Dak Prescott, Cowboys agree to terms on four-year, $240 million contract extension ahead of opener
Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys have agreed to terms on a four-year, $240 million contract extension ahead of Sunday’s victory against the Cleveland Browns, NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported, per sources.
Prescott’s deal includes $231 million guaranteed and an $80 million signing bonus, per Rapoport and Pelissero. The Cowboys later announced Prescott’s extension.
“I hope after today we’re done talking about it and my pockets,” Prescott said Sunday, via the team website, after throwing for 179 yards and a touchdown in Dallas’ 33-17 win over the Browns. “And could just move forward and focus on this team and the success that we plan to have and what we’re working toward.”
The timing of the signing just hours before the Cowboys kicked off their season was perhaps most startling.
Prescott, for one, didn’t see it coming just a day prior.
“If you would’ve asked me this yesterday, I would’ve said I was going into the game without [an agreement],” he said. “And that didn’t mean that contract talks were going to end, but I was just going to focus on what I can control.”
“It was good to finish these questions.”
At $60 million per year in new money, Prescott will be the highest-paid quarterback in NFL history, surpassing the likes of Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence and Jordan Love, each of whom recently inked extensions worth $55 million in average annual value.
Prescott’s new pact keeps him in Dallas through the 2028 season, the three-time Pro Bowl QB’s age-35 campaign. This is Dak’s second extension with the Cowboys since being taken in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft; he inked a four-year, $160 million deal in 2021.
“What the guaranteed money means is a big commitment for the next five years to our future, if you will,” said Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, via the team’s official website. “There’s a lot of me that thinks that Dak is our quarterback for the rest of my time. That’s not just limited to the terms of this contract, either.”
The raise for and vote of confidence in Prescott is well deserved. The 31-year-old signal-caller is coming off a career year, in which he led the league with 410 completions and 36 touchdowns and finished second in MVP voting. Prescott’s marked improvement from the 2022 season, when he played just 12 games but still paced the NFL with 15 interceptions, proved that the QB was getting better with age, a pillar to still build around rather than one to abandon.
By signing Prescott before he was slated to hit unfettered free agency in 2025, Dallas avoided their franchise QB reaching the market with unheard-of leverage. In addition to his no-trade clause, Prescott benefitted in negotiations from having already been franchise-tagged twice. If Dallas was to tag him a third time, they would have owed Prescott upwards of $80 million, a prohibitive number even for the cash-rich Cowboys.
Sunday’s news ends an offseason of consternation for Jones and the ‘Boys, who from the start of training camp faced questions about the future of Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons in Big D. Jones was quite confident all summer about the state of his big stars at The Star, telling reporters he was embracing the “ambiguity” of Dallas’ good problem. The Cowboys owner said late last month that the team didn’t need to get Dak’s deal done before the start of the 2024 season, but Sunday’s soft deadline spurred action.
“I’m happy that it’s done,” Jones said. “This was a time when it was right there for us to do. We were all set to go and it was critical. I’ve seen so many things that were worthy of doing that were not done because you missed the timing to make it happen. Opening Day, up here against Cleveland, this was a great time to make it happen.
“I think we all felt a little energy to come on in and get to a point where we could say yes. I’ve known all along what a great player Dak is, and I’m satisfied everybody understands I understand [that].”
With Prescott and Lamb now under contract, each near record levels, Dallas can turn its attention to a critical 2024 season and to re-signing the two-time All-Pro and perennial Defensive Player of Year candidate Parsons, who is entering his fourth season with the Cowboys. The star linebacker is under contract through the 2025 season after Dallas exercised his fifth-year option earlier this year, giving Cowboys brass room to breathe before they shell out more cash on big-time extensions.
For now, the Cowboys can say with confidence they’re finally and truly “all in” — on Prescott, their quarterback of the present and future.
