Cowboys QB Dak Prescott explains whether he wants personnel input
Negotiations began in earnest February 2019, the Cowboys and quarterback Dak Prescott’s representation interested in extending Dallas’ three-year starter.
They veered close to resolution that September before sputtering—and propelling what became a years-long journey. The franchise tag deadline came and went in 2020, phone calls acknowledging the again-deferred security but not changing the reality. Finally, in March 2021, a rehabilitating Prescott inked a four-year, $160 million extension to stay home.
Now arrives Prescott’s first full offseason in four years with contract certainty. What potential awaits?
“I didn’t think about it until you said it,” Prescott told Paste BN Sports by phone last week, speaking in partnership with Sleep Number. “But it just allows you to be fresh and be certain on everything and know obviously you’re here. There’s no questions. You can help the team make decisions.”
The Cowboys face plenty of decisions, with 20 players scheduled to hit unrestricted free agency. That depth chart includes three starters on offense, five on defense and Pro Bowl punter Bryan Anger.
So with Prescott consuming the largest slice of the Cowboys’ salary cap, will he have a say in the pieces set to surround him?
“I think that just depends on whether they ask me,” Prescott said. “I’m not going in and knocking on doors saying, ‘Hey, I want this done, I want that done.’ But I’m pretty sure that my opinion will be valued in certain decisions, as I hope. So with that being said, just plan on helping this team get better in every which way I can.”
NFL MOCK DRAFT: Who do Cowboys take in first round?
COWBOYS: Mike McCarthy discusses 'unusual' narratives pushed by owner Jerry Jones
Where Dak stands in his career
Prescott’s first season playing on his mega-contract was statistically impressive but globally disappointing. The Cowboys led the league in points scored (31.2 per game) and offensive yards (407) while Prescott threw a franchise-record 37 touchdown passes in 16 games. He completed 68.8% of passes for 4,449 yards with just 10 interceptions. Prescott’s 104.2 passer rating trailed only Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers and Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow.
And yet, the NFC East-champion, 12-5 Cowboys were the NFL’s lone team to lose in the wild-card round at home. Offensive rhythm eluded the team in several late-season contests. Prescott struggled in a 23-17 loss to the 49ers, completing just 53.5% of passes (23 of 43) for a touchdown with an interception, while also running for 27 yards and a score. He said afterward that his squad “underachieved.”
“When you play for the Dallas Cowboys, you play here, you understand it’s Super Bowl or nothing,” Prescott said in the postgame aftermath. “And as I said having the team we had, the brotherhood, the camaraderie, great unit, great coaches, we definitely underachieved.”
A month later, the sting carries. Prescott said last week he thinks several times a day about how the Cowboys came up short in 2021, the frustration that they “weren’t playing at the same expectation and standard you wanted to play at.”
“You knew not every game was going to be a cakewalk. You know it’s not going to be easy,” Prescott told Paste BN Sports. “I think we’re foolish if you think that. You’ve got to give those other guys credit. (But) what hurts so much about the season is I thought we had the team.
“I thought we were in the position and had the pieces to go get it done.”
Prescott agreed that limitations in the run game prompted defenses to show him coverages and looks with which he was less familiar and less adept at thwarting. Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said earlier this month that “we put Dak in some tough situations” when absorbing a league-high 141 penalties, including 14 levied in the wild-card game, as well as with an inconsistent run game. Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said of offseason ways to help Prescott that “you immediately go to protection.” Offensive-line penalties killed rhythm far too often.
Prescott believesthat offensive coordinator Kellen Moore’s return poses an advantage, the system familiarity aiding Prescott's ability to develop young linemen and weapons. Free-agency departures could await for receiver Michael Gallup, tight end Dalton Schultz and left guard Connor Williams. Receiver Cedrick Wilson, who contributed 602 yards and six touchdowns filling in when Gallup suffered calf and knee injuries, also will hit the market. Wide receiver Amari Cooper, who accounted for 865 yards and eight touchdowns, remains under contract but would likely be asked to restructure his $22 million cap hit if he stays. With the personnel questions looming, Prescott says Moore’s return will help his teammates even more than the quarterback himself.
“Continuity,” Prescott said. “I think as much as it benefits me, it benefits just the offense in general and the team structure and culture. We were fortunate to get through the coaching changes keeping the OC and the DC. It brings a lot of excitement, I know, to the building.”
How Cowboys view Dak’s potential
When the Jones family considers reasons for excitement, they say Prescott tops the list.
“The best thing we start with as we look at how to go forward, the very best thing we start with is our position at quarterback with Dak,” Jerry Jones said at the Senior Bowl earlier this month. “He’s a man that men will follow. That’s a big thing. He’s a man that can incite a physical approach and physical game. That’s a big thing.
“The question is can we do better in the playoff with Dak? And the answer is yes. That’s a big yes for me.”
Prescott is strategizing offseason work with that goal in mind.
During exit interviews with head coach Mike McCarthy, Prescott asked McCarthy about the offseason quarterback sessions he previously held with signal-callers, including Rodgers. Collective bargaining agreement rules complicate offseason collaboration between coach and player more now than when McCarthy debuted those sessions. But Prescott plans to emulate drills with his private quarterback coach, John Beck.
“I can go simulate that, in a sense, in my way of training,” Prescott told Paste BN Sports. “Knowing the drills we’ve done all year long in quarterback and individuals (work in practice), and just taking those now and going out and working with John or other quarterbacks. When the coaches aren’t around, coaching myself and the other guys and being hard on myself as if it was the quarterback school.”
He’s eager to attack an offseason more focused on skill development than recovery. Prescott underwent surgeries on his right ankle in October and December 2020 after suffering a compound fracture and dislocation in a Week 5 game against the Giants. His rehabilitation stretched through the spring, Prescott celebrating milestones of walking, running, jumping and cutting until he finally felt full-go early May. He continues to use the Sleep Number 360 smart bed to measure his rest and recovery, a tool he credits with speeding along his rehabilitation.
“They continue to help me out so much,” Prescott said of Sleep Number, who also donated $5,000 to his Faith Fight Finish Foundation. “The information that the Sleep Number bed gives, the proven quality sleep and the fact of my recovery, especially during the injury (to) get a good night’s sleep and calculate it.”
Prescott said the calf injury he suffered at New England in October has fully healed and he’s now comfortable with the lifelong maintenance his surgically repaired ankle requires.
Offseason film study, footwork drills and strength training await. So, too, he hopes, does input in team-building decisions.
“Me and Mike (McCarthy), we’ll communicate here and there, just make sure we’re on the same page,” Prescott said. “This is the first year I could say in my time that this much has stayed the same, this much continuity. We had a lot of carryover in coaches and staff. Obviously we’ll lose some players, but just the young guys and what we’ve built, this thing does roll over one year from another when you have the culture that we do. It’s going to be exciting next year.
“Looking forward to having a full offseason of just growth and work obviously coming into it healthy, or healthy for the most part.
“It’s going to be huge. I’m excited for it.”
Follow Paste BN Sports’ Jori Epstein on Twitter @JoriEpstein.