Cowboys rumors: Dak extension no sure thing, Lamb waiting for Jefferson, Quinn poaching

Cowboys rumors: Dak Prescott contract extension not a sure thing of happening

Besides wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, quarterback Dak Prescott is entering the final year of his current contract. After the 2020 season, the Cowboys signed Prescott to a four-year, $160 million contract extension, which includes no tag and no trade clauses. Now, the Cowboys are in a bit of a jam.

If the Cowboys don't sign Prescott to an extension or restructure his contract, he carries a whopping $59.5 million cap hit. So, what are the Cowboys to do?

ESPN's Dan Graziano details Prescott's contract situation and says that an extension doesn't appear to be a "sure thing." Graziano says that Prescott carries leverage, citing the no franchise tag clause in his deal and that the quarterback has "never made things easy on the Cowboys" when they approached him about new deals.

"I am not as convinced as a lot of people seem to be that a Dak Prescott extension in Dallas is a sure thing," writes Graziano. "His current 2024 cap number is $59.455 million, which is massive, and obviously an extension is the best way to reduce it. But Prescott has a large amount of leverage here, too, with one year left on his deal and a clause in his contract that prohibits the team from franchising him. Plus, he has never made things easy on the Cowboys when they've gone to him to talk new deals in the past."

One solution that Graziano presents is the Cowboys converting Prescott's 2024 salary into a signing bonus, which would save $18.5 million in cap space. The only issue about this is that the Cowboys would carry a cap charge of around $55 million in 2025, whether Prescott is on the team or not.

This past Friday, Jones told reporters that he won't rule out an extension for Prescott, but there's a chance that he will play out the 2024 season on his current contract.

"We don't need to, but we can if everybody wants to solve it," Jones said, h/t the team's official website. "You can get in and get on the same page and see if you can come to an agreement. If you can't, what we have in place works. And so obviously, if you do it one way, you'll be working through some of the other areas on the team in a different way, but you can't really plan on that until you see when you're there."

Prescott had a great 2023 season in which he looked like an NFL MVP favorite. In 17 games played, Prescott threw for 4,516 yards, 36 touchdowns (league-high), and nine interceptions while completing 69.5 percent of his passes.

The Cowboys have ways to lessen Prescott's cap hit, but they are far from easy. Based on Jones' statement, the Cowboys appear perfectly fine with not touching the contract at all.