Dak Prescott said Thursday that both sides are working on a contract for the veteran quarterback. Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones echoed that Friday.
Time is running out to get a deal completed for the season opener, though, with the Cowboys playing the Browns on Sunday. A week ago, Prescott seemed to indicate that was his deadline.
Jones was asked on 105.3 The Fan whether getting a deal done in the next two days was possible.
“Yeah, I hope it’s a possibility,” Jones said, via Jon Machota of TheAthletic.com. “We continue to have productive visits and talks. We’ll continue to work.”
So, what happens if the sides don’t get a deal done before Sunday? All indications are that Prescott will head to free agency in March, with a bidding war for his services commencing.
“I’m not going to get into hypotheticals,” Jones said. “We’re working hard, got our eye on the ball, and we’ll see what happens. I know in the meantime, Dak and our team has their eyes on beating the Browns.”
The Cowboys took two years of negotiations before finally signing Prescott to his second deal in 2021. The four-year, $160 million contract expires at the end of this season.
The Cowboys have no quarterback under contract for 2025 and no Plan B for if Prescott leaves, but they repeatedly have said they hope and expect to sign their starting quarterback to a long-term deal before he becomes a free agent.
Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy enters the season on a seat so hot he’s possibly gotten used to it, like Bart Simpson’s intriguing take on hell.
How will McCarthy stave of termination and secure an extension? By running.
Not literally. Not himself. He says he’s going to embrace the running game.
“We will be good running the football and that’s because we’re going to commit to it,” McCarthy said on 105.3 The Fan, via Jon Machota of TheAthletic.com.
That’s fine. But it’s also a little off. You don’t become good at running the ball by simply committing to it. If the running game is going nowhere, committing to it should get the coach committed. It has to be effective, which encourages using it more and more.
Will it be? They’ll need to block. And they’ll need to hope Ezekiel Elliott can turn back the clock. And that Rico Dowdle can help carry the load.
From time to time, one of the smartest-person-in-the-room types will spout off stats about a team’s success when it runs the ball a certain number of times or for a certain number of yards. That’s very misleading. A team doesn’t have success simply because it runs. Successful running combined with commitment to successful running results in a victory and, coincidentally, more than (for example) a certain number of attempts and a certain number of yards..
So if the Cowboys are able to run effectively then, yes, they should commit to it. If they’re not moving the chains, they should rely on a passing game fueled by a receiver making $34 million per year and a quarterback who, if he stays, will be making $60 million or more per year.
The Browns will definitely be missing one starting tackle against the Cowboys and they may be without both of them.
Left tackle Jedrick Wills has been ruled out for the opener as he continues to work his way back from last year’s season-ending knee injury. Wills practiced for the first time this year on Wednesday, but did not take part in Thursday.
Right tackle Jack Conklin is one possible replacement for Wills, although he’s also dealing with a knee injury and his own status is questionable for this weekend. Conklin was injured in the first week of the 2023 season and he began practicing with the team in late August.
James Hudson and Dawand Jones are listed as the backup tackle options on Cleveland’s depth chart.
Much like last year, Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson remains a mystery factor entering the 2024 season.
After undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery last year, will he get back to his 2020 level of performance? Or will he struggle in a revamped offensive scheme?
New offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey said in his Thursday press conference he thinks Watson is excited to get back to playing.
“I think he’s a competitor, he wants to be out there with his guys and out there playing ball, and he’s looked like himself at practice from what I’ve seen on tape from him in the past, you know?” Dorsey said. “So, I think he just continues to progress and continues to kind of get back in that rhythm a little bit and I’m excited to see him out there and excited to watch him kind of fly around and be himself, you know?
“And that’s all we want from him. We just want him to go out, be himself. No more, no less. Go out and make good decisions. Everything else will take care of itself.”
Dorsey added that Watson has been “extremely hungry” and has “been great for me in terms of just taking the coaching” that he’s put out there. Some of that has to do with balancing when to extend a play by potentially putting himself in harm’s way with just moving on when a play might be dead.
“[H]e’s going to make some exceptional plays for us that no one else in this league can make and he’s going to be able to do that for us,” Dorsey said. “Balancing that with, there’s a time to throw it away and move on to the next down, you know? So, there’s definitely that balance you got to strike with guys because you don’t want to lose that aspect of what makes them special in their own way. And I think the great thing about Deshaun is he can do that outside of this just normal system, and then he can get back and work a progression and rip it to an outlet or a third progression in the read, just as equal.
“So, I think it’s just a balance you got to strike with these guys and make sure you don’t put the handcuffs on them in too many ways.”
Over the last two seasons with Cleveland, Watson has completed 59.8 percent of his passes for 2,217 yards with 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions in 12 games.
The Cowboys added an important player to their practice report Thursday.
Rookie cornerback Caelen Carson popped up with a knee injury. An addition to the report after the first reporting day usually is an indication the player was injured at practice, but Carson had a full practice.
Aaron Kasinitz of lonestarlive.com reports that Carson was walking without a limp in the locker room after practice.
Coach Mike McCarthy will have a news conference Friday morning, and the team will release its status report later in the day.
The fifth-rounder is being counted on to start while Pro Bowl cornerback DaRon Bland is out following foot surgery. Andrew Booth and Israel Mukuamu, who have combined for five career starts, are options behind Carson.
The rest of the team’s injury report remained the same: Tight end John Stephens (hamstring) was the only player to miss practice, and linebacker Damone Clark (knee), defensive end Marshawn Kneeland (knee), cornerback Israel Mukuamu (groin), defensive tackle Mazi Smith (Achilles) and safety Juanyeh Thomas (groin) were full participants.
