Cowboys' Dak Prescott would not 'want' extension earlier than season, addresses Jerry Jones' remarks on negotiations

FRISCO, Texas — Jerry Jones revealed on Wednesday the crux of the Dallas Cowboys‘ contract negotiations with Dak Prescott would not actually have something to do with their quarterback. 

Primarily, Jones stated of Prescott’s contract negotiations, “It is not you, it is me.”

“You would simply say, for those who hadn’t seen it by now, you have not seen it,” Jones said Wednesday when addressing the query of what the 2023 NFL passing touchdowns chief has to do to receives a commission. “I am such a fan of Dak’s and respect all the nice issues that everyone knows that he is there. I respect his work ethic in all probability greater than something out right here. I can not inform you how proud I’m that we have him this yr to begin this marketing campaign. Needing to see, I simply gave an evidence the place once you take a look at a scenario, you have additionally acquired to weigh, ‘OK, what are the implications of the opposite facet of the coin.’ Dak’s scenario, proper now, for me, from my mirror, has extra to do with our [salary cap] scenario than it does with the deserves of Dak Prescott being the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys.”  

On Thursday, Prescott was informed of Jones’ remarks, and he point-blank dismissed what the Dallas proprietor and common supervisor needed to say.

“Yeah, I perceive that,” Prescott stated. “That is the enterprise and the character of this sport that we play. Yeah, I finished, truthfully, listening to issues that he [Jerry Jones] says to the media a very long time in the past. Does not actually maintain weight with me.”

Jones’ level about caring in regards to the wage would not have as a lot floor to face on underneath two weeks away from Dallas’ 2024 season opener on the Cleveland Browns. He allowed the market worth value for Prescott, which the 2023 NFL MVP runner-up said he would be pursuing in the negotiations, rise by ready all offseason as different NFL quarterbacks just like the Jaguars‘ Trevor Lawrence (5 years, $275 million), the Lions‘ Jared Goff (4 years, $212 million) and the Packers‘ Jordan Love (4 years, $220 million) all signed new offers. Lawrence and Love at the moment are tied with Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow for the possession of the best common per yr wage within the league: $55 million.  

The Cowboys have $39.6 million in efficient cap area to make the most of in 2025, per OverTheCap.com, the twelfth most within the league. Their monetary image is rather more versatile in 2026 with Dallas having a projected $160.1 million in efficient cap area to play with in 2026, in line with OverTheCap.com. That determine stands because the seventh most within the NFL. Jones does have the flexibility to assist determine issues out if he buildings Prescott’s new deal correctly. 

What is going to maintain weight with Prescott is whether or not or not Jerry Jones and his son Stephen Jones, the Cowboys’ COO, work to resolve the negotiations with a brand new contract for the quarterback, who is about to enter 2024 on the ultimate yr of his four-year, $160 million deal. That contract got here with a no-franchise tag and no-trade clause, so if the Jones household opts to kick the can to the 2025 offseason, Prescott might freely develop into an unrestricted free agent and maybe find yourself on one other crew. In coaching camp out in Oxnard, California, he alluded to other great quarterbacks who completed out their careers with completely different franchises. 

“I do not want it, no. I do not,” Prescott stated when requested if he wanted his deal accomplished earlier than Week 1. “I believe it says rather a lot whether it is or if it is not. However nevertheless, would not actually matter to me, to be trustworthy with you.”

What is going to it say if the deal is not accomplished by Sunday, Sept. 8, when the Cowboys start the 2024 season on the Browns? 

“Simply how individuals really feel,” Prescott stated. 

Which individuals? The quarterback declined to say Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones, however it’s clear that is who he’s referring to. 

“I do not know,” Prescott stated laughing. “You may write about that.”

Quite a bit has been written about his prime goal, 2023 First-Workforce All-Professional vast receiver CeeDee Lamb, and his contract negotiations saga with the Jones household. Prescott made certain to have fun with Lamb, who was in South Florida coaching, over FaceTime when the 2023 NFL receptions chief (135) got paid with a four-year, $136 million deal with $100 million assured and a $38 million signing bonus, the best ever for a large receiver. 

“Yeah, excited,” Prescott stated of Lamb’s contract getting accomplished, which ended his holdout. “Clearly I have been involved with him all of coaching camp. The second it occurred, FaceTimed him. Simply to see his pleasure, see I suppose you may say the burden off his shoulders, how pumped he was to get again after which clearly him being within the constructing. Have a pair practices now with him, the man’s the perfect receiver: tremendous athletic, elite, in order that makes that complete connection of us getting again on the identical web page that a lot simpler. Not going to be too tough once you acquired a man like that that is good, is aware of how you can get open. I simply acquired to make the throws.”

Does Lamb getting his deal accomplished open the door for Prescott’s to be concluded with a signing as effectively? Lamb himself thinks it might. 

