Instant Reaction: Breaking Down The Dak Deal

it doesn't matter what we knew. It wasn't gonna happen in the middle of the day. We knew it was gonna be something. Time at night. Here we are, right before the deadline. I'll start with you, Rob, I'll start with you. You wrote the story, thoughts, thoughts on the deal. Finally, Glad it's over. You said thank God earlier. Yes, this is the thank God podcast. I think that's what said before we went on. Everybody wins. Everybody wins tonight. The

Cowboys win, Dak Prescott obviously wins. The fans win, who were on board with getting Dak resigned. I think we win. We don't have to speculate about this anymore. I did the blitz hit on Friday, and I feel like I've reached a point. I think we've all reached a point with this conversation where you're just rehearsing what you know, and there really wasn't anything left to talk about except getting the deal done. And I think when it came right down to it, it was time. It was the

right time for both sides to finish this out. You know, Dak, clearly every player wants long term security. You can talk about what he could earn on the tag this year and then potentially next year, but he gets long term security now. He's earned that without question the way he's played for five years, and the Cowboys get precious cap relief through this deal. To try to get something done when the new league gear begins next week and free

agency gets going. Yeah, Dave, let's talk a little bit more about I mean, we get talk in a second about all the numbers that we know that being reported, but I'll get your overall thoughts on on the deal being done as well. I don't even know where to start, you guys. I mean, I mean, this isn't this isn't the first big deal that we've covered over the years. It won't be the last, but in my decade covering the team, it's easily the one that's drawn on for

the longest. I mean you think you think back, Okay, you know Amari Cooper got a big deal last year that was that was maybe a year in the making. Zeke's big deal came kind of came out of nowhere, like nobody was really expecting him to hold out the way that he did. De Marcus Lawrence it came towards the end of his rookie deal. The point being is like this is typically like a I don't know, a six to eight month or deal, and with Dak Prescott, man,

it's been it's been literally two years. I'm not exaggerating. Like from the time all from the time he finished the third year of his career until tonight, we've been wondering if or when this might get done, and sometimes you felt optimistic and sometimes you didn't. Honestly, I sure as hell didn't think it was going to happen before before the deadline, if you want me to be honest about it, And and here we are, and it's great

for the Cowboys. It's great. It's obviously great for Dak and his family, and holy cow, I'm just ay, I'm happy it happened. B I'm happy we can stop talking about it. I mean, it's yeah, it's a weight off of everybody's shoulders. If I had to guess, alright, a lot of go ahead, go ahead. Well. And the other thing too, is just how up uckly it happened, you know, And like I can't recall a deal with the Cowboys

involved much less. When's the last time a deal of this magnitude in terms of dollars happened in any major American sport. And it really wasn't It didn't break early, you know. And I asked, I was asking around earlier just how quickly this came together? And was it the last few days? Was it just today? And I was told, you know, a little bit of both, and clearly today was they really picked up steam? And Stephen Jones has

said this before. You know, when you can build a little bit of momentum in these talks, sometimes within a few hours they're done. And I know, and the thing about it is, like there's been so much skepticism over this. Dave mentioned that, you know, you kind of reach a point where, well, we got to see it to believe it. I think we almost kind of forgot that they have made progress in two years off and on. Not enough to get it done, but enough by the time they

got talking again this offseason. I never felt like, ultimately would take that much time to get it done. The bones of this thing probably have been in place at least based on certain offers in the past, and they finally just kind of figured it out. Obviously it's good enough for both parties. All right, before, I'm gonna tell a quick story about today. Before we do that, I want you guys to kind of also be thinking about this too. A lot of different numbers are being thrown around.

