Dak Prescott
As the NFL calendar starts to wind into the slow summer months, the contract situation between the Cowboys and QB Dak Prescott still remains unresolved. Dallas has until July 15 to sign Prescott to a long-term deal or he will play out the 2020 season on the franchise tag. For now, the two sides remain at an impasse as Prescott seeks his big payday and Dallas tries to figure out how it can limit his salary cap hit.
“I mean, at the end of the day I know everybody’s out there, ‘How have you not paid Dak?’” Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones said via Pro Football Talk. “At the same time, we’ve tried to pay him, and he has to accept what we want to pay him. But the deal’s got to be right for Dak, it’s gotta be right for us. As you know, the salary cap makes this a zero-sum game for owners. This is not something where Jerry and myself are trying to save money so the Cowboys can make more money for the Jones family. We’re just trying to do our very best working with [HC] Mike [McCarthy], working with [VP of player personnel] Will McClay. Really divide up the pie in the best way possible to win a Super Bowl.”
Jones cited some of the studies the team has done about how it’s harder to win championships when teams no longer have a quarterback on a cheap rookie deal.
“There’s all sorts of analytics out there that show if your quarterback takes up too big a percentage of your salary cap, it decreases your chances to win,” Jones said. “We’re just trying to figure out the right fit. No one wants to sign Dak to a longer term deal more than Jerry and myself. We’re on the record time and time again on what we think of him as a leader. He has the ‘it’ factor. He’s a fierce competitor. He wants to win as well, and it’s just gotta be right for him and right for us. We’ll continue to work to a conclusion on that.”
Asked about what happens if Dallas is put in a scenario where it has to use the franchise tag again in 2021, which would likely spike to $37.68 million, Jones declined to get into it.
“We’re only focused on getting a long-term deal on Dak,” Jones said. “We’re not focused on next year, the year after that. We’ll have the resources. We all know quarterback’s the most important position on this team. We won’t ever be in a position where we can’t tender a franchise offer. But our strict focus is on signing Dak to a long term deal.”
Cowboys
The Cowboys still have some uncertainty along their defensive line at the opposite edge-rushing position from DeMarcus Lawrence. The hope is that either Randy Gregory or surprise free-agent addition Aldon Smith can fill that spot, but both are dealing with suspensions from the NFL and have yet to be reinstated. Jones said Smith has had his meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, while Gregory’s status is a little murkier.
“We haven’t heard anything,” Jones said. “I do know for sure Aldon has been in front of the Commissioner. He’s waiting to hear back. I think Randy may or — I’m not exactly sure where that is. Sometimes we’re not privy to that. We’re not sure when we’ll hear something. Obviously, the league is looking out for their best interest. As men off the field and certainly that’s what’s first and foremost and the priority is how they’re coming off the field. If ultimately they get to a point which we think they can that Roger feels like they can come back to work and play football and that’s in their best interest in addition to what they need off the field, then certainly we’ll welcome them back and go to work.”
Giants
Like all rookies unable to take the field because of the pandemic, Giants second-round S Xavier McKinney faces an uphill battle to make a significant impact as a rookie. However, what McKinney has working in his favor is his time in college at Alabama, which has pumped out ready-to-play rookies in recent seasons. There’s also quite a bit of overlap between Alabama’s system and what the Giants will run under new HC Joe Judge, who is an offshoot of Alabama HC Nick Saban‘s coaching tree.
“I think it’ll be helpful to him because we do — when I was coach at the Dolphins or Bill Belichick’s defensive coordinator in Cleveland — we do a lot of the same stuff here from a coverage standpoint, from a secondary standpoint,” Saban said on the “Giants Huddle” podcast via the Giants team website. “So our guys typically make good adjustments. I know a few years ago we had six guys sign NFL contracts and five of them ended up starting as rookies. Even though this will be a transition, I think most of the things that ‘X’ is going to be exposed to, he’s probably done. They might call it something different. I think it’ll be an easy transition for him.”
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