4 burning questions Cowboys face this offseason after retaining Mike McCarthy

2. What's next for Dak Prescott?

Not that Dak Prescott wouldn't have been willing to play for anyone else, but his words regarding Mike McCarthy are pretty eye-opening:

The future of Dak Prescott is still up in the air depending on who you ask, but I don't think anyone's really taken that seriously, have they? With a base salary of $29 million and a cap hit of nearly $59.5 million next season, it's probably fair to say that the Cowboys do have to actually consider what they're going to do with Prescott moving forward.

It's really not just as simple as cutting or trading him, either. And while Prescott is impressive in so many ways, the way the Cowboys' last three seasons have ended has a lot to do with Prescott's shortcomings.

Realistically, anytime you get a new head coach in place, that guy is typically going to want to pick his own quarterback. So, perhaps this was the Cowboys' way of committing to Prescott more than McCarthy, if that tracks.

Financially speaking, the Cowboys would need to extend Prescott or face an offseason in handcuffs. Having that cap hit around $60 million puts Dallas between a rock and a hard place because Prescott would undoubtedly command a contract worth at least $45-50 million per year on the open market.

There are other major contract situations facing the Cowboys, not even including in-house free agents. You've got to have the right quarterback to make this thing tick, and as much regular season success as Prescott has had, this will be a situation to monitor with a new coach coming in.