Dallas City News

Forget leaves. The forest has been wiped out.

The Dallas Cowboys have not been shy about it. Despite the fact that history tells us markets only go up at the superstar positions in the NFL, they have been waiting and waiting and waiting again as things relate to Dak Prescott.

We all have opinions on Prescott. You may believe he is the right man to wear the heavy crown of QB1 for America’s Team, or you may be ready to see someone else try it on. For months now we have had the conversation about all of this from the perspective that the Cowboys are going to pay him at some point in time.

It is clearly obvious that they may not and that they may be fine with him hitting the open market in free agency next spring. Given their inactivity for two years now that argument certainly holds water.

But once again, if the team is intent on paying Prescott and keeping him around (Jerry Jones said on Thursday that he does not believe Dak will be elsewhere in the future) then they have gone about this in the worst manner possible.

Friday saw the quarterback market rise again thanks to Tua Tagovailoa and Jordan Love

While the Cowboys were holding their second practice of training camp the quarterback market saw another name take the seat at the head of the table when the Miami Dolphins paid Tua Tagovailoa.

For context Tua was drafted in 2020 and was set to enter the final year year of his rookie contract with Miami. He has shown glimpses of being a tried and true franchise signal-caller and the Dolphins paid him to be that for years to come. Tua received $53.1M per year which was billed as the most in NFL history relative to a four-year extension specifically.

That lasted for all of about six hours. It had been reported all week long that the Green Bay Packers were working on a long-term extension with quarterback Jordan Love and on Friday night it sailed through the uprights.

He got the most recent richest deal in league history.

Love is coming off of his first season as a starter and as we are all well-aware was a part of the Packers team that eviscerated the Cowboys, including Dak Prescott, in the Wild Card Round. He is the latest franchise quarterback for the Packers and the second in a row who seemingly specializes in terrorizing the Cowboys.

Again, if the Cowboys are going to eventually pay Dak Prescott then they have now let anybody and everybody who was likely going to get a deal get one before they did theirs. This offseason along has seen Tagovailoa and Love now get deals after Jared Goff and Trevor Lawrence both did.

But the Cowboys had all of last year to get ahead of this as well. They could have worked on an extension with Prescott following the 2022 season, his interception-filled campaign, and would have in all likelihood gotten something done for significantly less than they will hypothetically land if and when they sign him.

Last offseason saw Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow all get their deals with four more joining this offseason and recently as mentioned. We are talking about an entire fourth of the league that has managed to get this ball across the goal line while the Cowboys continue to tell us how hard it is.

It is possible/probable that you are saying to yourself that the Cowboys must be intent on moving on from Prescott given their overall inactivity. As noted that is a fair conclusion to draw.

Assuming this is the case now, they have still gone about this poorly. All due respect to Jordan Love, he has been a starter for a single NFL season and just received this deal. The market is proving that NFL teams will spend mightily for quarterbacks, even the mere idea of one (this is not to say that Love is only the “idea” of a franchise quarterback, he is clearly much more than that, hopefully you get the picture). If the Cowboys were/are intent of letting Dak leave the franchise then why not do anything and everything possible this past offseason to trade him so that they could have received a king’s ransom relative to the return? If Dak does leave they are looking at receiving a third-round compensatory pick at best.

Obviously CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons both need new deals as well with the former currently holding out while the latter still has more time left before the Cowboys have to make a legitimate decision. These were all known facts when the Cowboys lost on the road against the San Francisco 49ers in January of 2023 yet they have let nothing but time pass since then.

Round and round we go.