{"id":183081,"date":"2024-07-28T13:00:40","date_gmt":"2024-07-28T17:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=183081"},"modified":"2024-07-27T17:52:41","modified_gmt":"2024-07-27T21:52:41","slug":"dak-prescott-dallas-cowboys-under-pressure-after-tagovailoas-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/07\/28\/dak-prescott-dallas-cowboys-under-pressure-after-tagovailoas-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"Dak Prescott and Cowboys Under Pressure After Tua Tagovailoa\u2019s Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Dak Prescott still waits on a possible contract from Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys, other players are being signed. On Friday, July 26th, 2024, the Miami Dolphins finally extended<\/a> Tua Tagovailoa\u2019s contract, offering him a four-year, $212.4 million extension. It is an impressive amount of $53.1 million a year. It also should rattle the general managers in the Cowboys office over Prescott.<\/p>\n

Prescott has been in contract negotiations the entire offseason with no hopes of resolving the issue. There have been problems with the cap space and probably a lack of trust too.<\/p>\n

Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys Compared to Tua Tagovailoa<\/h2>\n

What the Dolphins Have that the Cowboys Lack<\/h3>\n

It wasn\u2019t an easy decision to sign Tagovailoa. He has been plagued with various injuries most of his career. He\u2019s received criticism for being inconsistent in cold weather. He hasn\u2019t won any playoff games.<\/p>\n

However, the Miami Dolphins managers and coaches believe that he can.<\/p>\n

The Dallas Cowboys gave up on those same hopes. There\u2019s very little faith that Dak Prescott will make a difference for this Cowboys team. Most of that doubt stems from Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys owner. During the training camp opening press conference<\/a>, Jones said this about Prescott:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd our players do play better when he\u2019s out there<\/a>,” Jones told reporters on July 25. He does make his teammates at a higher level, there\u2019s no question about it. So I\u2019m right there in line with his best fan, but believe it or not, in my life, I\u2019ve had a lot of things I\u2019ve wanted but I couldn\u2019t get because I couldn\u2019t afford it.\u201d (27:07)<\/p>\n

If you want Prescott, you pay him. It\u2019s simple. But underneath all of this sly banter is the truth\u2013they don\u2019t trust Prescott to do his job.<\/p>\n

Dak Prescott\u2019s Expectations vs. Tua Tagovailoa\u2019s Expectations<\/h3>\n

Tagovailoa has never won a playoff game (0-2) and got signed by the Dolphins. Prescott has won two and the Cowboys won\u2019t sign him. That\u2019s because the Cowboys aren\u2019t interested in sparingly winning playoff games while getting creamed in others. They want the Lombardi trophy or at the very least, they\u2019d like an NFC title.<\/p>\n

But Prescott hasn\u2019t delivered on these coveted trophies. The Dolphins are not a team known for their football playing talent. The expectations are a lot lower for a team that has been inconsistent over the years.<\/p>\n

When the Dallas Cowboys get beat, again, in the first round of playoffs by wild card Green Bay Packers, people talk. That noise isn\u2019t something Jones wants to hear, but it also hasn\u2019t been fixed since Prescott has been quarterback. There\u2019s an immense lack of performance, and that\u2019s another reason Jones is hesitating to put his money where his mouth is.<\/p>\n

Jerry Jones is \u201cAll In\u201d, But Not on The Team<\/h3>\n

In the same training camp press conference, Jones stated that he\u2019s \u201call in\u201d on the program this year. But he isn\u2019t talking about the star quarterback or camp holdout<\/a> CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons, who he also has not signed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s all in on them getting a victory in the playoffs. If they fail to live up to those high expectations, Jones will likely burn the whole program to the ground and rebuild from the ashes.<\/p>\n

And this is why there\u2019s a lack of trust.<\/p>\n

When the man writing the checks says that he\u2019s all in, but won\u2019t pay you, it puts a sour taste in your mouth. Prescott can either use that sour taste to motivate him to make this an even more exceptional season or sink beneath the pressure.<\/p>\n

If his past has anything to say about it, he might be wishing he had a life jacket.<\/p>\n

Prescott Might Be “All In” Elsewhere<\/h3>\n

Prescott was asked how he would feel about switching teams.<\/p>\n

“At the end of the day, it’s a business<\/a>,” Prescott told reporters on July 26. “I wanna be here. But you know, when you look at all the great quarterbacks I watch, [they] play for other teams. So my point in saying that is that’s not something to fear. That may be a reality for me one day; may not be my decision.” (13:23)<\/p>\n

Moving teams doesn\u2019t change the problem. It\u2019ll make it worse.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say Prescott doesn\u2019t sign with Jerry Jones and chooses to strike his path. Where will that leave him? It\u2019s hard to say. A good number of teams already have quarterbacks that they are confident in keeping. Out of the ones who don\u2019t, how many have the cap space to add Prescott to the roster for a cool $60 million?<\/p>\n

Even fewer. Prescott can leave, but to a team that isn\u2019t a playoff contender. He\u2019ll be left to help those guys rise to the occasion. And if we can tell anything from his playoff performance, Prescott plays worse under the beaming spotlight.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Chris Jones-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The clock is ticking on Dallas Cowboys With Dak Prescott.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5238,"featured_media":183109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[7972,302,889,7606,4443],"class_list":["post-183081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cowboys","tag-cowboys-featured","tag-dak-prescott","tag-jerry-jones","tag-miami-dolphins-roster","tag-tua-tagovailoa"],"modified_by":"Josh Buckhalter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}