You can skin this cat so many ways, so I want you guys to kind of think what number stands out the most to you when you think about I mean, there's a lot of ways to say it, so just be thinking of that. If you already have it, that's fine. But I'm gonna tell this quick story about today. So we were told that Dak was going to be in our studio downstairs to shoot a quick PSA. So I'm like, well,

I'm gonna go down there. I mean, like we I felt like there would be more blocking than Darryl Johnston to make sure I didn't talk to He walked down there by himself, shockingly, and he said happy to be on two feet, excited about it. When he came out, I said, hey, I'm not doing my job if I don't at least try to talk to you, ask you to interview something. How's the rehab contract whatever? He said, no,

I can't really do that right now. But he talked a little bit and he said, I ain't going anywhere. I'm gonna be a cowboy for life. And I was like, he's feeling good, doing good, and kind of did a little dance and all that. So he was he was good and he just got the sense. I told Rob, you just get the sense something's happening here, you know, and just and lo and behold you know here we are. I didn't think it was gonna happen today. And what did I say? I was like, yeah, okay, yeah, you've

been I'll see it. You know, I'll believe it when I see it. Type approach for two years and why not it's been two years. So all right, I'm gonna start with you. Rob, give me a number and we'll break this thing down just a second. Give me a number that you that you liked the most or it's interesting the most about this deal. Oh well, I mean the reports and then again, the Cowboys haven't released the numbers on this but but they're leaking out in the media and we'll learn more about it as we go.

But the reports are sixty six million dollars signing bonus. That is a league record apparently, and it just speaks to it speaks to the magnitude of a of a quarterback, a star quarterback contract in this league, and it does remind you of how difficult these negotiations can get when you're talking about this much money, when you know, because the length of the deal has been considered long considered to hold up. But I'm sure guaranteed money has been

a big part of this thing too. So right off the top, that one stood out to me the most day. What numbers when you're when you're looking at what's being reported, what numbers do do you kind of think, kind of standing, Oh, absolutely, it's easy to me and you can call it a win for Dak. It seems like a win for Dak to me because he's gonna get free agency again when he's thirty one years old, and he'll be able to do all this all over again. But in my experience,

again you know, I've been here since twenty thirteen. When the Cowboys do these types of deals, we're talking five, six, seven, eight. In some cases, you know, like you know, with Tyrn Smith, he signs an eight year extension while he's still got two years on his deal, you're talking ten years. This

is not the case with Dak. He's gonna be free to go again in four and I know, you know, maybe the Cowboys probably wouldn't prefer that, but I think it creates some flexibility that the stat I saw is that, you know, his deal averages forty two million per year over the first three years of the deal, which is understandably a lot of money, but it also means you're gonna be out from under this thing really quickly. Yeah, and you know, we all think it's gonna be great.

I obviously think the world of Dak, but even if he's not as amazing as you think, one way or another, you're going to be able to get away from this quickly. You know. I just wrote about Ezekie Lelly, it's a deal earlier late last week. Excuse me, it's you know, your two seasons removed away from being able to get done with that deal because of the length of it.

With Dak, that's clearly not the case, and I honestly think it's refreshing that you have that flexibility that Okay, if it's great, it's great, and if it's not, we're still going to be able to get out from underneath it. So it's obviously a win from Dak. He'll be able to hit free agency very quickly while he's still young. But I think it's a win for the Cowboys too, because even if this thing doesn't go well, they will still have flexibility to remanage their situation again in you know,

three years, And that's unique. It's unique because these deals that we've seen over the last decade or so are so long, and this is not that. This is This is why I think it's it's a It's a big win for Cowboy fans because Cowboy fans obviously want to win right now. They're thinking about right now. It's rare to have a situation where you sign a player to a mega deal like this and his cap charge is actually could significantly yeah, this year, because last year he

was counting what thirty one three? Is that what it was that with the seward cap. I mean, that's what the thirty one three and thirty one four and there's a chance it could be about thirty eight if they didn't get a deal done and he was playing on a tag. Now his cap charge is gonna be twenty two two, and that, you know, that's significant when you're

thinking of what any played for last year. You're saving nine million dollars or so on the cap to maybe go get somebody else or resign some players or whatever. So that's that's why I think is a win, is that they were able to get this done and you said four years, David, You're right about that. It will be a four year but they were able to make it a straight Yeah. That will avoid down before and that's what spreads it down. So we can go over

