The Green Bay Packers heard about Aaron Rodgers. Deshaun Watson has repeatedly warned the Houston Texans. Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford have already been disconnected from their broken relationships with the Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions. Carson Wentz still appears to be in the middle of a silent protest from the Philadelphia Eagles while pushing for a switch. And so that no one will forget: Jimmy Garoppolo, Derek Carr, Sam Darnold and Teddy Bridgewater are all listed on the commercial market, which means that while they are not yet being actively purchased by their teams, if anyone wants to call San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York Jets or Carolina Panthers, there will be someone willing to answer and listen on the other end of the line.
Silently behind it all, Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys are pushing for a defining moment. A final off-season contract negotiation that carries an underlying theme unlikely to change once the 2021 season begins.
If it is not done now, it will never be done.
We had a chance to speak to Troy Aikman on Thursday on the “Yahoo Sports NFL Podcast”, and he expressed a similar sentiment – echoing that, while it is still somewhat unbelievable that we have come this far along the way, it is much believable that the road is coming to an end if Cowboys owner Jerry Jones fails to design a ditch extension with Prescott.
“I was surprised [it didn’t get done in 2020], ”Aikman said Thursday. “I really thought they would have closed a deal a year ago. I bet the Joneses would like to have it, too, because the price is above where it was last year.
“I think they are going to close a deal this year. I can’t imagine Dak playing under the franchise brand again this year. If so, then I have a hard time believing that he will end his career with the Cowboys. “
Aikman is not alone. Since Dallas failed to get his book extension in the last off-season and massive new deals were made for Kansas City Chiefs ‘Patrick Mahomes and Texans’ Watson, the prevailing belief in other NFL offices is that there is essentially zero chance that Prescott will be a Cowboy after 2021. Not only because a third consecutive franchise brand is essentially impossible for Dallas to carry around $ 54 million in 2022, but also because some other teams realized how Dallas sank over a long period when Prescott fell to end the injury ankle – both competitively and in terms of offensive production. At the very least, losing Prescott in 2020 sent a parallel message to Dallas and other underserved teams about how significant he is as a player and leader. And that will make it a more viable free agent commodity, even at a premium price.
And if there’s anything we’re learning about where the NFL is going, it’s that franchises are becoming more willing to become aggressive if they believe they don’t have the right quarterback in place to be a contender for the Super Bowl. This became very clear when the Rams negotiated with Goff, and the 49ers, Raiders and Panthers were willing to listen to offers for beginners that everyone had some confidence in last season. This kind of reality is significant when it comes to Prescott, because it eliminates any notion that if he got a free agency in 2022, there would not be enough applicants to get the kind of contract he’s looking for in Dallas.
Either Dallas will pay Prescott an elite-level quarterback deal or someone will step in and take advantage of that opportunity.
All of this makes this season vital for the Cowboys, who are already in the midst of it, swapping parts of the assistant coaching staff, mostly replacing defensive coordinator Mike Nolan with Dan Quinn. Interestingly, the most important part of the assistant technical team that would have impacted Prescott – offensive coordinator Kellen Moore – not only didn’t change, but was further cemented when the Cowboys aggressively extended Moore to prevent him from taking over as head coach in his alma mater, Boise State. That did not stop Moore from being interviewed for the Eagles’ coach at the end of last month, who ended up going to Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni.
A source close to the Eagles said that Moore had a good interview with the team, but that Sirianni was ultimately the right choice that the board was looking for in terms of team building ideology and having been prepared within a scheme that fits the current Eagles folks. But Moore getting his first interview as a head coach at the age of 32 certainly won’t hurt his future candidacy for other teams, especially if he can go one step further with Prescott in 2021. It also won’t stifle the idea that Moore might end up being. the right option for the Cowboys if coach Mike McCarthy fails to turn the corner next season. This is a natural assumption surrounding a franchise that prepared Jason Garrett for a position as head coach, while Garrett was on the team of former coach Wade Phillips.
Aikman said on Thursday that he does not think this is a perfect comparison, although he agrees that there is some sensitivity in Moore being an internal candidate if McCarthy falters. The difference, Aikman suggested, is that Jones brought Garrett with the idea that he was likely to be the future head coach. On the other hand, Aikman believes Jones wants McCarthy to be successful in the first place – more than the idea of eventually preparing Moore to take the reins as head coach.
“I really think this situation is different from the one Jason Garrett found himself in,” said Aikman. “There was a real story there with Jason Garrett and the Jones family, since his playing days, of course. The familiarity, the respect they had for Jason as a player and when he joined as a coach, I think that was seen, my guess is that when Jason was brought in as an offensive coordinator, he was seen as a future candidate to be the head coach of Dallas Cowboys. I don’t know if Kellen Moore was thought of like that when he went from the field to the coaching staff.
“But my guess is – and I feel confident saying it – Jerry Jones is hopeful that Mike McCarthy will be the head coach for the next 10 years, because that means that a lot of good things are happening. But if that is not the case, yes, I think Kellen Moore would certainly be a candidate. Whether they see it or not, yes, we have our next head coach in the building, I’m not sure if that’s an accurate statement. “
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