This leaf, which fell on Thursday afternoon, has the shape of a quarterback contract. Trevor Lawrence has agreed to a new contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars that would pay him up to $55 million annually. Quarterback Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals set this standard a year ago. We’ll assume that the Cowboys think Dak Prescott is worth signing a new contract rather than debating whether or not he is worth this or that.
Without a doubt, waiting and prolonging the procedure are costing them money, assuming/believing/whatever-you-want-to-say this is the fact. We may argue over whether Lawrence is superior to Prescott, but given the bar he just reached, does anyone think Lawrence is superior to Joe Burrow? Obviously not, at least not for people who enjoy such kind of fights.
The Cowboys may believe that for all we know, but refusing to accept Prescott is causing numbers to grow (although one writer at BTB says this is insignificant in the grand scheme of things).
Even if you don’t want the team to sign Dak Prescott to an extension, if they’re going to do it anyway, you’d probably agree that waiting this long is bad business. Perhaps those who feel they will let him walk are correct, but if Dallas does reach an agreement, Prescott will very certainly become the highest-paid player in NFL history. If they had completed the acquisition earlier, the bar would have been lower than it currently is.