The Dallas Cowboys and quarterback Dak Prescott reached a four-year deal and $ 160 million, including $ 126 million guaranteed, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The deal, which is technically for six years but is canceled at four to help Dallas with the salary cap, can be worth up to $ 164 million and has a $ 66 million signing bonus, the highest in the history. The first three years of the deal averaged $ 42 million for Prescott.
The deadline for teams to designate franchise players is Tuesday, March 9, and the Cowboys, who did not disclose details of the deal when announcing it next Wednesday, plan to label Prescott, but only as a formality before. to formalize the deal.
The process of reaching a long-term agreement with Prescott took three years and in it multimillion-dollar bids and hours of negotiations were made. All this time, the Cowboys indicated they wanted Prescott to be their franchise quarterback for the present and future and the passer said he wanted to stay on the team.
Negotiation took longer than normal.
Prescott, who turns 28 in July, has just ended his 2020 season with a fractured and dislocated right ankle in Week 5, in a game against the New York Giants, but is expected to be fully recovered for the start of training camps in 2021.
The road to agreement between Prescott and the Cowboys was complicated by the extensions signed by pitchers recruited in the 2016 draft as Jared Goff and Carson Wentz in 2019, the final year of the collective bargaining agreement and the unwillingness of both sides to make their positions more flexible in relation to the duration of the deal. Dallas wanted a commitment for five or more years and the pin wanted one for 4.
Now that the deal is complete, the focus is on the Cowboys ’roster and side with Prescott to make Dallas a contending team in the Super Bowl. The Cowboys have not reached the Playoffs in three of the last four seasons.
Prescott’s absence in 2020 highlighted his importance in the team’s success. Prior to injury, the passer threw for 1,856 yards with nine touchdowns — four interceptions in five games. The Cowboys ’offense battled for a few weeks without their pin by scoring just one touchdown in three games, after scoring at least 31 points in four of their first five games.
In five seasons, Prescott has seven games in 400 or more yards, a Cowboys record, and 24 touchdowns on the ground, the highest total for a quarterback in franchise history. He is second behind Tony Romo with 15 games with at least 300 yards on air and has proven his ability to respond in times of pressure with 15 offensives to win.
In his career, Prescott, a fourth-round pick in the 2016 draft, has a 42-27 record with 17,364 yards on air and 106 touchdowns for 40 interceptions.
With the contract secured, the expectation will be even greater for Prescott to win the Super Bowl for an organization that won its last championship 25 years ago.
ESPN’s Todd Archer contributed to this report.