some of those numbers. Though you know it's he's gonna get seventy five million in the first year, it's about sixty six signing bonus nine in a base salary. I mean that's it's like one hundred and twenty two million over the first three years. I mean, it's like you said to a lot of which and I just I think it's important. I mean, and Nick you said it at the beginning. Is you know there's there's more than one way as to skin a cat, but like to get that money out of the way quickly, I think

is important because it gives you flexibility later. Like sometimes you see these long deals where a player gets signed for six, seven, eight years and it's like, yeah, we can cut him, but it's gonna hit us for forty million dollars five years from now. I don't think this is that situation. I think. And again I think you know, we all think Dak's gonna play well, but even if he doesn't, I think this gives you the ability to get away if you need to. And like I said,

I think it's unique. I think it's refreshing, and you know, I we'll see how the whole deal plays out. But for those of you Cowboy fans, and I know there are a lot of you that don't live in the Texas area, maybe you live in Pennsylvania, the Cowboys are gonna pay Dak Prescott less money on the cap to play quarterback for them this year. Than the Eagles are going to pay Carson Wentz to play for the Colts. Carson Wentz is counting thirty million dollars toward the cap

to play for somebody else this year. And that's why it's amazing. Yeah, And that's why all this talk about quarterback movement like, to me, that's not that's not a trend because for that reason, because you can't. This isn't the NBA, the way the salary cap is structured. You can't move around contracts like that without major implications down the road that year and down the road. And that's

why I just don't see that happening. That's why the Cowboys wanted to get the deal done with their quarterback, you know, instead of having to all these other rumors about something they might else they might be involved in, or you know, rumors about other quarterbacks that could be available and all that, they wanted to get this deal done.

And actually, Nick, I want to change my answer because what you said about the money they save, that's the big one for me, Like fifteen plus million under the cap this year. That's why the timing for this deal was it. It was now because and to me, it says you had two sides, both sides pulling in the right direction, like Dak wants to be here, wants to be the franchise quarterback. And I'm sure he recognizes and it sounds like, you know, we'll get to talk to

him on Wednesday. He recognizes, Look to get this thing done to help the Cowboys out in a crazy year with the pandemic, the salary cap dropping by twenty five million less than it would have been in a normal year. This allows them an opportunity to get number one, get under the cap, number two, a little more flexibility to hopefully do something to further upgrade the roster when things

get going next week in free agency. That's a good point, Rob And that's that, to me, is the one of the answers of him, because it's easy for fans to say, well, what took so long? That right there is one of the reasons why, in my opinion of kind of why it took so long. They don't even know what the salary cap is right now, you know, so that they

had to get creative. And that's when I found out it was a six year deal that voice the four then I was I was happy about that because that showed me that, like you said, they're working together, that doesn't want to just take up all of the salary cap and then not have anyone to block for him. I mean, he wants to have he wants his thing to have some success. So that I think is a really big deal. And you saw him today like he's

been rehabbing at the Star. Yeah, that rehab is going very well like they believed it would, and there's just been no indication that there's this animosity. It just hasn't gotten done, and it was time to get it done. It was, I mean, it just honestly, it was time to get it done for both time, which I do think that's that's interesting and important for a deal of this size that took this long, and we can all

attest to just how long it took. It never seemed like it got overly contentious, like you know, I mean, Nick, you saw Dack today and obviously he probably knew it was about to happen, But even still, like during this whole time frame, it never seemed overly acrimonious, like these two sides were just sniping at each other, even honestly, as short as it was when DeMarcus Lawrence was negotiating his deal, it seemed like there was more uncertainty and more sort of acid for lack of a better word,

about like, well, is this going to happen? And I never got that from this well and that one of the reasons is did France talkm's to the meeting? I don't. I never know because d laws there. That's totally fair, totally fair. That was part of it. But also another point too is you remember that day where Dak Prescott was walking around here and he was really mad and pissed off. I don't either, you know, I that doesn't happen. I mean, that's not the way he is. And that's

why these people love him. I mean, everybody here loves this guy. And you know, and and I think the Cowboys were were the same way, and that's maybe one of the reasons why they never really got down, because you know, they figured it was all always going to happen. It was. I do think I do think there was some genuine disappointment, probably on both sides in July because it was just I think for us too, it was almost shocked because how many times does it happen when

