Dak Prescott, Cowboys agree to terms on massive contract extension

FRISCO, TX — It was made chandelier-clear previously by Dak Prescott that he wanted to play the entirety of his NFL career with the Dallas Cowboys, and he’s now taken yet another long stride toward helping ensure that promise isn’t an empty one just hours ahead of the 2024 regular season kickoff against the Cleveland Browns.

Prescott has agreed to terms on a new four-year contract extension worth upwards of $240 million, per multiple reports that include NFL.com, with a historic $231 million in guaranteed money.

That will keep him locked in as the team’s franchise quarterback well beyond the 2024 season — news that follows the arrival of megadeals awarded to Jordan Love by the Green Bay Packers and Tua Tagovailoa by the Miami Dolphins this summer.

Earlier this year, he made it clear that while the money is a necessary part of the business aspect of the game, that’s not what wakes him up in the morning, nor is it what drives him to excel, as a human being, a father or a player.

“I’ve never played the game for that,” he said on Thursday. “I’ve played a game for the pure love for the guys in that locker room. Yes, this game has always brought me something that not a lot of things in life do. That type of peace, it does. Just being out there in between the lines with people that you share a brotherhood with. Yeah, something that’s just special about this game of football and we’re just blessed that that money comes with it, and I’m in the position that I’m in that we can be having these conversations.

“But that doesn’t motivate me.”

Speaking from the first fully padded contact practice Week 1, the three-time Pro Bowler re-emphasized his want of retiring in Dallas and, more specifically, why the thought of winning a Super Bowl with the Cowboys— above any other team — drives him.

“That’s what motivates me on being here, just to be the quarterback that does it, that wins it,” he said. “I don’t think that winning it any other place would be the same as winning it here.”

He’ll now get several more chances at achieving that goal.

The 2022 Walter Payton Man of the Year, only the fourth to ever win the award in Dallas alongside Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman and Jason Witten, Prescott was set to enter yet another contract year beginning this September, something he is no stranger to when considering he’s been the recipient of the Cowboys’ franchise tag on two previous occasions — those amounting to basically contract years — his latest variation, non-tag related, set to hit the current salary cap for more than $59 million in 2024.

In 2020, Prescott became the first quarterback in Cowboys’ history to ever receive a tag.

His second, in 2021, tag lasted all of one day, literally, before he was signed to a four-year contract extension worth a maximum value of $160 million with $126 million guaranteed in March 2021.

Even with the explosive news of the $255.4 million salary cap set for 2024 (more than $30 million higher than last season and nearly $13 million more than expected), and the aid that it provided the Cowboys, they still remained over the cap at the time and, as such, needed the additional relief provided by extending Prescott.

“I feel like 24 hours can really change your life,” said All-Pro wideout CeeDee Lamb, hot off of a new contract extension himself that landed in late August. “Obviously, it’s done that for me and throughout the process that I went through, and this is Dak’s second time at the table, so I know he’s very familiar with this and how Jerry’s working. I have no doubt that they’re going to get the job done but, again, he can’t win a game by himself.”

The two sides agreed to a reworked deal this past spring to allow for some relief in that moment, but this extension likely cements tens of millions of dollars of additional savings toward the cap for additional wiggle room.

With this move, the Cowboys not only guarantee they’ll avoid quarterback purgatory — e.g., Clint Stoerner, Stephen McGee, Quincy Carter, etc. — but it should also free up tens of millions of dollars in salary cap space for 2024 that can be fully rolled into the 2025 calendar season, or rather whatever portion of it remains unspent to that point.

Entering his ninth year in the league, Prescott, the former fourth-round compensatory pick in 2016, has ascended to being one of the best in the business — his 2023 season earning him not only a third Pro Bowl nod and his first honor as an All-Pro, but also second-place in NFL MVP voting behind only Lamar Jackson.

Prescott finished the 2023 season with the third-highest passing yards tally of his record-setting career (4,516) and his second-highest number of touchdowns (36), all while throwing his lowest number of interceptions (9) in a full season since 2018 — completing a 180-degree turn in that category after throwing a career-worst 15 interceptions one year ago.