Jerry Jones admits he overpaid for Dak Prescott to be Cowboys QB

Dak Prescott will be the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, but even Jerry Jones knows the price was high.

It took backing up a Brink’s truck to Dak Prescott’s feet, but the Dallas Cowboys have one less worry entering the 2021 season.

Dallas and Prescott agreed to a four-year deal worth up to $164 million to keep him as the Cowboys’ starter until 2024. The 27-year-old will be paid $75 million in the first season, along with a hefty $66 million signing bonus, making it the largest payout in NFL history.

It took two years for Prescott to finally earn the contract he desired. Now, he will make an average salary of $40 million per season. The Cowboys could have agreed to terms two years ago at a lesser cost.

Now, the attention turns to Cowboys’ Owner Jerry Jones. Although he knows the price was high, he does not expect to have buyer’s remorse.

“The truth is most anything that I’ve ever been involved in that ended up being special, I overpaid for, every time, to the end,” Jones told reporters Wednesday. “Anytime I’ve tried to get a bargain, I got just that, it was a bargain in a lot of ways and not up to standard. And so, the other thing, that our process of getting here from Dak’s rookie deal, I knew that Dak wanted to be here and really no place else. I knew that and I think Dak knew how good he fit here, although I can understand his apprehension. This was not a test of some sort of ‘can Dak handle it?’ or something like that, that wasn’t the case at all.”

Prescott now must prove he’s the Cowboys future

One must give flack to Jones for stretching out this deal as long as he did. Overpaying is not an uncommon thing for the Cowboys, as both Jaylon Smith and Ezekiel Elliott received massive deals at positions of lesser needs.

That’s not to say neither player is warranted of a second contract, but it does show that the price tag means little to Jones when it comes to negotiations.

Prescott has proven since 2016 that he is Dallas’ future. He went 13-3 as the starter in his rookie season after barely working with the first-team offense all preseason. Since then, Prescott and Cowboys’ offense has clicked for five years, finishing No.1 overall in 2019.

It was evident that Jones needed Prescott more than ever after 2020. The Cowboys finished 6-10, missing out on the NFC postseason by one game due to Prescott suffering a severe ankle injury in Week 5. The team went 4-5 without him as the starter.

Quarterbacks will always be a tad overpaid. However, it won’t sit well with fans to know that their owner even understands he was fleeced in the deal. There certainly will be mixed feelings on this quote entering free agency.