No drafted quarterbacks for Dallas Cowboys means all currently still sit in contract year for season

The Cowboys did not draft a quarterback which means all of theirs are officially entering contract years at the moment.

The Dallas Cowboys hold very little, if any, leverage with Dak Prescott in contract negotiations. To be clear, a lack of leverage does not mean that the team is forced into signing him to a contract extension. If the team has no intentions of doing that then the idea of leverage is in itself a moot thing since they would not need any.

But if you are interested in Dallas bringing Dak back then it is worth mentioning that the team did not select a quarterback throughout the 2024 NFL Draft (despite being dubbed as a “sleeper” to do so).

It never made sense for Dallas to do what the Atlanta Falcons did by selecting Michael Penix Jr. in the first round. Using this example, Atlanta has a strong alternative to their current starter in Kirk Cousins. They have their plan for the future. They have leverage.

But as mentioned this plan never made sense for the Cowboys given all of their other needs (Falcons fans seem to feel similarly even after the fact for what it is worth); however, they could have taken a signal-caller at any point which would have provided some sort of leverage.

They did not.

The Cowboys now officially have all of their quarterbacks entering contract years

Dak Prescott is not alone as a quarterback entering a contract year for the Dallas Cowboys. He has company. Plenty of it.

Fellow quarterbacks Cooper Rush and Trey Lance are both entering the final years of their respective deals with the Cowboys, although technically speaking the team could decide to pick up the latter’s fifth-year option. They have until May 2nd to do so. It is $22.4M for next season if they want to and it is fully guaranteed. Dallas exercising it would be the loudest signal yet that they are prepared for life beyond Prescott.

The draft offered at least a tangible option of securing an answer for the future in the here and now. Not doing so doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the Cowboys will not move on from Prescott, Rush or Lance in 2025, but without anything in the building the team runs the risk of completely starting over at the game’s most important position.

As the draft was winding down and the Cowboys were getting close to making their final selection it stood to reason to consider a lottery ticket like Tulane’s Michael Pratt. Drafting Pratt (or anyone for that matter) would have given Dallas the chance to get a look at him in their building and with their staff and provided at least one player at the position if there is a mass exodus next spring.

Instead the Cowboys chose to take Auburn defensive tackle Justin Rogers with their final selection although interestingly Pratt went the very next pick to the Green Bay Packers. Would the security, however minimal it may have been, of having Pratt in tow make anyone feel better about the future of quarterback? If so would it have been more worth it than the Rogers pick? Clearly the Cowboys did not feel that way.