On one hand, it’s way too early to think about where Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott might play in 2025. On the other hand, it’s right on time.
Everyone knows Dak has a clear, unimpeded shot to free agency in March, little more than six months away. Once the 2024 season gets going and some teams win and some teams don’t, some teams will start making their plans for 2025. And some teams might start talking to someone close to Dak about next year. Tampering rules be damned.
Franchise quarterbacks rarely make it to the open market. It’s never been known half a year in advance that it’s coming. In 2012, Peyton Manning was cut in February. In 2020, the notion that Tom Brady would leave New England didn’t crystallize until later in the year. Even then, it seemed inconceivable.
This year, we know what’s coming. Owner Jerry Jones said there won’t be a new deal for Dak before the season starts. There’s no reason for Dak to do a deal during the season or immediately after it. Before he stays in Dallas, he owes it to himself to figure out what’s behind Door No. 2 or Door No. 3. Or Door No. 4.
So which teams might be interested in Dak? Much of it depends on what happens this season. But we know there can’t be good teams without bad teams. Eighteen teams will miss the playoffs. Those teams, in the process of picking up the pieces, could decide to make a play for Prescott.
Here are the teams on our radar screen, for now:
1. Giants.
Their feelings about Daniel Jones became obvious during Hard Knocks. And Jones knows it. And it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Jones contract gives the Giants an escape hatch after this season. Wouldn’t it be great for the Giants to steal Dak from a division rival?
It would be a nice bookend to the Eagles swiping running back Saquon Barkley from the Giants earlier this year.
2. Jets.
Aaron Rodgers said it himself earlier this year. If the Jets fail this year, everyone is gone.
Well, not everyone. But coach Robert Saleh will be gone. And Rodgers likely will be, too. Possibly of his own volition.
And the Jets, if they don’t make it to the playoffs again this year, would love to have the kind of one-and-out postseasons the Cowboys have endured. For plenty of teams, consistently failing to get to the conference championship is better than consistently failing to get to the postseason at all.
3. Raiders.
The Raiders missed out on one of the six first-round quarterbacks picked in 2024. They’re rolling the dice with Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell.
If it doesn’t work, Dak becomes an obvious option for 2025.
Of course, Dak would have to want to jump into a division that includes Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, and Bo Nix (if he ends up being a keeper). But the Raiders, barring a playoff berth in 2024, could be an option.
4. Steelers.
Between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, most assume that one will be winning a Water-Pik and the other will be getting fired after 2024.
The Steelers could choose to fire both, depending on what happens this year. They cleared out the quarterback depth chart after a playoff berth in 2023. They could do it again.
Would they pay Dak market value? Here’s the thing about free agency. Dak could choose to go to a team and a coach for less than market value.
After having Jerry Jones try to persuade him for years to take less than he could get elsewhere, Dak could stick it to the Cowboys by choosing to take less from one of their biggest AFC rivals.
5. Saints.
Derek Carr is in the second year of his deal with the Saints. The Saints can easily escape it after 2024.
And Dak grew up in Louisiana.
This is one to watch, especially if Carr and the Saints don’t make it to the postseason this season.
6. Seahawks.
Geno Smith has a year-to-year deal. Sam Howell might or might not be a viable successor. The Seahawks will know much more by the end of the season.
They already know that Dak will be available.
7. Rams.
There are plenty of indications this could be Matthew Stafford’s last season in L.A. The Rams might need a replacement in 2024.
I wonder if they’d be interested in a veteran quarterback whose teams have chronically underachieved?
They were in 2021, when they traded for Stafford. They could get Dak with having to eff them picks.
Could there be other teams? Sure. While plenty of teams clearly won’t be interested, any one season can go sufficiently sideways to prompt a franchise that currently isn’t looking for help to change its mind.