DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - The GBag Nation believes Dak Prescott will no longer be the Cowboys long-term quarterback.
"For the first time ever, my vote would be, at the moment, that I don't think Dak is going to be the long-term Cowboys quarterback," Jeff Cavanaugh said Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan. "It's because of the way the Cowboys have handled this the last couple of years. I now think they are in such a weird spot when it comes to trying to sign him. if you have the most-rosy outlook on Dak's (health), I think you're being too-rosy. As the Cowboys, you're going to look (at it and say) there's a chance that he's not quite the same player. And, as Jerry has pointed out, Dak still has all the leverage. Because as long as he believes in himself, there's no reason to go to the Cowboys (and take a big discount). He still doesn't have the incentive to do that. Because as long as he believes he's going to get back and be the same player he's always been, you're still a year away from the whole league getting to bid on a quarterback in the prime of his career.
"As the team, 'you got to blow me away to get me to sign a contract now. Two years ago, you could have got me with a decent offer. Because I was years away from getting paid, and the signing bonus would have been tempting. But now, I'm going year-to-year getting huge checks.' So, for the team, I don't know the incentive to look at your prior offers while (Prescott) is coming off an injury, and (giving him everything he wants). Even if you didn't have questions before he was hurt, now you do. No matter how optimistic you want to be, you have to have a little skepticism and go, 'Boy, I sure would like to see him play.' So, for the first time ever, I think that where they are in the negotiations makes this really hard to get this done. So, I think that means, the odds are he's going to play on another franchise tag. Which means he will hit free agency, which means you will be in scramble mode (at quarterback)."
Prescott created quite a stir on social media Monday when it was discovered that he recently followed the Washington Football Team on Instagram, who happens to be in need of a franchise quarterback. After a media frenzy began, however, Prescott swiftly unfollowed the Cowboys NFC East rival.
The Cowboys have until March 9 to place the franchise tag on Prescott for the second straight offseason. And should they not come to an agreement by the mid-July deadline, he'll play in 2021 under the tag worth around $38 million.
Prescott also reportedly underwent a second surgery on his injured ankle and was mistakenly left out of a hype video the Cowboys created following the Super Bowl. GBag believes Prescott and the Cowboys can move past that unfortunate situation, but that doesn't solve all of their problems.
"Unless Dak decides, 'I don't want to bet on my injured self and I don't want to leave the Cowboys (then a deal can get done)," Gavin Dawson said. "I think at this point, though, it's gotten personal for him a little bit, just like it did with Kirk Cousins in Washington. I don't think he's going to be in a position where he wants to sacrifice principle or pride to make a deal with the Cowboys. I think the Cowboys are saying back, 'do you think we believe you're elite? If we thought that, we would have done this deal already.' And Dak's adding up all these things and going, 'holy cow, they're not going to give me what I want.' And I don't think he loves the people involved in the organization enough to sacrifice to stay. I've been thinking all along that there's no way he'd leave the Cowboys, I think he's now thinking, 'watch this. I'm freaking out of here.'"
With all of that being said, there is one way they can still get a deal done, according to Bryan Broaddus.
"I think the only chance this deal gets done is if (Prescott's agent) Todd France negotiates in good faith. I think last year he didn't. I think Todd France took a year off and tried to save his own self. He tried to shop himself to other agencies. He tried to get the best deal possible. He's got three clients that are all high-level players, who all played under the tag. I don't think he negotiated in good faith last year," Bryan Broaddus said. "I want to believe that if Todd France is sincere in working for Dak Prescott that they can get something done. If he's going to mess around and think about himself and not think about his client, then he's going to play (under the franchise tag again). ... If this guy doesn't want to sit across the table and look to those guys eye-to-eye and try and hammer this thing out, then this deal's got no shot. I'm putting it on him right now."
France, if you don't recall, mutually agreed to part ways with CAA Sports after he and the Cowboys failed to come to an agreement on an extension for Prescott last summer. At the time, France was criticized on 105.3 The Fan for purposely not agreeing to a deal in order to land a bigger payout from his next employer, with the idea being that he was more appealing as an agent with the potential for the Cowboys quarterback to sign a bigger contract under his new firm.
According to 105.3 The Fan's Mike Fisher, Dallas offered their star quarterback a five-year deal last year with an average of $35 million per year with $106 million in virtual guarantees. However, France held firm in his ask for a four-year contract.
Listen to the rest of the conversation in the video above or in the audio below.