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“Yeah, here we go,” indeed.
The Cowboys have made most of their headlines this offseason by: (1) claiming they’re all in for 2024; and (2) doing absolutely nothing to prove it. That dichotomy has helped conceal a far bigger problem the team has, a problem that might be keeping them from going all in.
They have contractual messes with three of their key players: quarterback Dak Prescott, receiver CeeDee Lamb, and Micah Parsons. And they’ve shown no inclination to do anything other than delay, delay, and delay.
That’s how they got into their current mess with Prescott. By not offering him a fair contract after his third season as a fourth-round, Day 1 starter, the Cowboys tabled the matter until after his four-year deal expired. Then, they used the franchise tag and didn’t sign him to a long-term deal before the mid-July deadline, delaying the issue again. When faced with the application of a second tag and no ability to punt for another year (for his third tag, he would have gotten a 44-percent raise over his second tag), the Cowboys panicked, giving Prescott a four-year, $160 million contract that guaranteed he’d get to the open market without an extension.
Now, they seem content to let him finish the contract and hit the market in 2025. Basically, he’ll be next year’s Kirk Cousins.
The Cowboys seem to be banking on the fact that no other team will pay him whatever he has been seeking in talks aimed at extending the deal, last year and this year. They also seem to be daring him to leave, believing that the attraction of playing for the Cowboys — with the marketing and post-career opportunities it entails — will get him to take their best offer, whatever it might be.
It’s a calculated risk that the Cowboys have no choice but to embrace, because they painted themselves into a corner by dragging their feet early in Dak’s career.
They’re doing the same thing with Lamb. Four years into his 2020 first-round contract, they can squat on him for the fifth-year option (at $17.99…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/cowboys-contract-mess-dak-prescott-104207566.html
Author : ProFootball Talk on NBC Sports
Publish date : 2024-04-10 10:42:07
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