Back in September, the Dallas Cowboys destroyed the New York Giants to open their season as Dak Prescott threw for 405 yards and four touchdowns, while having a quarterback rating of 158.3.
He would then lead the team to a 3-0 record over the next few games, and the Cowboys front office had no idea what was coming as a result. Those games gave Prescott’s camp the green light to take the negotiations to another level. Following that hot start to the 2019 season, Dak’s camp came to them for more money for a long-term deal, and it shocked Jerry and company.
Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports says that after Prescott’s camp asked for more money, the negotiating tactic didn’t sit well with the Joneses.
“I really don’t think they are that far apart. They are just so stubbornly dug in because of how this negotiation has gone at points,” Robinson said Wednesday on Shan and RJ on 105.3 The Fan. “The Cowboys could not have felt more burned than they did when they went back to Dak’s camp last September (and) the number went up. And that really was a hurtful point. I think they were not only upset at Dak’s representation, I think they were a little upset at Dak. It’s business, you know. You’d be kidding yourself to sit there and think they were never mad at Zeke (Ezekiel Elliot) during that negotiation. It’s germane to the process.
“I still think that this is something (where) they are actually not that far apart. They’re just stuck in the same distance that they have been for a long time. Because of the uncertainties, because of the fact we may have a flat cap in 2021, maybe Dak’s side … there’s a little more push to say, ‘hey, maybe we should take this, it’s a pretty good deal on the table. We’ll figure out a way to do it now and smooth out the difference in years at the last minute.’
“But, I’ll tell you this. I think if he doesn’t get the deal done by July 15th, it’s Kirk Cousins all the way. This is a ‘I’m going to go to market or I’m going to make you exhaust the tags and absolute maximize my leverage over you.'”
After that 3-0 start last year, the Cowboys would go on to lose 4-consecutive games and ultimately end the year 8-8 and miss the playoffs.
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Robinson was then asked to clarify if he was indeed saying that the price changed after Dak’s hot start in 2019.
“Yeah, absolutely. That’s exactly what happened. I think they were unhappy it was something that didn’t get done before the season. There were a lot of signals from the organization in camp and and then really in the beginning of the regluar season that we’re going to get this done. And Jerry (Jones) was telling everybody it’s going to get done, they were so optimistic about it. And Dak’s camp didn’t feel that way. They were like, ‘look, we’re not going to give you the long-term control here.’ It was a negotiation that was never great from the start.
“I’ve told this story before that, from what I understood, the Cowboys very first number, we’re talking way back at the start of the negotiations … that Dak’s camp thought the first number was a low-ball number, and (then they) threw back a number at the Cowboys that was just ridiculous. It was sort of like the meme of the guys flipping each other off, that’s kind of how the negotiation started. And as Dak progressed and improved and became more entrenched there as the guy, and went out and performed … his camp was like, ‘we don’t have to budge here. We got the guy who’s getting better. We have the commodity and he’s betting on himself and he’s winning right now. They felt like early in the season that he won, when the Cowboys wanted to re-engage and push it again after that start (3-0). They just said, ‘look, our price went up and we told you this could happen, and it happened.’ That was it. … It really hasn’t changed significantly since that moment in September. … They’re still arguing over the same things they were then.”
The two sides have until July to iron out a long-term deal.
