Jerry Jones Suggests Cowboys Are in Line for Super Bowl After Dak Prescott Contract

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones believes there will be a correlation between quarterback Dak Prescott's record-setting $240 million extension and the franchise improving its championship odds.

"Any time that we've ever made players the highest-paid player, key players, such as Troy Aikman, the most highest-paid player in the game, we won Super Bowls," he said Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan (via The Athletic's Jon Machota).

Jones doesn't believe there will be any lingering frustration, either, stemming from the drawn-out negotiations after a bargain was finally struck:

Jones didn't mention CeeDee Lamb, but the wide receiver also earned a sizable payout to both cement his long-term future in Dallas and catapult him up the salary ranks.

As Cowboys fans know all too well, we're not living in the 1990s anymore. You could cite more recent precedents that poke holes in Jones' argument tying the organization's willingness to spend with success on the field.

Dallas signed Tony Romo to a contract making him the highest-paid player in franchise history in 2013. Prescott previously penned a multiyear deal in 2021 that put him among the highest earners in the league. On a lesser scale, defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence and wide receiver Amari Cooper got nine-figure contracts as well, which made them stand out among their peers.

And yet, none of that brought the Cowboys' Super Bowl drought to an end.

In general, having a hard salary cap makes it tough to draw a straight line between how much a team is willing to spend and its championship odds. The edge comes more from how you allocate your resources than the overall outlay.

Jones' comments also belie how much he has actually put toward the roster through the years, a point The Ringer's Danny Heifetz examined last week.

"As Blogging the Boys broke down earlier this year, from 2013 to 2016, the Cowboys ranked 25th in the NFL in cash spending," he wrote. "(Cash spending is actual money being paid to players each year. There is no limit on the cash a team can spend each season as long as it is properly accounted for over a five-year window. This creates advantages for teams who spend sharply.) From 2016 to 2019, the Cowboys ranked dead last in cash spending. And from 2021 to 2023, the Cowboys ranked 30th. The trend has continued this season. As of mid-August, they ranked dead last in 2024 cash spending."

Keeping Prescott and Lamb around is certainly a good thing as it relates to the Cowboys' hopes of lifting the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Much more goes into that quest, though, and the deals around the margins are where Dallas has routinely fallen flat.