the Cowboys want something? Done and they it doesn't get done. That just doesn't happen very often for them, and Dak had gotten on the phone with Stephen. I think that day of the headline trying to get something done didn't happen. Um, but yeah, I don't think it ever got you know, really really contentious. And there's also been so many weird things around this team in the league, with the pandemic, with the CBA, and again you know, they were just able to roll up their sleeves and get it done

at a critical point in the offseason. Well, two things, in my opinion, two things have ended today. Number one, of course, is this two year negotiation and speculation if this was ever going to happen. But another thing that ended, in my opinion, of course, is that that awesome story of the fourth year you know, draft pick, compensatory pick that comes in and leads this team and look what he's doing. He's playing on the chief and all that he's the leader. Okay, now that's over, and that's fine,

that's what he wants. That's over. Now. The goal is with this contract, the expectation, of course, with this franchise is to go win win championships. I mean I don't think he would disagree with that. How do you guys think he will handle that? You want to take that first, Robbie or me take it? I just I mean, and I agree with you for whatever it's worth, Like that narrative can be put to bed, but I think I

think it's been in bed for a long time. If you want me to be honest with you, because even if he didn't get the pay day, he played on the tag last year, he did this whole song and dance last year. He did this whole song and dance the offseason before that. Again, even even if he didn't get the money, it's literally been two years since the report first leaked. Oh Dak wants forty million dollars a year,

and everybody in the world lost their damn minds. And so Dak has been playing under the scrutiny of like, yeah, he's great, but how much is he worth for at least two years at this point. And I can hear I can hear people being mad right now. I know, you know, they didn't make that they were they were terrible last year when he got hurt. They didn't make the playoffs the year before that. But man, I don't.

I don't know, go go watch the tape. As other Cowboy players like to say, my man's good at quarterback, Like he's he's damn good. And I know that he's very confident in himself. And honestly, if you're asking me to give you a reason why you should feel optimistic about Dak Prescott, like, I've never been around a person with more self belief than Dak Prescott. And I mean that's just me talking, like that's just my own experience.

But he's got a way about him. Like right before we logged onto this show, you know, just looking through Instagram and Twitter, like the number of players that are posting about it. Randall Cobb, this spoke volumes to me. Randall Cobb, who played one year with Dak, said he's one of the best teammates I've ever had. He deserves everything he's got coming to him. You know, obviously nobody knows if he's going to deliver the Cowboys their next championship,

but he's got everything you want in a quarterback. Who would And so I mean, maybe I'm a little bit biased because I've covered the guy's entire career, but I think it's good for the Cowboys to have him under contract. I think it's good to get this conversation out of the way. And if there's ever been a guy who's not gonna, you know, shy away from that type of limelight, I think it's Dak Prescott. You know, when he when

he had that awful ankle injury in October. I remember Zach Martin saying after the game, he's he's the heart and soul of the team. And that wasn't lip service because all the guys feel that way, and that's a big part of you know, it's one thing to be the best player on the team or the most important position on the team, but if you're the leader of the team at that position, that makes to me, that

makes your value. It puts the value of the contract in perspective, and to me, it makes it all worth it. And Daki is all those things. And I think, you know, he's he's had pressure already. I mean, he played, like you mentioned Nippet, he had a thirty one million dollar contract last year, so it wasn't like he's been playing, you know. I think twenty nineteen was a two million dollars base salary that went away last year. Before he got hurt. So he's to a certain extent, he's already

been through that. But yeah, he's he's in it to win big. I mean that that's what he expects out of himself. I remember one of one of his first couple of years in the league, he had Tom Brady's book in his locker, you know. I mean, that's that's where he's trying to go and and the Cowboys to get there. It's it's gonna take building an entire team around him, no question about that. But I just, I mean,

