'Absolutely!' Cowboys' Dak Prescott New Contract Still Planned After Trade

“That’s something I leave to the Cowboys, and I leave to my agent,” Dak Prescott says of contract negotiations. “They got it done years ago, and when it’s time to get it done again, I trust in both of them.''

ARLINGTON - We're going to be frank here: We cannot believe that we still have to explain the Dallas Cowboys' planned contractual commitment to Dak Prescott ... and we cannot believe that there is any keen observer who thinks the trade for third-string prospect Trey Lance changes that.

But here we are, with Cowboys COO Stephen Jones having to answer a question about whether that's truly the truth.

"Absolutely!” the Cowboys want and continue to work toward a new extension for Prescott,'' Stephen said.

Added owner Jerry Jones on the goofy concept that Lance now gives Dallas "leverage'' against Dak: “(That) didn’t cross my mind. Period. I know that Dak wants to do anything we can improve this team.”

Prescott is entering his eighth year as a member of the Dallas Cowboys. He understands the way "America's Team'' works - with owner Jones and his family as the hub of the wheel - with a depth of knowledge few others can possess.

So on the one hand, when Prescott recently answered a question about progress in a contract extension that might make him (again) among the highest-paid players in football history by saying, "When it’s time to get it done again, I trust in both (my agent and the Cowboys),'' it is a notable statement due to its positivity.

But there is also a deeper truth here.

Prescott had over five years of experience working with the Joneses, and we can assume, developing "trust'' in the Cowboys ownership and front office, by the time March 2021 arrived. And yet it took two years of negotiation between agent Todd France and the Cowboys to come to that agreement on a second contract before the big day in March when he signed a four-year, $160 million deal.

Those two years included the application of a franchise tag, Jerry Jones' publicly-stated belief that a deal was all but done in fall 2019 (at about $30 million APY) and then a severe and season-ending ankle injury later that year that to some put the relationship in jeopardy.

So "trust,'' over the course of those two years, was not always easy to come by.

In the end, that March 2019 contract included a then-record $95 million fully guaranteed at signing and a $66 million signing bonus, at the time the largest in league history. The assumption that gigantic numbers will end up again being Dak's? Maybe that's a reason for "trust.'' Stephen Jones' open pledge to activate “a plan to ultimately extend” Prescott’s contract? He's said it so often - including on the heels of the Lance trade - that his words merit acceptance.

The purpose here isn't just to secure Dak's services beyond 2024, as the Cowboys also need to spread out his long-term money in order to manipulate their way to additional cap room over the course of the coming seasons. Oh, and as Jerry told CowboysSI.com, the extension is also about the faith in Dak to help the team compete for titles.

I ask Jerry Jones if #Cowboys Dak extension plans are about championship chances or cap concerns. ‘Both,’ he says. MORE https://t.co/XpImtdZWO4 pic.twitter.com/up2emL0Obq

— fishsports ✭ (@fishsports) March 27, 2023

“That’s something I leave to the Cowboys, and I leave to my agent,” Prescott said recently. “They got it done years ago, and when it’s time to get it done again, I trust in both of them. As Stephen has said, it might happen overnight. Who knows, right? But that’s not any of my concern or in my thought process.”

What is Prescott concerning himself with this offseason? Certainly not the acquisition of a third-stringer.

"To go in there and get better as best as I can,'' Dak said earlier this summer ... and the Cowboys "trust'' that he will do that, just as the QB says he has faith in the Cowboys.

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