Good news for Cowboys fans. Quarterback Dak Prescott has had “absolutely no setbacks” in his recovery (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero) and remains on course to play in the season opener on September 9.

Prescott’s ailing shoulder is still healing on schedule and Pelissero hears that he could have even played in tonight’s game against the Texans. But, because there’s little to be gained in exhibition games, the Cowboys didn’t want to take any risks. The plan is to ramp up Prescott’s practice reps next week, which doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll take the field against the Jaguars on Aug. 29. In all likelihood, the Cowboys will take the cautious approach by protecting Prescott between now and Week 1 against the Buccaneers.

The sixth-year QB threw the ball around before the Cowboys’ second preseason game last weekend and didn’t experience any pain, another promising sign for the weeks ahead.

Injuries limited Prescott to just five games last year, but he posted at least 450 yards between Weeks 2-4. The Cowboys are banking on another hot start from their franchise QB and a season similar to 2019 when he threw for 4,902 yards and 30 touchdowns.

The second ankle surgery Dak Prescott underwent in December injected a bit of uncertainty into the Cowboys quarterback’s return timetable, but this year continues to unfold smoothly for the sixth-year veteran.

Two months after signing a monster extension, Prescott is expected to participate in the Cowboys’ OTA sessions, according to Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. While Mike McCarthy said Prescott will likely be restricted to individual work during Dallas’ OTAs, the second-year coach expects his quarterback to be full go come training camp.

“I have no reason not to think that,” McCarthy said of Prescott receiving full clearance by training camp, via Hill. “I think this week in Phase 2 (of the offseason program) will be a nice step in that direction. He’ll do most things. He’s really had some excellent workouts here in the last couple weeks. I’d see him doing most of the work.”

This certainly represents good news for a Cowboys team now fully committed to the former Offensive Rookie of the Year. The soon-to-be 28-year-old passer’s recovery timetable was to be between four and six months, and Hill notes the December cleanup procedure is not believed to have delayed the recovery process. The Cowboys begin Phase 2 of their offseason program Monday. Phase 3, the OTA portion, begins May 24.

The 2020 Cowboys certainly missed their starter during the final three quarters of the season, after Prescott suffered a compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle last October. From 2016-19, Dak did not miss a game and established himself as the Cowboys’ franchise QB. The Cowboys let Andy Dalton walk in free agency and did not replace him with a veteran.

The Cowboys used their franchise tag on Dak Prescott on Tuesday, but the move was procedural. Dallas did give Prescott the exclusive tag, per ESPN.com’s Field Yates (on Twitter), for the second straight year. However, the two-year saga is still ending. Prescott agreed to a four-year, $160MM extension Monday night.

This move will further protect Prescott against a future tag down the line. A third tag would bump up the quarterback’s price to an astronomical place. A third tag in 2022 would have cost the Cowboys more than $54MM. They finalized a deal Monday, rather than have his second tag price — $37.7MM — on their books going into free agency.

Players have been tagged three times before; Hall of Fame tackle Walter Jones played three seasons on the tag in the 2000s. But the system now calls for a 44% raise from the previous year’s salary. Dak’s extension contains a no-tag provision, but that applies only to this through-2024 deal. Tuesday’s second tag would make the prospect of the Cowboys tagging Prescott at the end of another contract effectively a non-starter. This will give Dak more leverage over the course of his career.

After counting $22.2MM against Dallas’ 2021 cap, Prescott will see his cap numbers spike to $33.2MM in 2022, $44.2MM in 2023 and $47.2MM in ’24, per OverTheCap. Prescott’s 2021 and ’22 base salaries ($9MM and $20MM, respectively) are fully guaranteed, with Joel Corry of CBS Sports noting the well-compensated quarterback will receive his full $66MM signing bonus — an NFL-record figure — by the end of 2021 (Twitter link).

The guaranteed base salaries and full bonus payout being due this year will give Prescott $95MM guaranteed at signing, making for another NFL record. Matt Ryan‘s $94.5MM full guarantee in 2018 previously topped that list. While Prescott’s 2023 salary ($31MM) is guaranteed for injury only, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk notes it will shift to a full guarantee on the fifth day of the 2022 league year. TL;DR: Prescott is now a far richer man.

Prescott’s total guarantees ($126MM) fall short of Patrick Mahomes‘ ($141MM), and the Chiefs QB still leads the football world with his $45MM-per-year average. But Prescott’s contract has now set records for signing bonus, fully guaranteed money and Year 1 payment. While Mahomes is signed through 2030, Prescott will have the opportunity to cash in again — assuming his play level does not nosedive in the early 2020s — before turning 32.

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.