The Dallas Cowboys have paid quarterback Dak Prescott so much money and given him such power in his contract, with a no-trade clause, that when it comes to where he stands with his team he might be the most powerful player in the NFL outside of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
In no uncertain terms, Prescott makes the most money in the most powerful sports league on the most valuable team at the most visible position in all of professional sports.
What none of that influence and money can do for Prescott is win football games, and over the course of his decade-long career, there hasn’t been nearly enough winning to go around. It’s one of the more well known facts in the NFL that the Cowboys haven’t been to the NFC Championship Game — never mind the Super Bowl — since the 1995 season.
After NFC East rivals the Washington Commanders and Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles squared off in the NFC Championship Game following the 2024 season, there’s added pressure on the Cowboys and Prescott headed into 2025.
Prescott Fell Flat After Consecutive 12-5 Seasons
Prescott had his best year as a pro in 2022, when he made NFL All-Pro for the first time as the Cowboys went 12-5. They followed that with another 12-5 season in 2023, then went fully in the tank in with a 7-10 record in 2024.
That record came, in large part, because Prescott watched from the sidelines for the final 9 games of the season with a hamstring injury. That it happened right after he signed a 4-year, $240 million contract at the beginning of the season have put Prescott even more under the microscope.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio put Prescott firmly on the hot seat headed into 2025.
” … His $60 million per year contract would wreak havoc on the salary cap if the Cowboys were to cut or trade him (yes, he has a no-trade clause, but he can waive it) in 2026,” Florio wrote on July 5. “The complication for the Cowboys is that his $45 million salary for 2027 becomes fully guaranteed on the fifth day of the 2026 league year. They’re basically stuck — all because they waited too long to give him his second contract, and then waited too long to give him his third contract.”
Prescott’s Contract Called ‘Worst in NFL’
Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox put Prescott at No. 2 on his list of the 10 worst contracts in the NFL.
That’s only behind Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson and his fully guaranteed, 5-year, $230 million contract extension he signed in March 2023 — perhaps the worst contract in the history of professional sports.
“Dallas made Prescott the highest-paid player in NFL history by a fairly considerable margin,” Knox wrote on June 12. “With a deal worth $60 million annually, Prescott makes at least $5 million more per year than any other player—including quarterbacks like (Jordan) Love, Joe Burrow and Josh Allen … Prescott is an above-average quarterback, but he has never been elite. There is no scenario, at this stage in his career, that he’s worth $5 million per year more than any other player.”
