Free agency has opened and the draft is rapidly approaching, but the Cowboys have another focus weighing heavily on their plate: a potential extension to the contract of quarterback Dak Prescott. According to a report from Calvin Watkins at Dallas Morning News today, Cowboys executive vice president, CEO, and director of player personnel Stephen Jones claimed that the team has had some talks with Prescott about an extension. 
Now, we’ve reported plenty on mutual interest between the two parties in an extension and the seeming inevitability of a new deal in the spring, but lately, more and more sources seem to be of the opinion that an extension isn’t certain. ESPN’s Dan Graziano claimed two weeks ago that he was not convinced it was a sure thing.
While it certainly makes the most sense for the organization as it attempts to avoid a $59.46MM cap hit (the second-largest for the 2024 season), Prescott has more leverage than the team would like to admit. Prescott heads into a contract year and also holds a clause in his contract that prohibits the Cowboys from applying the franchise tag on him when his deal is up. Graziano points out that Prescott hasn’t been an easy sell in the past, either, so it’s not likely that we’ll see him waive that clause for the ease of the deal.
Team owner/president/general manager Jerry Jones spoke on the topic to the media at the NFL scouting combine, as well. “We don’t need to (extend Prescott),” Jones said, “but we can if everybody wants to solve (our cap space issue). 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.”
Jones made sure to clarify that, should an extension not come to fruition, he doesn’t believe it changes to team’s long-term future plans. He still believes that Prescott can be the future in Dallas, but his comments seem to put a lot of responsibility on Prescott to be a team player, or else that money will have to come from elsewhere.
If a deal can’t get done, Graziano speculates that Dallas could convert some of Prescott’s 2024 base salary into a signing bonus in a restructured contract in order to save about $18.5MM. The team would have to be able to do that, though, without adding any additional void years to the three already on the tail-end of his current deal. Doing this could result in a potential $55MM cap hit in 2025, even though Prescott would not be under contract for that season and could possibly be playing elsewhere.
With all this in the forefront, another factor to keep in mind is the recent allegations of sexual assault involving Prescott. According to Watkins and his colleague, Lana Ferguson, Dallas police are investigating claims that Prescott raped a woman in the parking lot of a Dallas strip club in 2017. Nearby, Prosper police are reportedly looking into claims from Prescott that he is being extorted by that same woman for $100MM. Investigations are likely to follow, but for now, both the NFL and the Cowboys have declined to comment on the situation.