“You take a look at our numbers collectively, they’re on the prime of the charts,” Lamb stated on Tuesday after he led the NFL with 135 catches final season. “I’ve little question that they’ll get a deal accomplished. Everyone knows that I need Dak right here. Jerry [Jones] needs Dak right here, too, so let’s simply get this underneath management and kill the hypothesis and let’s go win.”    

Prescott is not as sure. 

“Not likely certain,” Prescott stated. “Not my focus anymore to be trustworthy with you. Instructed you guys that. Actually cannot say ever was actually my focus. It is about making myself and this crew higher, getting us in the perfect place and probably the most assured to go as much as Cleveland and begin the season off with a win.”

Whereas the contract, at the least outwardly, is not the Cowboys quarterback’s focus, that does not essentially imply talks between his agent Todd France and the Jones household will halt when the season begins. 

“No, that is as much as Todd and people guys,” Prescott stated when requested if negotiations might proceed into the season. “As soon as once more I am not going to be part of them right here because the season begins. And so they’ve been going. They have been occurring closely via Todd and Stephen [Jones] each. So yeah it is simply all part of it. As I stated, my job and my focus is management what I can and as I stated effectively again in camp, it is two elements to this. Either side have to return to the settlement.”

Prescott is aware of if he would not like Dallas’ presents that he possesses the whole freedom to dip his toe into unrestricted free company, a spot the place a 36-year-old Kirk Cousins signed a four-year, $180 million with $100 million assured coming off a 2023 through which he tore his Achilles. Prescott, on the age of 31, is 5 years youthful and posted the perfect passer ranking of his profession (105.9, the second greatest within the NFL in 2023) in head coach Mike McCarthy’s first season calling the offensive performs for him and the Cowboys offense in a yr that Dallas led the league in scoring with a 29.9 factors per sport common. 

That makes it simpler for Prescott to dam out the distraction that’s his looming contract talks along with his soccer dwelling of soon-to-be 9 seasons (2016-2024). 

“Yeah I imply I am blessed, man,” Prescott stated. “I am tremendous blessed to play this sport, to be in Yr 9, to really feel as I do, wholesome as I do, as assured as I’m, the expertise that I’ve had, I am blessed to play this sport. I am getting paid some huge cash to do it. I’ve already acquired paid. To receives a commission once more that is simply a part of it. I am due up for that whether or not it is signing right here or whether or not it is elsewhere that I do not care to consider at this second. It is all a part of it. For me, it is like I stated, it is about controlling what I can and being the perfect model of myself, greatest chief and ensure all these guys in right here perceive that we’re on a mission. It is not about subsequent yr proper now. It is not about my contract. It is not about something however preparing for Recreation 1 in opposition to the Browns. Easy as that.”

It is not as easy for McCarthy and his teaching employees, who all additionally enter 2024 within the closing yr of their contract as a result of Jerry Jones believes “angst, pressure and competing”  will deliver out the perfect in a head coach whose 42-25 file in 4 seasons in Dallas offers him the best regular-season successful proportion (62.7%) of any coach in Cowboys historical past. The franchise has received at the least 12 video games three years in a row for the primary time for the reason that 1990’s Super Bowl dynasty years (1992-1995). He and Prescott have greater than the common coach-quarterback relationship. McCarthy confirmed up at Prescott’s basis’s (Religion, Struggle End) fundraiser gala on Could 17 along with his spouse Jessica. 

“He is first off, a hell of a coach, however a greater man,” Prescott stated. “I believe as you stated, exhibiting as much as my basis gala, to exhibiting up for individuals off the sphere, for being who he’s and all the time having the conversations and understanding gamers for the those that they’re, having these conversations with them one-on-one. It has been a quick 5 years. Clearly it began off tough in 2020 [when Prescott fractured his ankle], however simply to see the pattern that we’re stepping into, for him taking up the offense now going into the second yr of it, rather a lot to be enthusiastic about. A man I owe a lot to. I consider him rather more than a coach. He is a pal. He is a particular man.”

Prescott cherishes the duo’s in-season Thursday conferences that begin out about soccer, for 20 or half-hour earlier than transitioning into talks about life itself relating to fatherhood, enterprise and extra. 

“These are very useful conversations to me, and I am grateful for them.”

Now, Prescott, McCarthy and various Cowboys vets are tasked with powering via a 2024 through which virtually nobody within the franchise, outdoors of the Jones’ household and Lamb, are assured a Dallas future in 2025. 

“Yeah, for certain. You have to like it, truthfully,” Prescott stated. “You have to like it. You have to embrace it. That is the problem. We because the gamers or the coaches do not have the total say in whether or not we’re right here or not. So it is about us controlling what we will. Proper now it is about sticking collectively, making this locker room, embracing this tradition, embracing each other, not placing essentially strain on ourselves however understanding that this crew will not be the identical after this, whether or not or not it’s the coaches, whether or not or not it’s the gamers, whether or not or not it’s among the key items, I simply doubt it will likely be the identical. And that is simply the enterprise of it. Yeah, it is now. Interval.”