With the Cowboys a season away from seeing quarterback Dak Prescott hit the open market, they blinked. As the 2025 league year approaches, they might be dry heaving.
Prescott’s latest contract comes with a cap number of $89.896 million in 2025.
And, yes, that amount can be reduced by (for example) turning most of his 2025 salary into a signing bonus and spreading it over five years. But even if the Cowboys lower his pay to the minimum of $1.255 million and convert the remaining $46.495 into a guaranteed payment, they’re still looking at a $51.445 million cap charge for the coming year.
The move would also jack up each of the next four cap numbers by $9.299 million. Which will set the stage for more restructurings and more can kicking. Whenever the team’s inevitable first year post-Dak arrives, they’ll have to carry a crippling cap charge.
Already, for example, a trade before June 1 would result in a dead-money charge of more than $103 million. One of these years, sooner or later, they’ll end up paying the salary-cap fiddler by having far less money to spend now.
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