for (nicely deserved) large cash contracts, offers befitting of their standing within the league.

The response from Cowboys’ brass? Nicely, it’s been gradual, to say the least. Per the Fort Price Star-Telegram’s Clarence Hill Jr., Cowboys’ VP Stephen Jones mentioned getting a deal carried out for Prescott in addition to the 2 different superstars is a high precedence for the crew, hoping to get it carried out earlier than the season. But, every little thing about this course of has been extraordinarily lackadaisical from the Dallas entrance workplace. The sense of urgency isn’t there, and it might value them their “all in” window.

In line with OverTheCap, the Cowboys presently have somewhat bit over $5 million in cap area for 2024, however that quantity skyrockets to close the highest of the league in 2025 and past. There’s ample sufficient area to get all three offers carried out, however the Cowboys insistence on ready goes to come back again to hang-out them. Let’s use Dak and QB contracts for instance. For a QB of Dak’s caliber, a top-10 QB, you’re going to finally reset the market each time they receives a commission. QBs Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and Lamar Jackson all obtained paid earlier than the 2023 season, however the timing at which they obtained paid influenced the quantity assured and the annual per yr quantity. Jackson obtained his extension in April, earlier than Herbert then lastly Burrow.

You possibly can in all probability guess the order at which they’re contracts stack up by way of per yr averages:

With this in thoughts, it might be good for the Cowboys to get forward on a contract for Prescott, contemplating Jaguars’ QB Trevor Lawrence goes to get an enormous extension, Lions’ QB Jared Goff is up for more cash, as is Packers’ QB Jordan Love. Lawrence and Love are going to problem for highest paid QBs within the NFL with their subsequent offers, placing Dallas in an actual precarious place with Prescott.

Nevertheless, this isn’t one thing that the Cowboys can simply throw their fingers up and say “we obtained priced out.” Dallas has had each alternative to pay Dak, whether or not or not it’s making an extension instantly after the season or doing it now. The Cowboys have chosen to attend, being affected person in a sport that requires haste on the subject of contracts. No person needs to be the crew that has to pay their QB on the highest quantity within the NFL, so the inducement is on Dallas to get a deal carried out earlier than his worth goes drastically up.

But, it simply looks as if Dallas doesn’t wish to pay these guys. They’re a reactive crew, ready to see how the league shapes out earlier than doling out contracts. They did it with Prescott in 2019, putting him on the franchise tag which put him on the highest cap hit within the NFL on the time. This inactivity is nothing new for Cowboys followers; the 2024 low season has been marked by it. However their reluctance to be proactive and provides Dak his contract not solely might see them lose out on Prescott, but it surely forces them to carry off on offers for Lamb and Parsons as nicely.

The Lamb contract goes to be very attention-grabbing to look at, as a result of his contemporaries in Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase, and Brandon Aiyuk might all reset the huge receiver market. Jefferson might get the richest contract ever given to a receiver within the NFL. By not extending Dak and giving themselves some flexibility, they’re dropping time to get out forward on contracts with Lamb, who might reset the market himself—whether or not or not it’s with Dallas or one other crew.

If the Cowboys have been as “all-in” as they mentioned they’d be, a Dak extension would give them flexibility to work with in 2024, to herald extra free brokers at positions of want. Nevertheless, their lack of urgency might value them their franchise QB, and depart them within the wilderness looking for a QB as soon as once more.