Jerry Jones: 'Probably not realistic' to get Dak's deal done before Week 1... or is it already underway?
The Cowboys brass are having themselves a whirlwind week: trimming the roster down to 53, signing a four-time Pro Bowl running back for practice squad depth, and inking superstar wide receiver CeeDee Lamb to a four-year megacontract extension worth $136 million.
And it’s only Wednesday.
Now, that kind of front-office frenzy might lead Cowboys fans to believe that an announcement about quarterback Dak Prescott is imminent, with the Joneses making that last-minute “deadlines-make-deals” push to genuine all-in status just prior to Week 1.
An inside look at some financial details might hint at that, too. But more on that in a minute.
For now, though, team owner Jerry Jones claims to be ready to roll into the regular season with his starting quarterback playing out the final year of his contract. He even went so far to say that coming to terms on what could be a record-breaking pact probably won’t happen before the Cowboys take the field opening weekend in Cleveland.
“We don’t need to get this done before the season,” Jones told Clarence Hill Jr. of DLLS.
“We just don’t need to get it done before the season. Because it’s in all of our interest- Dak and everybody- to have a great season. And as a matter of fact, that’s probably not realistic to think [it will happen] before the season. But my thought sitting right here is we’ll have Dak. But all I’m gonna say is this: it’s not done yet.”
Prescott is bound to the Cowboys for 2024. He’s been at training camp. He’s been kept out of harm’s way during the preseason. He can’t be traded without his okay. He can’t be tagged. He is well within his rights to just get through this season and then become the most sought-after free agent in NFL history.
Jones believes he’ll be right back in Dallas.
But the billionaire boss is also setting the table for Prescott to have less to work with in 2025 and beyond, based on the sheer dollars and cents that would come with making Prescott the league’s first $60 million man.
“I’m looking at having less supporting cast around him than he’s had any time in his career,” Jones explained. “He’s going to have to make up for that and some, because we haven’t gotten to the games we want to be playing in. And he’s going to have to do it in the future with less of a supporting cast. That’s what I’m fighting for.”
Lamb has already been locked in with his own giant payday. It’s folly to think Jones would commit to giving the three-time Pro Bowler $136 million just to make him start all over next season with a new quarterback when there’s an MVP-caliber passer already in the building.
Despite the optics of unnecessarily dragging this out for months, Lamb doesn’t sound like he’s worried about that actually happening.
“You look at our numbers together, they’re at the top of the charts,” Lamb said. “I have no doubt that they’re going to get a deal done. We all know that I want Dak here. Jerry wants Dak here, too. So, let’s just get this under control and kill the speculation and let’s go win.”
But even for the most valuable sports franchise on the planet, it all comes down to money, and- on the record, anyway- the best Jones can offer is, “I feel that I think that we can do it. We have not figured it out yet.”
Or have they?
ESPN’s Todd Archer provided a breakdown of how Lamb’s new deal has been structured, and while there are a lot of big numbers there to digest, it should jump off the page that last year’s receptions leader has a base salary for 2024 of only $1.15 million. The team saves $9.2 million in cap space this year from the fifth-year option money that Lamb had been scheduled to earn.
CeeDee Lamb contract breakdown: pic.twitter.com/y0gHL1gAtl
— Todd Archer (@toddarcher) August 28, 2024
What does all that mean? Maybe nothing.
Or maybe, as longtime Cowboys reporter Bob Sturm points out in a post on X, “Moving 2024 money out tells me they are working on QB1 deal before week 1.”
What?!?
Even after pooh-poohing the notion that it will get done in the next 11 days?
But that would crank up the Cowboys hype machine to ridiculous and unprecedented levels after the entire world spent the past six months writing them off into train-wreck, dumpster-fire, gross-football-malpractice, let’s-go-after-the-GM-with-torches-and-pitchforks status.
And it would make Jones look like a hero, a miracle worker, a wizard, a genius.
It would completely dominate the headlines on opening weekend.
I mean…
It would be nothing short of a textbook Jerry move.
Jones says not to expect good news on Prescott’s deal before the season kicks off.
But after this many years, are any of us really taking anything Jones says as gospel?
Nothing should come as a total surprise, however the next chapter in the Prescott contract saga plays out. But, of course, we’ll all be watching with bated breath every step of the way.
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