Cowboys' Wasted 2020 Season Shows Just How Much They Need to Pay Dak Prescott

Of all the lessons learnt in a miserable 6-10 season for the Dallas Cowboys, one rises above the rest: It's time to retain quarterback Dak Prescott with a long-term extension. 

The Cowboys front office, headed by owner Jerry Jones, seemed to drag its feet on this front last offseason, and it only looks worse and worse. Prescott's run of good health ended in 2020, and the Cowboys were up exposed as paper-thin and somewhat misguided. 

En route to six wins in an NFC East division won by the seven-win Washington Football Team, the Cowboys coughed up a brutal minus-78 point differential, only beat one team with more than six wins and were on a historically bad defensive pace.

Prescott, after playing in all 16 games in each of his first four seasons, only made it to five on 2020 before suffering his season-ending ankle injury. But over 222 attempts, he had a 68 completion percentage with 1,856 yards and nine touchdowns against four interceptions. 

For comparison's sake, Prescott's backup, Andy Dalton, needed eight starts to surpass that yardage number and finished the campaign at 2,169 yards with 14 touchdowns and eight interceptions while compiling a 4-5 record. 

For perspective, Dalton was arguably the league's best backup and a nine-year starter with the Cincinnati Bengals who had several playoff trips on his resume and could feasibly head to free agency this year hoping to find a starting job somewhere. 

The rest of the offense either fell apart or was already in shambles around Prescott from the beginning of the season. $90 million running back Ezekiel Elliott scored as many times on the ground as he had fumbles this year (six), averaged just 4.0 yards per carry and had a stretch of nine consecutive games without a rushing touchdown. 

First-round wideout CeeDee Lamb averaged 12.6 yards per catch on the year, but as Raiders Wire's Marcus Mosher pointed out, that number ballooned to 14.9 with Prescott under center. 

And ESPN's Mike Tannenbaum took a full-spectrum look at the offense:

Pretty numbers don't mean everything, but it says a lot about the state of things in Dallas if Prescott needed to put up 40 points to beat the eventual 4-12 Atlanta Falcons and 31 or more in three of his first four games just to stay competitive. 

Remember, it seemed a popular theory that Prescott would regress in 2020 after posting a 65.1 completion percentage with 4,902 yards and 30 touchdowns with just 11 interceptions in 2019. It sure didn't seem like things were headed that direction before his injury, not with the arrival of Lamb and Mike McCarthy taking over at head coach with recently extended Kellen Moore as offensive coordinator. 

Which is to say that Prescott can ask for almost whatever number he wants in negotiations this offseason. Without him to cover weaknesses, things could be even worse.

While the Cowboys were balking at demands from Prescott's camp (be it length of extension, total money or some combination of the two), they missed the boat on getting ahead of a booming market. The Kansas City Chiefs gave Patrick Mahomes $450 million over 10 years, and the Houston Texans gave Deshaun Watson $156 million over four. 

Prescott made $31.41 million on the franchise tag, which ranked ninth among all passers this season, per Spotrac. That was even behind Carson Wentz of the Philadelphia Eagles, whose $32 million average annual value was eighth. Mahomes and Watson were first and second at $45 million and $39 million, respectively. 

For context, Wentz struggled mightily before being benched by Philadelphia, where he'll reportedly ask for a trade this offseason, according to ESPN's Chris Mortensen. Wentz and his difficult-to-trade contract is one of many examples of just how difficult it is to find a franchise passer. Feel free to throw in the recently released Dwayne Haskins Jr., Josh Rosen's NFL career to date and plenty of others. 

Written another way, the Cowboys hit the jackpot. A compensatory fourth-round selection turned into one of the most reliable franchise passers in the league at a time when the Cowboys were ready to gamble it all on a trade up for Paxton Lynch and failed to grab fall-back plan Connor Cook.  

John Froschauer/Associated Press

Unlike Wentz, Prescott has never faltered or shown concerning signs of mechanical issues. He's been rock solid and consistent until his unfortunate injury. All his absence did was amplify just how much the Cowboys rely on him to bail them out. 

Paying quarterbacks isn't just about winning, as odd as it sounds. The leadership role of the position is unique, which is why Prescott has more than earned his big extension by merely being around the team all the time while he rehabs. McCarthy told Brianna Dix of D210 Sports the following: "His leadership jumps off the table at you since day one."

How much will Dallas have to pay? The Cowboys are going to have to eat the cost either way, but Prescott wanting $40 million a year isn't so outlandish. It wasn't before the season and especially isn't now, so Dallas and its projected $20.95 million in 2021 cap space has some work to do to make it all work. The tag route wouldn't be all that different at this point at $37.7 million—but a third tag for 2022 would check in at $54.2 million. 

As has always been the case when looking at the ongoing situation between the Cowboys and Prescott, one thing sticks out—other teams would love to have this problem. The Cowboys should be thankful one signature on a dotted line erases a problem some teams never solve. 

And with the Prescott-Moore nucleus the Cowboys have unearthed, that signature is the difference between instant contention and recklessly starting over at the most important position of all. While this season might have been lost, the Cowboys had a truth crystallized for them when it comes to giving Prescott what he wants to keep him in town for the long term.