Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has all the leverage. And he knows it.
With one year left on his contract, and with the Cowboys not having available to them the most effective tool for keeping player pay in line (i.e., the franchise tag), Prescott will become a free agent in 2025 — unless the Cowboys re-sign him before then.
If Prescott becomes an unrestricted and unfettered free agent, he’ll arguably be the biggest free agent since the original free agent, Hall of Fame defensive end Reggie White.
White avoided the franchise tag in 1993 because he was one of the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit that forced the league to create real free agency, subject to the tag. Since then, few marquee players have made it to the open market.
Sure, other great players have become free agents and made plenty of money on the open market. Tom Brady did, and he delivered a Super Bowl win in his first year with the Buccaneers. Peyton Manning did, after the Colts cut him.
But one of them was old and the other was injured. Prescott would be the rare young (by quarterback standards) franchise-level starting quarterback to become a free agent. The only other one was Kirk Cousins, in 2018.
Prescott is more accomplished than Cousins was. And Prescott comes from the highest-profile team in all of football.
Dak doesn’t seem to be concerned about the possibility he’ll leave. It’s almost as if he’s looking froward to the ride, wherever it might take him.
The Cowboys also don’t seem to be concerned about the possibility they’ll have to find another starting quarterback. Maybe it’s a bluff. Maybe the low-key collusion that happened as to Lamar Jackson will occur as to Dak, with no one outbidding the Cowboys and/or few even pursuing Prescott.
Regardless, the Cowboys have no way to keep Prescott from hitting the market. Well, there’s one way. They can offer him enough to get him to stay.
Three years ago, they did that. Currently, they aren’t nearly as willing to do it. Whatever the reason (and we’ve heard the Cowboys want a two-year escape hatch), the Cowboys and Prescott seem to be destined to not do a deal until Dak is on the brink of walking away, for good.