Prescott under contract for coming season
Star QB signs $31.4M franchise tag, but there’s still time to negotiate longer deal
Dak Prescott plans to be at training camp with the Dallas Cowboys, if and when it starts, on the richest one-year contract in franchise history.
There is also still time to work out a long-term deal for the star quarterback.
Prescott signed his $31.4 million tender under the franchise tag Monday. That comes just more than three weeks before the July 15 deadline to agree on a longterm deal.
By signing the offer under the franchise tag, Prescott is obligated to report for all team activities or risk being fined. He didn’t participate in the club’s virtual offseason program while unsigned.
Prescott played the final year of his rookie contract on just a $2 million salary. He was the 2016 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year while leading the Cowboys to the NFC’s top seed in the playoffs and won his first postseason game two years later.
There has never been a question of whether Prescott is the franchise quarterback in Dallas.
Owner Jerry Jones has repeatedly made that clear as the sides have spent more than a year trying to agree on a long-term contract.
Defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence has the highest per-year average in Dallas history at $21 million. The two-time Pro Bowl player signed a $105 million, fiveyear deal last year.
Prescott has started every game of his career after replacing the injured Tony Romo during the 2016 preseason. He led a franchise-record 11-game winning streak during the regular season before Dallas lost to Green Bay in the divisional round.
The Cowboys missed the playoffs in Prescott’s second year when fellow rookie sensation Ezekiel Elliott was suspended six games. With his running back in the fold for a full season in 2018, Prescott led Dallas to another NFC East title and a wild-card win over Seattle before losing to the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round.
Despite missing the playoffs again last season, Prescott had career bests with 4,902 yards passing and 30 touchdowns.
In other Cowboys news, All-Pro safety Jamal Adams requested a trade from the New York Jets last week, reopening the pathway for the All-Pro to potentially land in Dallas.
A fan spotted Adams — a product of Hebron High School in the Dallas-Fort Worth area before playing at LSU — driving a Mercedes SUV in the parking lot of a Lewisville shopping center Sunday and asked him if he was trying to come to the Cowboys.
“Hey, man. I’m trying, bro,” Adams responded in a video posted by Twitter user @JaksonVelasquez.
Dallas is on a reported short list of teams that Adams, a first-round pick in 2018, would prefer to be traded to. The Jets have already exercised Adams’ fifth-year option for the 2021 season.