I just Dave mentioned his self belief. I remember the first interview he ever gave a mini camp in twenty sixteen. I remember he was taught. He talked about Tony Romo and I remember thinking, I've never heard anybody say that, you know, as long as Tony's been around, And Tony got hurt, and I'll be damned if you know he didn't take the opportunity and run with it. And look

where we are now. It's crazy. Yeah. And the amazing part about that is when he said that I'm not sure he was ahead of Jamil Showers on the tour at the time. No, I mean, that's the thing he wasn't. He wasn't. He didn't come out here and play that

great to start with. And you know, when the lights came on, you know, everyone has their back moment, and I think Los Angeles, you know, when he went into that first preseason game and it was just like, you know, hey, I got this, or even Seattle a couple of weeks later in the preseason. I mean, he's always kind of he's always been a gamer. He's always been to me, a really outstanding football player, you know, and the first and foremost that plays quarterback. Not saying he's not a

great quarterback, but he's a football player. And you know, I'll never forget the Denver game when they got their ask picked up in Denver and he's over there fighting to the ant throwing a pick, but tasing guys down dive and you know what I mean, that's when you know that, Okay, this guy. You know, someone told me just the other day, you put a foxhole down there and put Dak Prescott in it. He'd have the whole team down there with him. And I think that speaks

volumes for kind of where they are. You know, I have a vivid memory like not to not to whatever, humble brag or whatever. But like, we went to Starkville a few years ago and did that documentary about Dak. I remember Dan Mullen was the coach of Mississippi State at the time, and he told us a story about how Dak Prescott showed up in the weight room in Starkville. Mississippi had an SEC program as a under recruited freshman

from Louisiana. Probably should have been at LSU, but that's you know, we don't have to get into that right now. But he had the whole weight room buying into him, like a week into getting there. I mean, like that, that's rare. And I know, you know, people just want to see results on the field, but that stuff matters, man, Getting people to buy into you and believe in you as the quarterback of a team of a franchise. That's maybe it's not as important as actually playing well on

the field, but it's it's right up there. It's absolutely as important. Imb And yeah, I mean Pick one thirty five. Not only was Ezekiel Elliott. You know, obviously everybody wanted to talk to Zeke when they got drafted. Everybody wanted to talk to Jail and Smith because he was this great story because coming off this injury, Rico Gathers had more reporters at his locker at rookie mini camp, more people wanted to talk to Rico Gathers than Dak Prescott.

And here we are, you know, five six years later. It's just it's awesome. And you talk about like he was under recruited, heavily underrecruited. He knows exactly who was drafted ahead of him at the quarterback position in twenty sixteen. He could probably recite all the names in order. He can't tell you what team they play for. They're all gone. He's the only one. He's the only one left on

his original team. But that's my point is that like all those things, he don't have to worry about his motivation. And now he's got you know, a you know, serious injury that he's on the way back from. Well on the way back from that's also a motivation Like that's you know, the great players feed off stuff like that. I think he's one of those guys. And I think,

you know, the Cowboys. There's all this talk about what you have to pay Dak and how much is he accomplished to this point when you sign a guy to this magnitude, it's it's not necessarily who he is now compared to the top top quarterbacks in the league, the guys that are going to be in the Hall of Fame that are still playing. It's what you think he can be. And I think the Cowboys, you know, it's red presentative of what they think he can still grow into.

He doesn't turn twenty eight until July. There's still time for him to grow as a player. And that's what's one reason why they were comfortable getting this done. You know, let's let's remember this when we're talking about the numbers, and I said, one of the things I was excited about the most was the twenty two point two million

dollars cap charge this year. Obviously, it's a forty million per year contracts, so that means that being said, if you're eighteen down this year, at some point, you're going to be eighteen over. So you know, and they're worried. You know, they'll get TV contracts and the cap will will go up, and they know how to kind of

work that a little bit. But I still I just harp on the fact that you know, it's it's just rare to get a guy locked up like this on a deal this big and still lower his cap charge by nine million from last year and maybe fifteen for what it could have been. But I mean, he never played on the thirty eight, so it's hard to say that. But he played on a thirty one and he was good until he got hurt, for sure. I now now you know you're at twenty I do, and you have

