Dak Prescott signed a monster $160 million contract, but his next deal could be even more mind-blowing
- Dak Prescott has a new contract with the Cowboys that will pay him $160 million over four years.
- The deal makes him the second-highest paid player in the NFL by average annual value.
- But the real money might come with Prescott's next deal should he continue to play at a high level.
Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys have reached terms on a new deal that will keep him with the team for four more years.
The deal is worth $160 million over the next four seasons, including $126 million in guaranteed money and a signing bonus of $66 million - the highest in NFL history. The 2021 NFL season alone will be worth $75 million to Prescott.
Prescott's new contract is a big win for the Cowboys quarterback, working to come back from a devastating ankle injury suffered during the 2020 season. Because of the injury, there were questions about whether or not Dak would get to cash in on his impressive first five seasons in the league. That the deal was struck this far ahead of the coming season gives reason to believe that the Cowboys have faith that Prescott's recovery is going smoothly.
With his new deal, Prescott becomes the second-highest-paid player in the NFL based on average annual value. His $40 million AAV trails only Patrick Mahomes, who signed a monster 10-year, $503 million extension with Kansas City last summer.
While Prescott is already making good money with the new contract, the terms of the deal set him up for an even more impressive payday in a few years. Should Prescott play out the entirety of his deal with the Cowboys, he'll be just 31 years old when he returns to the negotiating table, with plenty of good football left in him.
Between now and then, several other young quarterbacks - Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, and Baker Mayfield, to name a few - will likely sign massive extensions of their own, further resetting the market of what a top-tier quarterback costs. And although the 2021 year will be a down one for the NFL salary cap, the cap can only be expected to rise over the next four seasons. By 2025, several quarterbacks may flirt with the $50 million AAV mark that Mahomes has set, setting up Prescott for another huge deal of his own.
All of this is contingent on Prescott continuing to play at a high level. In 2019, Prescott had his best season yet with the Cowboys, throwing for 4,902 yards and 30 touchdowns to 11 interceptions. While he only played in five games at the start of the 2020 season, he was leading the NFL in passing through that opening stretch, averaging an astounding 371 yards per game.
As long as he can keep healthy and keep playing at an elite level, Prescott could be back at the bargaining table in four years with even more leverage. $160 million looks pretty good now, but in four years, Prescott could be looking at an even bigger payday.