The Dallas Cowboys are crunching the numbers as starting quarterback Dak Prescott enters the final season of his contract but according to ESPN’s Mike Greenberg, the team won’t get a chance to ink the star this offseason. Joining the Pat McAfee Show this week, the Get Up host shared his advice to the former fourth-round draft pick as he weighs his options.
“I would say to you, I don’t think they get a deal done with Dak Prescott at all,” Greenberg told McAfee. “In football, quarterbacks very rarely find themselves in [unrestricted free agency]. Dak Prescott is one season away from doing exactly that. There’s nothing the Cowboys can do to keep him from becoming that.”
“He’ll be able to choose his spot, choose his salary, half the teams in the league will offer him a trillion dollars, and he can choose where he wants to go,” Greenberg continued. “He’ll have an endless variety of options to choose from… he’ll make a killing. If I’m advising Dak Prescott, I wouldn’t even think of signing a contract this offseason. Play out the year and let the world come to my feet, and they will regardless of how he plays this season.”
Considering the lack of movement on a deal thus far, it’s possible that Prescott is already following Greenberg’s advice. The Cowboys star is entering Year 9 with the team that drafted him in 2016. Perhaps he’s looking forward to the plethora of teams that are bound to pursue him next March if no deal comes through.
Adam Schefter: No one has more leverage than Dak Prescott
Greenberg’s comments this week echo his colleague Adam Schefter’s. Schefter told the NFL Live panel he believes Prescott to be the one player with the most leverage of anybody in the entire league, and he expects him to use it.
“Let’s be very clear about hometown discounts as they pertain to Dak Prescott,” Schefter said. “There’s not a player in football with more leverage right now than Dak Prescott. He’s heading into the last year of his contract, he can’t be traded, he can’t be tagged. He would be out of his mind to give any type of discount.
“He’s in a position to re-set the quarterback market after the season if Dallas doesn’t have a deal done with him. There’s no player in football with more leverage than Dak Prescott and I would expect him to use it like a hammer, despite the fact that he wants to stay with the hometown Cowboys.”
Entering the 2024 season, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is the league’s highest-paid player. He is averaging $55 million a year. Despite being three years older than Burrow, it shouldn’t be hard for Prescott to negotiate a deal with a new team that surpasses his Bengals counterpart’s sum.
