Cowboys Contracts: Injured 'Dak Is Our Future'

Dallas Cowboys Contracts: Injured 'Dak Prescott Is Our Future' - And That Promise Is All He Is Owed

FRISCO - There seems to be a misunderstanding about how guaranteed money works in the NFL - and maybe about rehab on a broken ankle works, too.

"He's our future,'' said Dallas Cowboys COO Stephen Jones of QB Dak Prescott. "If anyone can overcome anything it will be Dak.''

Prescott will absolutely overcome the ankle injury - serious as it was - sustained in Sunday's 37-34 win over the New York Giants. It's a five-or-six-month rehabilitation of a compound fracture and dislocation.

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He will be fine in 2021 on the field.

He will also be fine in 2021 at the negotiating table.

And "fine'' doesn't mean that the Cowboys should pay him out of "sympathy'' for his horrific injury. That take lands somewhere between "dumb'' and "naive.''

Same with the idea that Dak "got screwed'' by the franchise-tag system. He and the team combined to make the choice to go forward with this one-year guarantee - and making $31.409 million for this season, even while not playing - is hardly getting screwed.

Nor did Dallas "screw him'' by offering him $35 million APY.

Nor will Dallas being "screwing him'' when next spring they offer him $40 million APY.

Emotion aside, there is simply no logical reason for the Dak negotiations, which can resume on the day following the end of the Cowboys season, to play out any differently now than they would have without the injury. (I suppose there is one: Andy Dalton leads the Cowboys to a Super Bowl win. That would represent a wild card, albeit obviously an unlikely one.) Maybe Prescott would've continued to put up huge numbers, maybe not. But - emotions aside - Dak remains a "commodity'' that the Jones family would like to have under contract long-term.

Again, he is presently under the franchise tag, which pays him a guaranteed salary of $31.409 million. The Cowboys can do the same with Prescott next year, tagging him again while also picking up right where they left off in negotiations.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones talked optimistically about the future.

“I know the personal hardship and strife that he has faced, dealt with and overcome in his young life,'' Jones said of Dak. "And I know of no one who is more prepared, from the perspective of mental and emotional toughness and determination, than Dak Prescott to respond and recover from this challenge that has been put in front of him.

“He is an inspiration to everyone he touches. He has all of our love and support. And we have no doubt that he will return to the position of leadership and purpose that he brings to our team.”

That "leadership and purpose'' will come at a price. Maybe it'll be another tag ($38 mil) or maybe it'll be more. But the Cowboys will pay it. And Dak Prescott will take it. And it'll be a business decision by both partners with grand hopes for a future together.