NFL rumors: Cowboys just made Dak Prescott extension unavoidable

March 11, 2023 ndowd

The Cowboys moves to save on the salary cap in 2023 all but guarantees the team will extend Dak Prescott next offseason before a contract year.

Remember the tiresome negotiations between Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys as Jerry Jones seemed reluctant to give his quarterback a long-term contract. Well, we might be on the verge of reliving that in the 2024 offseason — hooray!

While the Cowboys are reportedly working toward “something big” this offseason, they first had to start by clearing some room under the salary cap. They’ve been working to do so with some minor moves but they made a major dent in that on Friday.

As reported by NFL insider Tom Pelissero, the Cowboys restructured the contracts of both Dak Prescott and All-Pro guard Zack Martin on Friday to create more than $30 million in cap space.

The #Cowboys cleared roughly $30 million in cap space by restructuring the contracts of Dak Prescott and Zack Martin, per the team.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 10, 2023

However, it’s what that could mean moving forward, for the quarterback in particular, that’s extremely relevant.

NFL rumors: Cowboys extending Dak Prescott in 2024 is now inevitable

Considering that restructured deals, in essence, just push money to future years on the contract, that means Prescott is now set to have a $59 million cap hit in the 2024 season, which is the final year of his current deal, as pointed out by ESPN insider Field Yates.

Following the restructure of his contract, Dak Prescott’s cap number for 2024 is now scheduled to be north of $59M.

That is also the final year of his deal.

Reducing that number can be achieved by another restructure or an extension anytime before next offseason.

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) March 10, 2023

And as Yates also noted, the only real way for the Cowboys to not take on that monstrous figure for the 2024 season on the books will be to restructure again or, the more likely option, extend him.

Despite the fact that fans were displeased with Prescott after Dallas’ premature playoff exit this past season, it’s clear that Jerry Jones and the front office are committed to him as a quarterback who can take this franchise back to a Super Bowl. It was always likely that they’d start working on an extension, but this latest restructure all but affirms that.

There’s no way they push this money for the 2023 cap to the 2024 season if they don’t have plans of pushing it back again with an extension. It’s just simple logic with how the Cowboys typically operate and with all of the writing on the wall.

Now let’s just hope that negotiations on that extension aren’t as tenuous as last go-round.

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