By most accounts, the contract Dak Prescott signed this week to play quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys is the best contract ever signed by any player in league history. You can question whether he is worth it based on statistics including wins and losses. But one person did and that person is Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones.
Prescott will receive a $66 million signing bonus. That’s the biggest signing bonus ever received by any player in league history. His 2021 base salary is $9 million.
Second, he’ll have a $9 million base salary in 2021, fully guaranteed. When it is all said and done, Prescott will end up making $160 million over a four year period.
The deal also compares very favorably to the first four years of money paid to top quarterbacks under their current deals. Prescott will be making more cash than Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, and, yes, Patrick Mahomes.
Again, I ask. Is Prescott worth it? The quarterbacks I just mentioned have all won Super Bowls. Dallas has not come close to contending for a Super Bowl. And remember, Dak only played a few games last season due to a catastrophic knee injury.
Dak Prescott
Let’s look at some stats. Prescott, while playing on a team that has offensive weapons like Zeke Elliott at runningback and Amari Cooper at wide receiver, has a 42-27 record as a starter. A closer look at his body of work tells us that he has not fared well against the better competition, especially of late.
In Prescott’s last full season (2019), the Cowboys finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs. Dallas went 4-0 against the Giants and the Washington Football Team while also beating the Dolphins and the Lions. Those were four out of the five worst teams in the NFL.
In fact, the only win Dallas had in 2019 against a winning team was against the 9-7 LA Rams who went just 9-7. A close look tells us that Prescott threw eight TD passes and eight interceptions against eventual playoff teams. Against non-playoff teams he threw 22 scoring passes and three interceptions.
I know that is just one season but looking further back shows us that this is a recurring trend. Dallas is paying all this money to a quarterback that has a 14-23 record against teams with a winning record.
Time will tell how this signing will work out for the Cowboys. It sure did work out for Dak.
Hornets Gearing Up For A Playoff Run
The All-Star break has come and gone in the NBA and the Charlotte Hornets have been one of the league’s surprises. This is the time of season franchises make trades to bolster their rosters for playoff runs.
What, if anything, will the Hornets do? Personally, I hope they do little and let this group keep improving on their own. I would not do anything major to mess with this young core of players.
Charlotte is currently 16-18 and are the number-eight seed in the East. Few expected this good of a start. The Hornets inserted rookie LaMelo Ball into the starting lineup 14 games ago and have had a winning record since that time. Ball averaged 21 points, seven assists, and six rebounds a game over that span. He clearly looks like a budding star.
The Hornets have a great thing going for them right now and shouldn’t make any moves that would inhibit Ball’s progress this season. The only possible addition that would help is to add another big man who can run the court. Someone who can be on the receiving end of Ball’s passes. Rumor has it that former Duke star Marvin Bagley of the Sacramento Kings could be available.
