OXNARD, Calif. — As the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams wrapped their joint practice Wednesday, players and coaches lingered on the field.
Players reconnected with teammates, present and former alike. They tipped their hat to opponents, greeted their families, and worked with equipment staffs to return jerseys and pads to their appropriate buckets.
But before the crowd had cleared or even thinned, one quarterback was missing.
Where was Dak Prescott?
Prescott hadn’t altogether skipped the pleasantries. He’d efficiently connected with Rams players from quarterback Matthew Stafford to receiver Puka Nacua, even seeking out first-round rookie edge rusher Jared Verse to laud Verse’s potential and wish him a healthy, productive career.
Then, Prescott slipped into a nearby open tent overlooking the Cowboys’ training camp fields. He took a seat on a folding chair in a shadowed corner, away from some of the bright spotlight that’s now doused him for more than eight years as the Cowboys’ starting quarterback.
Surrounded by his girlfriend, Sarah Jane Ramos, and his physical therapist, Luke Miller, Prescott lifted his five-month-old daughter, MJ, in the air. He whistled with MJ and spoke to her. A smile canvassed Dak’s face as MJ showed off a particularly smiley day herself, laughing and babbling in the arms of her father.
In the corner of this tent, in this moment of fatherhood, Dak could escape.
He had just led the Cowboys’ first-team offense through hours of team drills against the Rams’ first-team defense with mixed success. Dallas was committed to installing a new offensive concept even as the Rams defense tested more established guidelines.
“You’re frustrated about that and then come over here and get to see her laugh,” Prescott told Yahoo Sports. “Not that I don’t care about that, because I’ll get that cleaned back up in there. But to be able to compartmentalize it, leave it right there in between those lines, come over here. [MJ] makes me laugh, understand what life is about, understanding that I’ll be able to clean that up.
“It’s very joyful.”
It’s through this prism that the Cowboys quarterback is contemplating his contractual NFL future, months removed from finishing second in voting for league MVP last season. Prescott’s resumé, throughout his career and in 2023, has long been a lightning rod for talk shows and fodder for debate far beyond the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Prescott knows the arguments for and against his next chance to reset the quarterback contract market, for and against his status as an upper-echelon quarterback in the NFL.
And yet…
“The best way to put it,” Prescott said, “is I’m free.”
Let him explain.
Cowboys and Prescott’s future decisions will require ‘two-way street’
Contractually, after this season, Prescott will indeed be free. The Cowboys have yet to reach an extension with their 2016 fourth-round draft pick who’s started every season since, and no-tag and no-trade clauses give Prescott a leverage rare in this market.
Only Kirk Cousins, playing for the Minnesota Vikings and now the Atlanta Falcons, has reached free agency in a similar manner to how Prescott could next spring.
Prescott is currently the longest-tenured quarterback in the NFL for one team. The Cowboys say publicly that they want Prescott’s services beyond 2024.
“We hope this season — that it gets done before the start of the season,” executive vice president Stephen Jones told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday. “I mean, that’s our goal. The thing that happens on these contracts 99% of the time is you’re kind of out there and then all of a sudden it happens out of nowhere.
“You just knock it out.”
Prescott has said publicly he’d be glad to stay with the Cowboys. But he’s also not rushing Dallas. He did not hold out of offseason activities or training camp this year, as his teammate CeeDee Lamb is. (Prescott supports Lamb’s decision and acknowledged receivers face a different risk than quarterbacks as they can get hit.) The chance to test the market has allure, whether or not it ultimately leads to an extension in Dallas.
That brings us back to Prescott’s freedom.
“I’m free right now as in, where I am in life, what I’ve done here — not what I’ve done here, but who I’ve been here,” Prescott told Yahoo Sports. “Understanding that sure, I’m deserving of [the next contract]. But then again, I mean, I told [my physical therapist] Luke [Miller] this: This game is judged off of winning the Super Bowl. And I understand people’s angst, maybe their angst and me having not done that.
“Hey, if these people want to move on, it’s a business. But I know, as I said in the media, it’s a two-way street.
“Things have to be right from my end as well.”
What does Prescott’s career mean for his contractual leverage?
In eight seasons with Dallas, Prescott’s 99.0 passer rating ranks eighth among quarterbacks with at least 17 starts (a full season). His 202 touchdowns rank sixth, his 29,459 passing yards eighth and his 22 game-winning drives fifth.
But Prescott has said since he entered the league: the most important stat for a quarterbacks is a win.
In the regular season, Prescott has excelled there.
The Cowboys have won 64 percent of Prescott’s 114 starts.
Prescott’s 73 quarterback wins since 2016 trail only Tom Brady (79) and Patrick Mahomes (74), Brady starting for one fewer season in that stretch and Mahomes two.
The record of course also reflects the efforts of his teammates, the sharp scouting of the Cowboys front office, and Prescott’s health allowing him to play every game in six of his eight seasons and 12 games in a seventh. But on the basis of individual statistics or regular-season wins, Prescott’s resumé catapults him into the top category.
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The biggest drawback: winning when it matters most. Prescott’s postseason resumé, a point of contention for the Cowboys dating back two decades before Prescott arrived, has fallen below his and the team’s expectations.
Not since the 1995 season have the Cowboys won the Super Bowl, played in a Super Bowl or even advanced to the NFC championship game.
Prescott has guided the Cowboys to the playoffs in five seasons, playing seven postseason games for the franchise. He’s won just two, throwing for 14 touchdowns to seven interceptions in the contests while posting a 91.8 passer rating.
All of that could influence his 2025 home.
It’d be presumptuous and off-base to assume Prescott and the Cowboys are sure to divorce after this season. Prescott expressed “confidence” in negotiations to reporters on Thursday, elaborating on how happy he is with his current opportunity.
But if a contract doesn’t close soon, the 2024 season’s outcome could weigh heavily on the decision.
If the deep postseason drought continues, the Cowboys and Prescott will each ask themselves: Are we more likely to win a Super Bowl together or apart?
They will ask themselves, too: How close is our assessment of Prescott’s contractual value given his body of work?
If either is misaligned, Prescott could test a market in which 13 quarterbacks have signed deals averaging more than the $40 million per year he’s currently earning. As the NFL salary cap balloons, 13 players also have received deals with guarantees higher than Prescott’s $126 million.
For now, Prescott’s focused on preparing for the 2024 season. He’s sharpening his footwork and deepening his chemistry with receivers; he’s learning the nuances of a rookie center and testing his mental speed against Mike Zimmer’s disguise-heavy defense.
Focused on football and his growing family, Prescott feels free.
“To say I’m free means I’m in no rush – whether it happens before camp, during the season or at the end of the season when other people have opportunities,” Prescott told Yahoo Sports. “My focus and mindset that allows me to be free is: Hell, I’m getting paid a lot of money to play the game that I love right now. And I’m not going to cheat that for one bit. [I’ll] give everything to my teammates, and not stress about this because I have to make sure I go home and give everything to these two (Sarah Jane and MJ) as well.
“I’m good with whatever happens.”
