Did Cowboys Make Romo-Like Error With Dak?

Did The Dallas Cowboys Make A Tony Romo-Like Error In Failed Negotiations With QB Dak Prescott?

FRISCO - I can make the argument - and do, in the above Sports Illustrated video - that in the end, both the Dallas Cowboys and Dak Prescott got their "second-best wish.''

The Cowboys wanted a five-year commitment. Prescott wanted a quicker additional "bite of the apple.''

But short of that? The 2020 franchise tag lock-in of $31.409 million allows the Cowboys to retain the player with a number that already fits into the cap, and allows the club to boomerang back next offseason to try to dance again.

And the $31.409 million makes Dak Prescott - assuming there actually is a 2020 NFL season - a wildly wealthy man, the highest-paid single-season Cowboy of all time. "Grateful and blessed,'' for real.

But ... SI's Robin Lundberg is joined by the MMQB's Conor Orr and yours truly to discuss the possibility that this is a mistake, a waste, if we view the Dak era through the prism of the Tony Romo era.

How much time do the Cowboys have with their star QB? Will his time in Dallas follow the same fate as Tony Romo's?

Orr's position is a pointed one: The Cowboys have been fortunate at the quarterback position over the course of back-to-back eras now, due to their luck (and scouting-and-development skill) in landing both Tony Romo and Dak Prescott without using premium NFL Draft picks.

And therefore ... years of having a "cheap'' QB have been wasted. 

There are other issues here, issues about an unsettled locker room and even issues of a Dallas and Dak (someday) divorce. But most immediately: If a franchise gets lucky enough to acquire Pro Bowl QBs without giving up capital ... that franchise should, free to spend to build the rest of the roster, experience great success.

Great success eluded Dallas under former undrafted rookie free agent Romo. And so far? Great success has eluded Dallas under former fourth-round pick Prescott as well.