We heard yesterday that Dak Prescott and the Cowboys had resumed negotiations on a long-term extension with the March 9th franchise tag deadline looming. Dallas fans will be happy to know that it sounds like those negotiations are going well.

Talks are “progressing” and have been “more productive than they have been” in previous months, sources tell Calvin Watkins of The Dallas Morning News. Obviously if they can’t agree to a deal the Cowboys will tag Prescott and then they’ll have until July to work something out, but the word recently has been that Jerry Jones is hoping to wrap something up quicker than that to give the team clarity entering free agency.

Interestingly, Watkins also sheds a little more light on the second surgery Prescott had in December. That procedure was apparently to “clean up previous problems in the right ankle,” and wasn’t related to the devastating fracture he suffered in that same ankle back in Week 5.

Watkins notes that team officials say it was merely “to strengthen the ankle,” and wasn’t a setback or new injury. Additionally, he writes that Prescott is expected to be ready for training camp in July. In the report from yesterday, we heard that Prescott isn’t looking to top Patrick Mahomes, but is instead probably looking for something in the ballpark of $40MM annually.

Mahomes’ new deal gave him $45MM annually, and Deshaun Watson got around $39MM on his extension. No matter what, it looks like things are finally moving in the right direction after a long impasse.

Although the Cowboys have until July to hammer out a long-term extension for Dak Prescott, a key deadline looms in a week. The team has until March 9 to use its franchise tag on its quarterback, or he will be on track for free agency a week later.

The Cowboys understandably would prefer to avoid having a $37MM cap charge on their books going into free agency. Seeking to extend Prescott before the March 9 tag deadline, the Cowboys have resumed negotiations with their sixth-year quarterback, Jane Slater of NFL.com notes (video link).

Prescott is not seeking to eclipse Patrick Mahomes‘ $45MM-per-year pact, per Slater, but the longtime Dallas starter is eyeing a deal that would put him behind the Chiefs superstar. Deshaun Watson‘s $39MM-AAV price may come into play, with that being a more traditional quarterback contract compared to Mahomes’ 10-year re-up. It is safe to say Prescott’s price has risen considerably during his two years of negotiations.

After the two-time Pro Bowler was linked to barely a $30MM-per-year pact in 2019, the 2020 talks centered around a deal that would have paid him in the $35MM-AAV range. A franchise tag provision held up an agreement last summer, though it is unclear how close the sides were to a deal. Prescott played the 2020 season, which became abbreviated because of his ankle injury, on the tag. Watson signed his contract a few weeks after the summer tag deadline, potentially changing this year’s talks.

Prescott’s camp sought a four-year extension in 2020, while the Cowboys pitched a five-year pact. That became a sticking point. The Cowboys’ 2020 offer was believed to have included around $110MM in guarantees. The franchise, as of now, is not believed to have proposed a hike in guaranteed money, Slater adds. That guarantee amount would come in behind only Mahomes and Watson, though it is not known how much of the pact would be fully guaranteed.

Prescott, 27, has been extension-eligible since the 2018 regular season ended, but this process will come to a head this year. The Cowboys not extending Prescott by July 15 would keep him on Kirk Cousins‘ former path in Washington. A 2022 franchise tag would be an untenable $54MM, raising the stakes for the third chapter of these negotiations.

The Cowboys hope to get an extension with quarterback Dak Prescott hammered out before the March 9 deadline for applying the franchise tag, as Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com report. That suggests that there are no concerns over Prescott’s health, which is in keeping with the periodic updates that the team has provided over the past few months.

Of course, stories about negotiations between Dallas and Prescott are not unfamiliar to NFL fans. The two sides were said to be close to signing a long-term deal on multiple occasions in recent history, but they have not been able to strike an accord just yet. The most recent reports suggested that Prescott was prepared to accept a five-year contract worth $35MM per year before the July deadline for extending franchised players, but that the Cowboys would not agree to include a provision saying he could not be tagged at the expiration of that contract.

