DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - It took three years, but the Cowboys and Dak Prescott finally agreed to a long-term deal on Monday.
Despite the agreement, many Cowboys fans are up in arms over the massive contract they agreed to pay their franchise quarterback.
Here's our response to those detractors:
But shouldn't the Cowboys re-build instead of pay Dak?
Let's get this out of the way to kick things off. The reality of the situation is that the family who owns the Cowboys isn't selling the team. The man at the top of the ownership tree, Jerry Jones, is 78 years-old. Do you actually think a man Jerry's age would want to let a franchise quarterback walk out the door so that he can start over at the most important position in the NFL?
Let's go back to the year 2000 when Troy Aikman was forced to retire at the age of 34 after suffering several head injuries. Do you remember who the Cowboys next quarterback was?
Let's give you a refresher: Dallas went through hell over the next five seasons at the position, trotting out Randall Cunningham (at the end of his career), Anthony Wright, Quincy Carter, Ryan Leaf, Clint Stoerner, Chad Hutchinson, Vinny Testaverde (at the end of his career), Drew Henson and Drew Bledsoe (at the end of his career).
In 2006, Bledsoe was playing so poorly that Bill Parcells was forced to turn to undrafted quarterback Tony Romo. Romo, of course, would go on to have a stellar career, and had it not been for him and Kellen Moore getting injured before the 2016 season, we may not have ever seen Prescott develop into the player he is today.
My point is, there is no guarantee that any quarterback you select with the 10th overall pick in the 2021 draft will ever be anywhere near as good of a quarterback as the one you already have.
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You already got very fortunate to luck into Romo and Prescott. Do you want to roll the dice again? If you're 78 and you want to see your franchise win a championship, you're not taking that risk.
As for the current roster ... With a healthy Prescott under center last season the Cowboys likely would have won the NFC East division despite their team being decimated by injuries at several key positions.
Take a look at the landscape of the division. The Eagles are in cap-hell and are cutting players left and right, and their starting quarterback has had minimal success after taking over for the now-departed Carson Wentz. The Giants quarterback isn't very good, and Washington doesn't have a franchise quarterback.
Shore up your defense this offseason, add better protection on the offensive line, and the division is there for the taking for the next several years. If you're the Cowboys, you have no choice but to go for it, and I mean go for it now.
But the contract is huge! Didn't the Cowboys overpay? Won't this hold them back in free agency?
No, the Cowboys did not overpay, and that is true for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, the simple fact of the matter is that if you have a franchise quarterback, you must do everything under the sun to keep that quarterback on your roster. Not only is it arguably the most important position in all of professional sports, but it is the most difficult position in sports, bar none, to find a consistently elite caliber player. Unlike skill position players, quarterbacks do not grow on trees, and if you lose an elite one, it could be years, or even decades, before you find a suitable replacement.
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Now, as far as cap ramifications go, the answer here is also no. This deal is actually very cap-friendly for the Cowboys, with Prescott's contract only carrying a $22.5 million cap hit next season, as opposed to the potential $37 million hit that it would have carried with the franchise tag. Instead, with this deal done, and with the potential restructures of contracts such as Amari Cooper and Tank Lawrence, Dallas will have ample room to go out and sign a key piece or two to help fill substantial holes on the roster along the defensive line or in the secondary.
But Dak isn't any good!
In terms of the NFL's hierarchy of quarterbacks, Dak Prescott's placement has been a hot topic for debate over the last few seasons. Some think he is great, some think he is average, and some thing he is well below average. Going by a strictly objective stance, however, it is hard to argue Prescott is anything but elite. Even just in recent months, this holds true.
For example, his impact on the Cowboys offense and its productivity was made very apparent following his injury last season. before the injury, Prescott was on pace to shatter NFL passing records, throwing for 1,856 yards, nine touchdowns and four interceptions, while completing 68-percent of his passes in 4.5 games. In fact, through the first four games of last season, Prescott was on pace to throw for an insane 6,760 yards, as well as 36 touchdowns... all while playing behind a patchwork offensive line, and across from a historically bad Cowboys defense.
To put that into context, the current record for passing yards in the regular season is held by the now retired Peyton Manning, who threw for 5,477 yards in 2013 -- a full 1,283 yards less than what Prescott was on pace for in 2020. Moreover, through the first four games of that season, Manning was on pace for 5,880 yards, nearly 1,000 yards less than what Prescott was tracking towards.
It's certainly possible Prescott would not have reached that 6,000-yard mark even had he stayed 100% healthy, but even If he had come relatively close, he likely would have finished 2020 as the most productive single-season passer in NFL history. If that is not elite, what is?
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