Cowboys QB Dak Prescott could command around $60M per year in contract extension conversations

It feels likely that Dak Prescott will ultimately sign the biggest contract in NFL history when it is all said and done.

It is the subject that will not go away. At some point this offseason we are likely going to see the Dallas Cowboys and quarterback Dak Prescott come to terms on a contract extension. That is the first assumption.

This extension will in all likelihood make Dak Prescott the highest-paid player in NFL history. This is the second, and more difficult, assumption.

It is important to note that as things stand Prescott is set to enter the final year of his contract with the team that he has a no-trade clause, so they cannot move on from him in that capacity, and he cannot be franchise tagged next offseason. Effectively, this means that if Dallas does nothing in terms of extending Dak that they will watch him leave for just that – nothing, except a compensatory pick – next offseason.

Dak Prescott could reportedly command around $60M per year

It is true that in the upper tier, the next quarterback up gets paid a little bit more than the last.

This is the case because of the laws of supply and demand. Quarterbacks are the most precious assets that NFL teams can have. There are a very small amount of human beings capable of doing what they can, and the ones who can do so at a high level are even more rare.

Understanding this principle that has bore itself out over and over again as quarterbacks around the NFL have gotten paid, it stands to reason that Dak could wind up making somewhere around $60M per year when it is all said and done. B/R’s Jordan Schultz made this very assertion on Tuesday.

Nobody is surrendering to any idea, but this is quite simply the cost of doing business in the National Football League with the quarterback position specifically. You would think that the Cowboys would have learned this lesson during their first go-around with Prescott when it came to negotiations for his second deal in the NFL, but they have painted themselves in a bit of a corner.

In case you are wondering why $60M is the number thrown out, consider the most recently-paid quarterbacks in the NFL. This is the going rate at this point.

Over The Cap

Obviously there is a $5M difference from where Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow currently sits and the figure thrown around involving Prescott, so maybe the number does not wind up being quite that high. You get the overall point, though.

It would stand to reason that the Cowboys, who are currently over the projected cap, would get this extension done prior to the beginning of free agency so that they can have enough space to add other players to their roster. But as noted, they have not exactly shown a history of being proactive when it comes to paying the most important player on their team.

The clock is ticking.