Cowboys vs. Dak Prescott: 'No Substantial Contract Talks' Means 'No Urgency'? ESPN's Sound and Fury Report: FISH PODCAST

Dallas Cowboys vs. Dak Prescott: 'No Substantial Contract Talks' Means 'No Urgency'? ESPN's Sound and Fury Report: FISH PODCAST

FRISCO - At the start of this week, CowboysSI.com reported that the Dallas Cowboys and Dak Prescott are "ready'' to open negotiations on an extension as the MVP quarterback is about to enter the final season of his current contract in 2024.

Now comes the end of this week, and an ESPN trademark - the weekly Saturday's SportsCenter in which Jeremy Fowler offers up an assortment of NFL-wide gossip that too often is mostly sound-and-fury stuff.

Fowler is reporting that the Cowboys and the representatives for Prescott haven't had "any substantial talks" about a long-term contract.

"I was told that Dallas and Dak Prescott's reps have not had any substantial talks," Fowler said. "They have not discussed numbers.''

We're not sure if ESPN is attempting to "shoot down'' our report or if it's simply Fowler thinking he's advancing the ball on the story. If it's the former? As we never pinpointed a time and date of an initial phone call (indeed, we go back to a 34-year-old Valley Ranch history lesson to remind the reader of a Jones negotiating policy about that "initial phone call''), we are able to stand by our reporting.

If Fowler's work intends to do the latter? All that's really happened is that media outlets aggregating his work are left assuming there is something of substance here ... and next think you know, Bleacher Report's reaction is, "the Dallas Cowboys don't seem to be showing much urgency to get a new deal done with their star quarterback.''

And of course, that is not at all necessarily so. ... with a "deadline'' of sorts of March 13 to be cap-compliant, with a move on Dak's present $59.4 million cap hit the motivation for eventual change.

(Sidebar: Fowler was also involved in an ESPN "insider'' story that claimed Dallas and Dak have "six months'' to fix this situation. It's not six months. As we write this, they have 20 days to fix it.)

As CowboysSI.com has detailed in depth, Dallas has a trio of options here, including what we're terming "The Voidable-Years Band-aid'': 

OPTION 1) Stick with the original plan of believing in Dak and give him an extension, maybe worth $60 million APY, that would make him the highest-paid player in NFL history. ... but one that would also provide Dallas with $20 million of cap room.

OPTION 2) Let it ride. Leaving that $59.4 million as is would be crippling in terms of roster-building, because it wouldn't provide that aforementioned cap room. But if there is a distrust of what Prescott is as a QB? Let him be a prove-it lame duck, just like coach Mike McCarthy.

And then either pay him later ... once he's winning playoff games ... or don't.

OPTION 3) And here is the "buzzy'' one. As we've written before, most Cowboys contracts include "automatic conversions,'' what we call "flipping a switch'' that "converts base salary to bonus'' ... and pushes money into future years.

In Dak's case, there are already two voidable years on the contract after 2024. So the Cowboys could "flip a switch'' and knock his $29 million salary for 2024 down to the league minimum of $1.21 million. 

We term this as "buzzy'' because we believe that inside The Star, this concept is gaining some conversational momentum.

When will the "conversation'' actually involve both the Cowboys and agent Todd France? 

Fowler said, "They could certainly meet at the NFL Combine next week ... to at least get started to see where each side is at."

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Is predicting that the two sides will eventually talk (maybe at the Combine, which is exactly what has happened every year in Dak/Dallas dealings over the course of his career) "advancing the ball''?

It is not. Of course the two sides "could meet.'' In fact, we guarantee they will .. and we don't need Saturday morning "Sound and Fury'' to do so.

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