Dak Prescott Rumors: QB's Stance on Contract Revealed as Cowboys Deny False Narrative

Despite not having a sense of urgency to get a contract extension done with Dak Prescott, the Dallas Cowboys aren't necessarily looking to move on from their star quarterback.

ESPN's Jeremy Fowler said on Saturday's SportsCenter that people within the Cowboys organization described the "false" notion they don't want Prescott beyond the 2024 season, even though he's fine taking things as they come:

"Negotiations so far have been passive. That's what's been described to me. This has not heated up. Dallas has said the right things and people I've talked to over there privately say, 'We do want Dak here long-term. The notion that we don't want Dak here beyond 2024 is false.' But there really hasn't been any movement at this point and so I've talked to somebody close to Dak who said, 'He's taking the approach like, let's take it as it comes. I'm playing football this year. I know I'm playing for Dallas. I'm going to be a free agent. They can't franchise tag me, so if we don't get this done then I got to look at other options down the road.' So, that's kind of where they're at, which is a weird process for a player who's one of the best quarterbacks in the league last year. It's just a hard deal to do because he's got a $61 million cap hit this year. Dallas has scaled back all their spending and then to do it, it's going to be considerable leverage on the side of Dak and Dallas knows that. That's probably why this is taking a while."

It was assumed Prescott's contract would be one of the first orders of business for the Cowboys. He was coming off arguably the best season of his career in 2023, has a contract that allows him to hit true free agency next offseason and they were facing a salary-cap crunch this offseason that was going to make it difficult for them to make any big moves in free agency.

Instead, the Cowboys' only move with Prescott's contract so far was to convert his $5 million signing bonus into a roster bonus and add two void years to his deal that cleared $4 million against the 2024 cap.

Prescott told reporters on Friday that "real" negotiations with the Cowboys have not yet taken place and he would be "fine" playing things out in 2024 to see what options might be available next year.

Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said on 105.3 The Fan (h/t The Athletic's Jon Machota) that Prescott's contract is a "priority" for the team.

In addition to Prescott's deal, the Cowboys also have to think about extensions for CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons. Lamb is likely a higher priority of the two because he's going into the final season of his rookie deal, while Parsons is under contract for two seasons.

Prescott is in a rare position of having all the leverage over a team. The four-year, $160 million deal he signed with the Cowboys in March 2021 included a no-tag provision, so he will be a true free agent next year if he hits the market.

Kirk Cousins, who will turn 36 in August and is coming off a torn Achilles, got a four-year, $180 million deal from the Atlanta Falcons this offseason.

Prescott is five years younger than Cousins and finished second in NFL MVP voting last season. It's not unreasonable to think he could sign a deal that would make him the highest-paid quarterback in the NFL by average annual salary if he gets to free agency.

Joe Burrow's $55 million average salary with the Cincinnati Bengals is currently the highest in the NFL.

Precott led the NFL with 36 touchdown passes and completed a career-high 69.5 percent of his attempts last season.

The Cowboys have made the playoffs five times with Prescott as their starting quarterback, including each of the past three seasons. He is 2-5 with 1,962 passing yards, 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions in his postseason career.