Dak Prescott Says It’s Not “Far-Fetched” For Him, Amari Cooper, Ezekiel Elliott To Be Highest-Paid

Cowboys QB Dak Prescott says he doesn’t believe he should have to take less money on his pending contract extension to allow the Cowboys to sign other players because of how much the cap will grow in the future. 

“I don’t think it’s fair to sit there and say, ‘This guy can’t get that because he needs the rest of the team,’” Prescott said via USA Today’s Jori Epstein. “The rest of the team can all get theirs with the way the league is trending.”

The Cowboys are working on extensions for Prescott and WR Amari Cooper, who are scheduled to become free agents at the end of this season. Dallas RB Ezekiel Elliott is also up for an extension, as his deal runs out after the 2020 season. 

Prescott’s deal is expected to be in the neighborhood of $34 million per season, and both Cooper and Elliott can make a case to be the highest-paid players at their position. 

“It’s important for all these guys to get every bit of their worth,” Prescott said. “I want to see Zeke the highest paid. I want to see Amari the highest paid. I want to see myself up there. And I don’t think any of that is too far-fetched. Because at the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, a year or two later, you’re not going to be the highest paid. That’s just the way the game goes.”

Because of the NFL’s salary cap, teams are often forced to make decisions on which players they can keep and which ones they can’t afford. But Prescott says that’s a false dichotomy because of how quickly the NFL’s revenues could potentially expand in the coming years. 

“For somebody to say you can only take so much because of the salary cap or you can only do this or that, I don’t know how fair that is to say,” Prescott said. “Because with gambling, with everything going into this league, everything is going to continue to keep going up.”

Prescott, 25, is a former fourth-round pick of the Cowboys back in 2016. He’s entering the final year of his four-year, $2.72 million contract and set to make a base salary of $720,000 for the 2019 season.

In 2018, Prescott appeared in all 16 games for the Cowboys and completed 67.7 percent of his passes for 3,885 yards to go along with 22 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He has also rushed for 305 yards and six touchdowns.

Cooper, 24, is a former No. 4 overall pick by the Raiders out of Alabama in the 2015 NFL Draft. The Raiders traded him to the Cowboys for a first-round pick midway through the 2018 season.

He is in the final year of his four-year, $22.7 million fully guaranteed rookie contract and is set to earn a base salary of $705,000 for 2018 to go along with a $2,825,426 roster bonus.

In 2018, Cooper appeared in 15 games, six for the Raiders and nine for the Cowboys. In total, he caught 75 passes for 1005 yards receiving and seven touchdowns.

Elliott, 23, was taken with the No. 4 overall pick by the Cowboys back in 2016. He signed four-year contract worth $24,956,342, which includes a signing bonus of $16,350,068.

Elliott will make a base salary of $3.85 million for the 2019 season and another $9.1 million in 2020 under the fifth-year option of his contract. 

In 2018, Elliott appeared in 15 games for the Cowboys and rushed for 1,434 yards on 304 carries (4.7 YPC) to go along with 77 receptions for 567 yards receiving and nine touchdowns.