If that’s true, that would be an odd hill for Jerry Jones & Co. to die on, as it’s unlikely Prescott would have made it to the end of that contract without another renegotiation. Rival execs posit that Jones’ refusal to give in on that issue might have cost him roughly $40MM, as the quarterback market has only continued to boom, even in the midst of the pandemic. Prescott could now fetch a deal worth $42MM-$43MM per year, and the guarantee he gets now might be higher than it would have been in July.

But the Cowboys are in a bind, as they cannot let their 27-year-old franchise quarterback just walk away. Obviously, Prescott knows that, so it’s unclear if he will be willing to accept an early extension or if he would rather take negotiations down to the wire again this summer and to really force Dallas’ hand.

An extension before March 9 would certainly be in the Cowboys’ best interests, as they would otherwise have to tag Prescott again for a price of roughly $37.7MM and perhaps carry that full cap hit through free agency. A multi-year pact, on the other hand, would give them considerably more payroll flexibility in the coming months, which will be especially important given the expected salary cap decrease.

Pelissero and Rapoport also write that, in addition to the surgery that Prescott underwent in the immediate aftermath of the brutal ankle injury he suffered in October, the two-time Pro Bowler went under the knife again several months later. The second surgery was not directly related to the October procedure, but it did help to improve the structure and integrity of the ankle and further accelerated Prescott’s recovery. He is expected to be ready to return to the field well in advance of the 2021 regular season.

The Cowboys haven’t seen much of Dak Prescott in 2020, but that won’t stop them from committing to him in 2021 and beyond. This week, Cowboys VP Stephen Jones said that Prescott’s fractured/dislocated ankle isn’t what’s holding up their contract talks. 

“Our issues in our negotiations with Dak have been that we’re wanting to be more committed, in terms of the (number of years),” said Jones (Twitter link via Jon Machota of The Athletic). “We’re not nervous to sign Dak. His makeup is all the right things. He’s a great leader. He’s a great player.”

Before the gruesome injury, Prescott had been set to accept the team’s offer of $35MM annually, but negotiations broke down over a disputed franchise tag provision. At one point, Prescott was expecting to land north of $40MM this offseason. Now, things are a bit more complicated. If the Cowboys are not ready to put that same offer on the table and iron out the contractual kinks, they could franchise tag him for a second straight year. However, that’d cost ’em $38MM, and Jones claims that the Cowboys want more years with Prescott than just one.

Things were looking rough for the Cowboys even prior to Prescott’s injury – they were 1-3, and the quarterback was more or less the only bright spot of the opening months. In the face of the Cowboys’ Swiss cheese D, Prescott posted at least 450 yards between Weeks 2-4.

After 18 months of Dak Prescott rumors, the Cowboys quarterback is tethered to his franchise tag salary until 2021. If/when the Cowboys revisit extension talks with their QB1, the negotiating starting point will certainly be different compared to where it was in 2019 and from the $35MM-per-year range in which it resided this summer.

Prescott was ready to accept Dallas’ $35MM-AAV offer in July, but Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reports he wanted a provision in the deal that prevented the Cowboys from tagging him in the offseason after the contract expired. That proved to be a deal-breaker for Jerry Jones.

Jones said Tuesday, when asked about this sticking point, he views the tag as a valuable negotiating tool, per Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (on Twitter). This is an interesting disagreement, since it refers to a hypothetical negotiation in 2025. Quarterbacks of Prescott’s caliber rarely play out their contracts, but Prescott held firm in 2019 and played out his rookie deal — which ended up raising his price.

A cross-section of NFL executives now view Prescott’s forthcoming price range between $42-$43MM per year, La Canfora adds. That is considerably higher than where it was in 2019, when Prescott became extension-eligible, and where it was in 2020. Even though a record cap reduction could take place next year, the quarterback market has now seen Patrick Mahomes sign for $45MM (over 10 years) and Deshaun Watson raise the conventional QB-contract price to $39MM a year. Lamar Jackson will also be eligible to sign a monster extension by the time the Cowboys can negotiate with Dak again.

The deal Prescott was ready to sign in mid-July included $110MM guaranteed and $70MM in the first two years. At the time, that would have placed Prescott in the top three among guarantees. Watson’s pact includes $111MM guaranteed. Should the Cowboys tag Prescott again in 2021, it would mean a $38MM cap hit.