Barring a last-minute change of heart or head, Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Dak Prescott will play the 2020 NFL season on a one-year $31.4 million franchise tender.
The franchise tender or franchise tag serves as a placeholder of sorts until a team and player can work out a long-term contract.
Most years, this week would bring news of at least one franchised player and their team agreeing to a multi-year pact. However, 2020 has been anything but a normal year.
Although the pandemic could be used by some team to not extend a player, such logic ignores the basic concept of the franchise tag. NFL teams use it to buy time to resign players they want to keep.
The challenge for teams is when a player takes the tag for a second season.
A cautionary tale for teams and quarterbacks came back in 2017 as then Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins played for a second straight year on the franchise tag.
According to overthecap.com, after becoming his team’s starter in 2015, Cousins went from playing for $660,000 that season to making $19,953,000 on the tag in 2016 after he couldn’t agree to a contract extension with Washington.
As NFL rules dictate that the second-year franchise tag must be 120 percent of the previous season’s amount, Cousins cost went up to $23,943,000 for the 2017 season.
Roughly 80 miles south of us in Frisco, this scenario may well be playing out for the Cowboys.
Reports Monday night from both NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and ESPN’s Todd Archer indicated that there has not been much contact in recent days between the Cowboys front office and Prescott’s agent, Todd France, and further no talks are scheduled.
This is probably both sides hardening their stances.
From the perspective of the Cowboys’ management they probably feel they’ve made their best offer.
The offer, according to ESPN’s Archer, came in March and averaged $34.5 million per season. The offer also reportedly had guaranteed money near $110 million, which was similar to what Jared Goff of the Los Angeles Rams received last September.
Back in March, the offer would have made Prescott the second-highest paid quarterback by average yearly salary behind Seattle’s Russell Wilson, who averages $35 million per year.
Meanwhile, Prescott only signed the franchise on June 22.
For Prescott, who is going into his fifth season in the league, the franchise tag is a huge raise.
In an interesting twist of fate or coincidence, Prescott was a fourth-round draft pick just like Cousins.
As they were drafted in the same round, Cousins and Prescott made similar salaries to start their careers.
These were Prescott’s salaries for his first four years in the NFL (also per overthecap.com): $833,392; $540,000, $630,000 and $2,025,000.
As you can see, Prescott is making more than 15 times his previously career high.
And if the Cowboys’ signal caller didn’t have enough reason to stand pat, he can look north to Kansas City.
Last week, the Kansas City Chiefs gave their quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, a 12-year extension worth between $477 million and $503 million.
Overthecap.com has calculated Mahomes’ extension to be worth $45,000,000 annually dwarfing the Cowboys’ prior offer to Prescott.
Now, it doesn’t seem likely that Prescott will get Mahomes money. After all, Mahomes has both an MVP award and Super Bowl victory; neither of which Prescott has.
However, Prescott is no slouch as he has been named a Pro Bowler twice (2016 and 2018). Prescott has also not missed any of the 64 regular season games he’s been eligible to play since his rookie season of 2016. Additionally, he started all 64 games and holds a 40-24 record, which is good for a .625 winning percentage.
At this point, the onus is on the Cowboys to figure out an extension sometime in the next 12 months for Prescott or watch him walk and get paid by someone else.
If we’re back at this same spot ahead of the 2021 season, there is no reason to think that Dak will find a new home.
And in all likelihood, his new contract will far exceed the 3 years, $84 million guaranteed Kirk Cousins got from the Minnesota Vikings in 2018.
At that point, Dallas will start over with some other free agent who will probably be a retread or an untested rookie. Frankly, neither path inspires for America’s Team.