A report Thursday indicates the Cowboys and Dak Prescott’s representation have made progress toward a long-term contract for the quarterback. How much progress is the question.
Three days before the season opener, Prescott remains headed toward free agency in March.
“I’d say they’re working,” Prescott said of talks, via Schuyler Dixon of the Associated Press. “I don’t know if that’s necessarily the time line. I can’t say, ‘Hell, I’ll put a timeline to [vice president of football operations/football administration] Todd [Williams] and Stephen [Jones] if we don’t get this done, this or that, but I know they’re working.”
Prescott, though, makes clear that he’s working on getting ready for the Browns, not worrying about his contract. He said what happens on the football field is the “only thing that matters.”
“I’ve never played the game for [money],” Prescott said. “I play the game for the pure love, for the guys in that locker room. This game has always brought me something that not a lot of things in life do. That’s the type of peace it does, being out there between the lines with people you share a brotherhood with. There is something special about this game of football, and we’re just blessed that money comes with it, and I’m in the position I’m in that we can be having these conversations, but that doesn’t motivate me.”
Prescott had less to say about contract talks than last week when he said he didn’t care whether a deal got done before the opener, while indicating the start of the season was his deadline. Prescott also said last week he no longer listens to anything owner Jerry Jones tells the media.
“People change their feelings daily. Can’t say I have the same feelings I had last week,” Prescott said Thursday.
Prescott has leverage, with no-trade and no-tag clauses in the four-year, $160 million deal he signed in 2021. It’s his decision whether he enters free agency in 2025, regardless what the Cowboys offer, and it will take a record deal with much of it guaranteed to get him to sign now.
Browns left tackle Jedrick Wills returned to practice on Wednesday, revealing afterward that he won’t start as he works his way back from an MCL injury last Nov. 5. He did not practice Thursday.
It seems unlikely that Wills even dresses for the game.
Either Jack Conklin or James Hudson will start at left tackle.
Conklin, the right tackle, is returning from a knee injury that limited him in practice a second consecutive day.
Wide receiver David Bell (quad), linebacker Jordan Hicks (calf), defensive tackle Maurice Hurst (hamstring), defensive tackle Quinton Jefferson (Achilles), defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson (knee) and linebacker Nathaniel Watson (quad) also remained limited.
Wide receiver Jerry Jeudy (knee), linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (hand) and defensive end Alex Wright (elbow) were full participants again.
Wide receiver David Bell won’t be in the lineup for the Browns when they face the Cowboys on Sunday.
The Browns announced that they have waived Bell on Thursday afternoon. They did not make any addition to the 53-man roster, so they have an open spot to work with heading into the opener.
Bell joined the Browns as a third-round pick in 2022. He appeared in 31 regular season games for the team and caught 38 passes for 381 yards and three touchdowns. He also had eight catches for 54 yards in last season’s playoff loss to the Texans.
Amari Cooper, Jerry Jeudy, Elijah Moore, Jamari Thrash, and Cedric Tillman are the remaining receivers on the active roster in Cleveland.
Before Brandon Aiyuk signed his extension with the 49ers, he was involved in several trade rumors — one of which included the Browns and receiver Amari Cooper.
Around the time that reporting came out, Cooper posted “lol I wouldn’t mind at all” to his Instagram story.
As the season arrives, Cooper is still with the Browns and said in a Thursday press conference that he didn’t need to speak with anyone from the team about the potential deal.
“At the end of the day, it’s neither here nor there. So, I’m just focused on playing my best football,” Cooper said, via Jeff Schudel of The News-Herald.
As for that cryptic social media post, Cooper said, “Hey, I mean, the media is all about sensationalism, so I’ll let y’all have fun with whatever you thought that might’ve meant.”
Cooper and the Browns agreed to a renegotiated contract at the start of training camp, giving him a raise for the coming season. But Cooper is still set to become a free agent for the first time next March. He said this offseason hasn’t been trying for him — “I’m not an emotional person, so no” — while noting that he doesn’t take the business aspects of the game personally.
“At the end of the day, you might be traded away from one team — it’s all about how you perceive things,” Cooper said. “Life is all about perception because in regards to trades, you’re traded away from one team but you’re being accepted into another team. So I just look at it as, that’s how the business is arranged. There was a time when there was no free agency. Although I’ve never been a free agent, but I’m just saying that to make a point where players weren’t getting traded as much. It’s just a part of the business now.”
The veteran receiver also isn’t thinking much about the possibility of hitting the open market.
“There’s nothing to be said because I’m just trying to be where my feet are,” Cooper said. “I’m not even thinking about the future when there’s so much at stake now.”
Cooper became the first receiver in Browns history to record back-to-back seasons with at least 1,000 yards in 2023. He finished last season with 72 receptions for 1,250 yards with five touchdowns.
Dak Prescott is entering the final year of his contract, scheduled to hit free agency in March. He and the Cowboys have talked for months without an agreement on a long-term deal.
The clock is ticking.
Prescott indicated last week that Sunday, the start of the season, is his deadline to get a deal completed.
Clarence Hill of DLLS reports that the sides have made progress.
Hill adds that, contrary to a report, the length of the deal is not a sticking point in negotiations. The sides are in agreement on the length of the contract.
Prescott bet on himself previously, waiting through two years of negotiations to sign a four-year, $160 million deal with the Cowboys in 2021 despite coming off a gruesome ankle injury. That’s why he didn’t hold out or hold in this offseason and instead will play out his contract if the Cowboys don’t come up with an offer that would make him the highest-paid player in NFL history.
The Cowboys have no quarterback under contract for 2025 and no Plan B for if Prescott leaves.
They want to keep Prescott, and he wants to stay. But they are running out of time to assure that happens.