Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
Dak Prescott deserves money for his past, present and future performances.
The Dallas Cowboys and quarterback Dak Prescott will come to an agreement eventually.
I mean, they have to, right? Dallas knows it would be letting a top-12 quarterback in the league walk away for nothing if they let him play on the franchise tag in 2020. That’s not going to land well for Prescott or his representation. Poised to briefly be the highest paid quarterback until Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson put pen to paper, we thought we heard it all about Dak.
That is, until Cowboys legendary wide receiver Michael Irvin, now of the NFL Network, gave his latest take on the Prescott contract saga. Trust me, it gets juicier the longer it goes on. Wait for it…
“Dak has done everything and he has won,” said Irvin. “He has won a lot of football games in his first four years. So to say he doesn’t deserve the money isn’t totally correct. He does deserve the money. That’s the market and he’s a starting, winning quarterback in the NFL. It’s just a matter of getting it done. And I think they’ll get it done.”
“It’s business. Dak wants every penny and Jerry [Jones] wants to try to save every penny. But usually those kinds of deals, I always tell people, will get done as soon as the slipper falls off Cinderella, 12:01, something will get done. It’ll come in and Dak will be — for a moment — the highest-paid quarterback before Pat Mahomes gets his…”
“Dak has been not great, but perfect. Not necessarily in wins and losses, of course. But I’m talking about just the person that he’s been. The kind of investment you want to make, the kind of guy you say ‘yeah, we hit it with this guy. We got him in the fourth round.’ You stole four years, so whatever he gets he deserves because you still owe him back pay.”
While there is a great deal of validity to what Irvin said, like how Prescott has won a ton of games, a deal will eventually get done between both parties and he’ll be the highest-paid quarterback in football before Mahomes gets his new deal, the Cinderella slipper comment and notion of him being owed back pay are flat-out comical because Jerry Jones isn’t going to hear that nonsense.
Dak Prescott should get paid minutes after midnight for previous work.
Midnight for this Cowboys football fairy tale is coming on July 15. Prescott’s representation and the Cowboys must agree to a long-term deal by that date or he otherwise will be playing on the franchise tag in 2020 at a cool $31.409 million. If the Cowboys allow that to happen, it only guarantees his sixth year in the NFL out of Mississippi State will be spent in some other uniform.
“12:01” does nobody any good whatsoever. So let’s channel our inner Alan Moore here and harp on minutes to midnight and wonder Who Watches The Watchmen? The Cowboys can’t pay Prescott on July 16, it has to be any day between now and July 15 and that’s it. The Doomsday Dak Clock is ticking on the former home of the Doomsday Defense. The end is nigh…
The Comedian would have had a great laugh about the idea of back pay. He wasn’t exactly a diplomat, believing the sword was mightier than the pen. The late Edward Blake would think asking for greater compensation for work already paid for in full, instead of for what you’re doing now or what you plan to do in the future is like flapping your arms while falling out of a window.
This joke lands right where it belongs, splattered on the sidewalk.
Ultimately, time is of the essence here. A crashing sense of urgency must be on the minds of both parties. Together, they can accomplish something great, ushering in a new era of Cowboys football. Apart, Dallas will be on the outside in looking at NFC Championship game berths, going on yet another decade. From glass slippers to back pay, these constructs help absolutely no one.
Though we applaud Irvin wanting to get Prescott paid, let’s let Todd France do the negotiating.