2 ways the Dallas Cowboys re-sign Dak Prescott for a bargain price

With each passing week, the expected cost of re-signing Dak Prescott seems to rise, but there are two ways the Dallas Cowboys can retain their QB for a bargain price

In the past 24-hours the hot topic in Cowboys Nation shifted from Ezekiel Elliott’s holdout, to Dak Prescott’s ballooning price tag. Reports surfaced (although also denied) that Dak Prescott was seeking compensation in the $40 million per season range – about $10 million over what the Dallas Cowboys last offered him.

While extreme positions are a part of negotiating, the astronomical figure of $40 million is enough to make the collective heart of Cowboys Nation skip a beat. Given the nature of negotiations like this, common ground will likely be found somewhere in the middle. But there’s a way to reach that common ground AND get a bargain deal all at the same time…

The Tom Brady Method

During Super Bowl week, many announcers and talking heads incessantly praised Tom Brady for playing on a below-market-value deal. But what they failed to divulge was the deceptive way in which Tom Brady received his compensation.

As we discussed this past winter, Tom Brady only took a “pay cut” after he created a company (TB12) and had the Patriots organization hired said company for an undisclosed amount. If Tom took a $10 million discount in salary only to have the Patriots hire his suspicious company for $10 million, did he really take a cut?

For more on this check out: How the Cowboys sign Dak at a discount – just like the Pats did with Tom Brady

According to the NFL this doesn’t break any salary cap rules and Tom Brady and the Pats are hardly the first to do this. Teams have been filtering money through player’s business for a while and by all indications the NFL is cool with it.

What do we learn from this? Dak needs to start a company…say, DP04, and have the Dallas Cowboys hire this company for roughly $20 million a year for five years. Then Dak can happily sign for $15 million per season and become a “selfless team player” in the eyes of the national media, all while making massive coin in the process.

The Long Game

If Plan A seems too shady, perhaps the Dallas Cowboys can try a different avenue of savings: an extremely long-term deal. While the idea of committing a single season, let alone a multiyear deal upsets many Dallas Cowboys fans, the most feasible solution to his pricing problem may be to offer Dak a deal for seven or even eight years.

The reasoning is simple: The NFL’s highest paid QBs aren’t the best QBs, rather they’re the most recently signed QBs. That’s because the price of doing business increases each year (heck, each day). The best bargains in the NFL today are players who are playing on the oldest deals.