San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
The time to decide on Prescott contract is running out
DALLAS — The past year of Dak Prescott’s contract impasse moved like two hours on a gym bicycle: exhausting but stationary. And as the Cowboys and their franchise quarterback spun their wheels, unable to broker a deal, the surrounding landscape changed significantly.
A new collective bargaining agreement with the seeming promise of long-term league prosperity was enacted. A Chiefs quarterback in Kansas City was paid like a Royals shortstop. Now, a pandemic threatens to cancel the upcoming season.
Moving in place is no longer an option.
By 3 p.m. Wednesday, the Cowboys and Prescott must sign or get off the cash pot. That is the NFL deadline for any player who has been franchise tagged to finalize a multiyear contract. Otherwise, no such deal can be completed until after the conclusion of the 2020 season.
One way or another, barring a change to the NFL calendar, the days of wondering how soon a blockbuster Prescott contract could come are numbered. It is either a few days away or several-plus months away.
Deadlines tend to drive action. Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott can attest to that.
Last summer, Elliott skipped all of training camp during a 40-day holdout, chowing on sushi rolls for dinner between workouts and friendly poker tournaments at a Cabo San Lucas resort. His contract was not agreed upon until nearly 5 a.m. on the Wednesday before a Sunday season opener against the New York Giants.
A last-ditch deal happened then. It can happen now.
Then again, Prescott might not necessarily feel tremendous urgency as Wednesday’s deadline nears. Under his signed franchise tag, he is scheduled to earn $31.4 million in 2020. If the Cowboys tag him again in 2021, the salary value increases by 20 percent to about $37.7 million.
This is a meaningful jump in any year. It’s especially consequential when the COVID-19 pandemic is sure to disrupt the league’s revenue this season.
Revenue and the salary cap are directly correlated. While the exact repercussions of the pandemic are still developing, the NFL and NFL Players Association likely will have to borrow from future years in order to buoy the 2021 cap to a respectable figure, keeping it flat instead of allowing the current $198.2 million figure to tank.
So, Prescott’s 20 percent salary increase would come at a time when the cap is static.
Last Monday, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes signed a 12-year, $477.6 million contract — with incentives, the potential value is about $503 million. This contract was a landmark development, but it bears little relevance on what the Cowboys and Prescott are working to accomplish.
Mahomes was still playing on his rookie contract. Apples.
Prescott is on the franchise tag. Oranges.
Prescott appears sure to earn more than Mahomes over the next four to five years, at which point he could be scheduled to hit free agency again. By that point, the COVID-19 likely wouldn’t be holding back the cap, and Prescott could strike again while still in his prime.
He turns 27 this month. The real question, the one that only Prescott and his agent Todd France at CAA can answer, is how the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 impacts their willingness to stay the course. Few answers are available regarding what would happen to player salaries if the 2020 regular-season schedule is shortened or canceled outright.
How much of that $31.4 million would Prescott lose?
How much of that would he keep if, by Wednesday, he signed a multiyear contract that turned most of the money into a signing or roster bonus?
There is much to decide in the coming days. The Cowboys and France have gone months, at certain times during this grueling process, without achieving progress toward a multiyear contract. They must deliberate now to change that. They have hurdles to clear. They have to give and take.
This won’t be like riding a bike.