Dallas Cowboys: Dak Prescott gets a deal this year or he’s gone?

If the Dallas Cowboys and Dak Prescott can’t get a new deal done this year, is he gone?

The Dallas Cowboys are playing coy on a new deal for Dak Prescott. While common sense would lead you to believe that they know exactly what they need to do in order to get Prescott’s approval on a new deal, all signs and including whatever they might be willing to tell you, indicate that the sides just don’t seem to understand each other at the negotiating table.

With that happening though, the Dallas Cowboys were forced to use the NFL franchise tag on their starting signal-caller. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Prescott plans to sign that tendered deal on Monday.

On that one-year deal, Prescott is set to make $31.4 million dollars. That’s a number for a single season that’s nearly 16 times the total value of his four-year rookie contract combined.

While that’s a large enough number in itself, if the two sides are unable to agree on a long-term deal by July 15, it could mean Dallas would consider franchising him again next season. The league mandates that number would go up by 20 percent next season to $37.7 million dollars.

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This is where things get interesting. The Dallas Cowboys can’t afford that number with their current cap projection.

The Dallas Cowboys and Dak Prescott: A compromise or a separation?

They have to lock Prescott up long term if they plan on keeping him in order to avoid a massive one-year cap hit for that number. Here is what that same ESPN story had to say on the team’s cap outlook per a source talking about the pressure on the Cowboys:

"“Their problem is the second year, because this salary cap is going to crash unless there’s an intermediate deal. They would have to gut their team to keep him then. So there’s even more incentive for the Cowboys to do a long-term deal with Dak because of the coronavirus and where the cap might be next year.”"

What this means in plain language is this: The Dallas Cowboys will either get Prescott locked up long term in the coming year or he will be leaving Dallas. The complete stability of their roster seems to depend on it.

Those are just the breaks, but all signs would definitely point to Dak Prescott getting a deal as opposed to leaving the franchise. We shall just have to wait and see though, won’t we?