With a pair of quarterbacks signing new deals, all eyes turn to Dak Prescott. The Cowboys QB will be a free agent in 2025, but how much is he really worth?
On Friday, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212M contract to stay in Miami. At the time, his $53.1 average annual salary ranked third behind Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow and Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence ($55M). Hours later, Packers quarterback Jordan Love signed a four-deal of his own with a record $75M signing bonus and the same annual salary as Burrow and Lawrence.
So what would a new contract for Prescott look like? The Cowboys QB is entering the final year of a $160M deal that pays him an average annual salary of $40M, tied for 14th-most among quarterbacks with the Rams’ Matthew Stafford and the Giants’ Daniel Jones.
Prescott led the league with 36 touchdowns in 2023 and at least one NFL reporter thinks he’ll reset the market in 2025. During an appearance on ESPN’s Unsportsmanlike program, ESPN insider Adam Schefter floated a number that had to make Cowboys owner Jerry Jones cringe.
“Dak Prescott is gonna get a deal north of 60 million dollars a year,” Schefter said. “It might be more, way more. Dak Prescott is going to be the one to reset the QB market.”
Meanwhile, Jones seems to be preparing for life without his starting quarterback and possibly wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and linebacker Micah Parsons, two star players also looking for new deals.
“In my life, I’ve had a lot of things I wanted that I couldn’t get because I couldn’t afford it,” Jones said, per NFL.com’s Bobby Kownack. “…and life does go on. And sometimes when you get a bump like that, you turn around and do better than you would have had you got what you wanted.”
For his part, Prescott has always said he’d like to stay in Dallas but suggested he would play elsewhere when speaking to reporters at training camp.
“You know, I’m going to say it: I want to be here, but you know when you look up all the great quarterbacks I’ve watched, they’ve played for other teams,” Prescott said. “So my point in saying that is that that’s not something to fear. That may be a reality for me one day.”
With a full no-trade clause and the franchise tag unavailable to ownership, last year’s third-leading passer has plenty of leverage to get a new deal with Dallas. If not, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio and Chris Simms believe the Jets, Giants and Raiders could all be potential suitors.
Even if Prescott leaves Dallas, He’ll still count for $40M against the team’s cap in 2025. All the more reason to get him signed in 2024.
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