The Dallas Cowboys have painted themselves into a corner with Dak Prescott, but Kyle Brandt says they can’t pay him big if the want to win the Super Bowl.
Kyle Brandt thinks Dak Prescott is terrific. But $40 million per year terrific? Maybe not.
On Monday, NFL Network’s Kyle Brandt spoke to Matt Verderame on FanSided’s Stacking The Box podcast about Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys’ situation moving forward.
“There are no good options, it’s exhausted,” said Brandt, host of The Ringer’s 10 Questions with Kyle Brandt podcast. “They should have one it two years ago when he was when cheaper and they had way more leverage. … If the Cowboys sign Dak Prescott to $40 million per year, they are never winning the Super Bowl. They are never winning a Super Bowl. Not because Dak isn’t good, he is. He’s just not incredible. He’s not going to be Russell Wilson, I don’t think. There’s not going to be enough players around him.”
For basically two years, the Cowboys have expected Prescott to blink on a long-term deal and not take the Kirk Cousins franchise tag path to the open market. With this year’s franchise tag deadline coming this week, the Cowboys could tag him again at $37.7 million.
The Cowboys have put themselves here, with this year’s plus next year’s franchise tag for Prescott ($54.25 million) as the starting point for guaranteed money on a multi-year deal. The price of poker as gone up, and it’s getting harder, as the Cowboys try to place intrinsic value on being their quarterback.
Prescott has shown no signs of backing down. And while the idea he wants Patrick Mahomes-like money is pretty aggressive, Prescott has all the leverage, and Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones admitted it early in the offseason.
This year, Prescott’s tag price and the lower salary cap will combine to hamper the Cowboys. Pushing it to paying him $40 million a year on a multi-year deal, even as the salary cap surely climbs again in 2022, wouldn’t be any better.
There’s reportedly some positivity around negotiations between Prescott and the Cowboys. Time will tell if that means anything.