a chance. No, I'm sorry. I think that's really smart, though, Nick, because and I don't know the details of all of this. I don't know if anybody does. Like as we record this right now, they're still weighing, you know, extending the franchise tag deadline because we still don't actually know what the salary cap is. So like there's a lot of

moving parts. But tell me Jerry Jones doesn't know, Oh, we're gonna frontload this bad boy because the TV deals are coming in the next year or two, and literally who's going to be surprised, you know, not to not to diminish COVID nineteen, but like people are getting vaccinated, it's starting to feel like normalcyes On the other you know, it's it's around the corner if it's not right here right now, but it's coming. The TV deals. Yeah, I knock on all of the wood, Yes, thank you, Rob,

But like it it. It feels close, and we know these TV deals are getting negotiated right now. So who's to say, like, twelve months from now, this deal might look like a damn bargain and I'm not going to be surprised if it does. When you consider Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Baker, Mayfield, whichever other quarterbacks are still coming. Like when those guys come up for deals and there's new TV money coming into the league, all bets are gonna be off. And that's why Dak wanted a short deal.

But the Cowboys might as well take advantage of all that. They're gonna take these big cap hits for a year or two, and in a year maybe two, they're gonna feel really good that they did this. I'm very confident of it. Yeah, And he'll be He'll be thirty one at the end of this deal, right, I believe. So it's it's he would still be in the writing his prime and you know, if if the deal works out the way the Boys think it will, they'll gladly go

back to the the negotiating table. I mean, that's why there's a comfort level now in finally getting this thing done. You know, Cowboy fans and the NFL fans might be kind of confused tomorrow or freaked out or whatever. If they see a headline they probably will that says the Cowboys have placed the franchise tag on Dak Prescott. It's really just going to be to cover themselves if they end up doing that as a procedural thing, just because

the deal hasn't been signed and won't be signed. So if they miss the if there is a deadline tomorrow and they miss it and don't sign them, who's to say the Cowboys wouldn't go shop this deal. That really wouldn't be good faith. But you probably will see them just put the tag on him just to cover themselves. So what a day? What a day? What a two years? Yeah? I'm just I'm just gonna have actual news. I was thinking about the last four or five weeks, like there

has been no news around this team. I mean, like the biggest news we've had is, oh, the college prote schedules coming out, you know, like wow, Like it's it's nice to have some news and some news that we've been waiting on. Right, well, I had I had my thoughts on who might break this story, But you're right, Scott of Goldnick, the Cowboys PR guy was not the one that I had pegged up there to break. I'm so happy to be wrong, obviously, Like I'm I'm ecstatic

that this is done. I've never heard that on one of our podcast before. I just I would have bet, I would have bet my life that they that we were going to hit the deadline with no deal. And that's you know, it's probably why I scheduled a date for tonight. And yeah, you know we we break in some more notes. Yeah, we can talk about that though, I mean, there's nothing to talk about. It went, it went well. Uh, she was she was super clearly you're

at home right now. She was very under she was very understanding of the fact that I had places to be. But whole I mean, we joke like we if you're if you don't work in this industry, maybe you don't understand. But like we joke all the time that the minute you try to make plans, that's when that's when it's gonna go down. And it was proven right once again. This evening, Chris, can we clip that off? Just cut that off and we can make that. We can make

that at cowbites for sure. All Right, well, guys, as my ipass has five percent battery, it's a good time to maybe get out of this thing. But I mean, we've covered it, and this is this is, this is awesome, this is this is great news for the Cowboys, said, I think Rob you said it best. This is a

win for everybody, really does. I mean that clearly he's got sixty six million dollars when he signs, you know, but a win for the cowboys though that that it worked out, and I think a win for Cowboy fans and a win for us that we can we can finally move on and talk about other things and not have every story we write with to say, oh cool, cool story on Connor McGovern signed Dac you know, agreed, agreed, get out of my mentions by all right. Well, I

appreciate it, Chris. For Chris Beam and William Boykins were working at home doing some great stuff. We really appreciate that. Rob Phillips, David Holme, and I'm Nick Even. We'll see you next time on Dallas Cowboys Dot com. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.