Dak To Leave Cowboys To 'Stick It To Jerry Jones'?

FRISCO - There are a lot of reasons to think Dak Prescott might play out the 2024 season without agreeing to a contract extension with the Dallas Cowboys and become a free agent in the spring of 2025.

In fact, off the top of our heads, we have think of $60 or $70 million reasons per year why.

What we have never considered - before now - is that the Cowboys quarterback would make a very specific move out of some spiteful hate of team owner Jerry Jones.

Leave it to ProFootballTalk.com conspiracy theorist/mind reader Mike Florio to invent that one. Florio is "soft-projecting'' Dak's very specific move from Dallas to ... the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“Would (Pittsburgh) pay Dak market value? ... Dak could choose to go to a team and a coach for less than market value,” Florio writes. “After having Jerry Jones try to persuade him for years to take less than he could get elsewhere, Dak could stick it to the Cowboys by choosing to take less from one of their biggest AFC rivals.”

There is nothing new about the idea of connecting the Steelers (who have QBs Russell Wilson and Justin Fields both on expiring contracts) to Prescott. What's "new'' here is Florio's out-of-blue invention of Prescott's motivation. But Florio commits two loony goof-ups here.

One, Florio's assertion that Jones has low-balled Dak is factually wrong. His last/present contract, signed in March 2021, gave him $160 million over four years. That $40 million APY was second only to Patrick Mahomes, was $5 million more than Russell Wilson and $7 million more than Aaron Rodgers and included an NFL-record $68 million signing bonus.

No "low-ball'' there. And now? Florio has no idea what Dallas has on the table as an offer to Prescott. Would Dallas like "to persuade him ... take less than he could get elsewhere''? Well, considering that we have a source projecting that Dak might get $70 million APY if he waits until next year? Yes. No kidding, Sherlock. Dallas would like to pay him less than that ...

While quite possibly paying him $56 million APY, which would make Dak (again) the richest guy in the history of the sport.

No "low-ball'' there, either.

Related: 'Kill the Speculation!' Dak Contract Coming, Assures CeeDee

Two, Florio's assertion that Dak will want to sign with a team so he can "stick it to'' Jerry is a juvenile one. If Prescott does hit the market, he will be looking for a chance to cash in and a chance to win. He's no fool, and being fueled by "pettiness'' is for fools.

Sign with "one of Dallas' biggest rivals''? You mean the Giants? The Eagles? The Commanders? The 49ers? The Packers? Sign with a "rival'' that might need a QB? You mean the Falcons, the Saints, the Raiders, the Seahawks, oh, and the Steelers?

Sure. Some of them might be bidders if Prescott is available to go into business with them. And given his track record - which is very much in play as he debates with Dallas about staying here - Dak will be all about business. ... leaving childish notions to media members who seem to know nothing about him.