Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy says Dak Prescott is a ‘championship’ quarterback
New Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy has not seen much of quarterback Dak Prescott in person.
They have communicated by phone.
But Prescott has stayed away from the team’s headquarters at The Star as the free-agent signal caller remains at an impasse with the front office over contract talks.
McCarthy, however, has no question about Prescott being the team’s franchise quarterback and has no concerns about his contract situation.
“Dak Prescott? Definitely,” McCarthy said when asked if Prescott was his franchise quarterback at the NFL scouting combine. “It’s exactly where we want to be with Dak. What he’s done to this point speaks to itself. Really, Dak is in a business situation right now. I think like anything, it’s just time to be patient and let the business people work out the business matter. And that’s really where we are as an organization. And that’s where Dak is in his personal fight to get a contract done.”
That fight took a small step on Wednesday with Prescott’s agent Todd France with with team vice president Stephen Jones and engaged brief contract talks for the first time since September.
The Cowboys would like to get a long-term deal done before March 12 to avoid having to place the franchise tag on Prescott, though they acknowledge it will be hard to get any traction in negotiations until the terms of the collective bargaining agreement are settled between the NFL and NFLPA.
McCarthy refused to speculate on the possibility of Prescott not being available for the start of the offseason program on April 5 if two sides fail to get agree on new deal and the Cowboys are forced to place the franchise tag on him.
If Prescott is tagged, there is a good chance he will not show up for the offseason program and thus miss the installation of the new offense.
If the Cowboys are forced to tag Prescott, it will be at the exclusive franchise level that would pay him $32.9 million in 2020, according to a source.
The Cowboys had offered him a five-year deal worth $33 million annually that included a $105-million signing bonus, sources said. But he turned that down in September in hopes of getting a bigger deal.
The only four players, all quarterbacks, have higher annual deals. They are Seattle Seahawks’ Russell Wilson at $35 million, Pittsburgh Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger at $34 million, Green Bay Packers’ Aaron Rodgers at $33.5 million and Los Angeles Rams’ Jared Goff at $33.5 million.
All have led their teams to the Super Bowl, and Goff is the only one without a Super Bowl ring.
Prescott has just one playoff win., but he is coming off the best season of his career, having thrown for 4,902 yards and 30 touchdowns in 2019.
McCarthy, the former longtime Packers coach, has watched Prescott since his rookie season in 2016 when he went to Green Bay and pulled an upset at Lambeau Field. He fully believes Prescott can get the Cowboys back to the Super Bowl.
“I’ve been impressed with him since the first time I saw him play live up in Green Bay when they came to Lambeau,” McCarthy said of Prescott. “I think first impressions are very important when you see quarterbacks on the field because in-person evaluations, particularly at that position, have always carried more weight as far as how I felt about a player. So, I think he’s got off to a great start. He’s built a really good foundation. I’m told he’s a tremendous leader.
“In my philosophy, as we get with the personnel department, as we go through that, defenses get you to the championship, and quarterback’s win championships. And I definitely feel Dak is that quarterback.”
McCarthy said his biggest focus is getting the offense ready to go for Prescott whenever he shows up.
He said they are not quite ready yet with the merging of his West Coast system to the timing-based passing game the Cowboys used last year under offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
He is working with quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier, going through the tapes and getting the verbiage down.
“There are some fundamental tapes that Doug and I have put together,” McCarthy said. “So from that perspective, I can’t wait to get started with all the quarterbacks on that. But just, really, to get the offense locked down. We wanted to watch everything that they did last year. I have a 12-year study of the passing game of the Packers and I did all the training tapes I put together from the whole season last year. So now in the second lap we are comparing the things in Dallas and Green Bay, the trends and now we are formulating this new version of our offense.
“So it’s exciting stuff. You want it tight for when the quarterbacks come back. In the past you always wanted to go through it once with the quarterbacks cause they are going to ask the best questions. There are usually things that come up in that first time through that you are able to tweak before you go to the offense so. We still may have time to do that.”
They will if they get Prescott signed.
But there is no question Prescott is McCarthy’s guy.
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 3:56 PM.
