Making sense of Dak Prescott’s rumored $30M offer refusal

Dak Prescott apparently turned down a huge offer from the Dallas Cowboys. A confusing development, it’s quite a task when trying to make sense of it all.

Professional sports can be quite the wacky arena. It gets even wackier when talking about contract situations and potential new deals. Usually, wackiness tends to follow the Dallas Cowboys.

In the NFL, this scenario is almost magnified by ten. From the disparity in the league on a year-to-year basis to the great potential for injury and thus shortened careers in such a physical league, guarantees and player security amongst NFL contracts has become even more imperative.

The Cowboys are in an even trickier position than average when it comes to their contract scenarios. They are in the middle of a contract dispute with star running back Ezekiel Elliott that has since developed into a holdout by the elite runner.

Cowboys wide receiver Amari Cooper is also playing on the final year of his rookie deal and Dallas will surely be looking to take care of him, especially considering his immediate impact upon coming over to the team from Oakland last season. There is also another big-name player in cornerback Byron Jones that will be looking for a new deal after this season. This isn’t the end of that list for the team though.

The Cowboys have been in discussions with quarterback Dak Prescott about a new deal for some time now. While things had seemed to be progressing in the right direction, a direction that would get the Cowboys quarterback locked up long term, that now doesn’t seem to be the case. Based on a tweet from Michael Lombardi of The Athletic, Prescott has turned down a rumored deal in the $30 million dollars per year range.

If this report is true, it incites mixed feelings for me. While some would immediately go to one side or another, based on how they feel about Prescott in the first place, there are multiple angles that can be taken here.

The first is total disbelief that he would let that offer go. At a minimum, an offer of that magnitude would put him in the top five or tied for fifth among quarterbacks and average salary.

Prescott would be in an elite quarterback group that includes the likes of the Seattle Seahawks’ Russell Wilson, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger, the Atlanta Falcons’ Matt Ryan, the Green Bay Packers’ Aaron Rodgers, and the Philadelphia Eagles’ Carson Wentz. Wilson leads the pack with an average annual salary of $35 million while Ryan is fifth with an average annual salary of $30 million.

The second way to view the rumored refusal is to think about the terms of said deal. Perhaps Prescott and his camp were not pleased with the terms of the contract extension.

This could either point to how the money is distributed or the number of guaranteed dollars and corresponding years. While you would want to believe he would accept a deal that would pay Prescott an average salary of $30 million dollars, you would like to know the exact terms of the deal before making a final judgment on his judgment.

Whether this report is true or nit, if there is smoke, that generally means fire. Hopefully fans will get confirmation or more details soon. They should be tantalizing, one way or the other.

Either way it goes, the Dallas Cowboys need to work things out with both Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott sooner rather than later, because the regular season is right around the corner.