Dallas City News

My official stance is that it makes the most sense for the Dallas Cowboys to extend Dak Prescott this offseason. Log it in to the record, please. Earlier this week we laid out the facts as to why it makes sense that Prescott will sign the aforementioned extension, but on Wednesday evening the Cowboys announced that Mike McCarthy will return for a fifth season with the team. It is currently a contract year for McCarthy.

The Cowboys are clearly down to roll into a contract year with a coach as evidenced by what they are currently doing with Mike McCarthy, but you will recall that they also did it with his predecessor in Jason Garrett in 2019.

Do you know who also entered a contract year in 2019 alongside Garrett? His quarterback.

Maybe the Cowboys want to set up a total make or break 2024 for Mike McCarthy and Dak Prescott

It can be argued that keeping McCarthy around is a pro-Dak Prescott move. Given that McCarthy got the best football out of Prescott this season (except when it mattered most) there is logic in wanting him around for another season. To go further down this rabbit hole, we must acknowledge that Dak has an elephant-in-the-room sized cap number for 2024 at $60M (rounding slightly up). It is in most people’s opinion untenable for them to seriously consider absorbing this in a single season.

While it is true that Prescott entered 2019 in a contract year just like his head coach, we are talking about a year that was the final one of his rookie deal. It was a fraction of a fraction of $60M. But from a principal standpoint, the Cowboys rolled the dice on forcing their head coach and signal-caller to prove it to them. The latter did and got paid (eventually), while the former floundered and the aforementioned Mike McCarthy was brought in to clean up his mess.

It would be all kinds of chaotic, but should we consider that the Cowboys might be considering actually doing this again? There are objective reasons to believe in Prescott, but if there is a possibility of moving on from Mike McCarthy in 2025, would it be appealing for his successor to be locked into a Prescott entering his age 33 season and 10th overall campaign in the NFL? Opinions can vary here.

Again, it seems incredibly unlikely and almost actually impossible for the Cowboys to head into 2024 without any sort of touching up done to Prescott’s deal; however, if they are comfortable with turning up the pressure on their head coach by forcing him to perform if he wants to stick around, then there is a tiny bit of logic towards extending that approach to the most important player on the team as well.

We are at a point where we have to consider everything. This certainly falls under the umbrella of everything.