Dear Jerry Jones: Please don’t overpay Dak Prescott

The Dallas Cowboys have made many smart front office moves of late. I write this letter to owner Jerry Jones in the hopes that they make yet another.

Dear Mr. Jerry Jones, owner and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys. As a lifelong fan, I share your passion for the ‘Boys. I believe your team is on the verge of greatness. But its future will largely depend on the value of quarterback Dak Prescott’s next contract.

I am writing to share my insight and caution that this decision could propel the Cowboys to Super Bowls or sink the team into oblivion. In the salary cap era, there has only been six times that the championship winning QB has had a salary cap hit that exceeded 10 percent (1994 – Steve Young, 2006 – Peyton Manning, 2011 – Eli Manning, 2014 – Tom Brady, 2015 – Peyton Manning, 2018 – Tom Brady).

In fact, the average cap hit for the Super Bowl winning quarterback is 7.1 percent. In today’s NFL, the perception that it takes an elite, highly paid passer to win the Super Bowl has never been greater. This perception is wrong. It takes a team of 53 players to win the big game.

The New England Patriots have been the model franchise over the last 18 years. They have enjoyed the greatest competitive advantage in the history of the NFL – their quarterback has been underpaid in most seasons because he values winning more than money largely because his wife has a pretty big bankroll herself.

As you contemplate your offer to Dak Prescott, you would certainly be offering fair market money at a contract averaging above $20 million. But would that be the best outcome for the Cowboys? The Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl with quarterbacks Nick Foles and Carson Wentz salary cap hit combined at 4.6 percent.

Prescott can be a Super Bowl winning quarterback. His chances improve the less money he takes. In fact, with more quarterbacks taking cap eating contracts, the Cowboys chances of hoisting a Lombardi Trophy go up.

I hope you can convince Prescott that his legacy will be forever preserved like Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman by winning the Super Bowl. I hope he would be willing to take a contract that averages seven percent of the salary cap.

This will set the bar for your other negotiations as your team leader left money on the table for everyone else. You can keep this core together and realistically compete for the next four Super Bowls but it depends on how much money you pay your quarterback.

Go Cowboys!

Richard Ball