By: Anthony Martinez, Sports Editor
Dallas Cowboys Star Quarterback, Dak Prescott’s season is over, and his career now has more uncertainties than ever.
On Oct. 11, the Cowboys played against the Giants and while running out of the pocket and trying to run for a first down, Prescott’s legs got wrapped up for the tackle but his foot got caught underneath the defender. A simple play like that changed not only Prescott’s season, as well as the Cowboys’, but the whole NFC East division’s season as well.
Prescott suffered a compound ankle fracture and a dislocation, both brutal injuries that will sideline him for quite some time. The current timetable for his recovery is four to six months. Four months seems like pushing it, but crazier recoveries have occurred before.
With the injury, a lot of questions have arisen. What happens with Prescott’s expiring contract? What are Dallas’s chances to make the playoffs? How does backup quarterback Andy Dalton handle step in?
Before the season ever started, Prescott and the Cowboys were trying to work out a new deal as Prescott’s contract had expired. They went back and forth; the highest offer was a five-year deal that was a little over $34 million a year. Prescott wanted a slightly shorter deal that also was worth more money especially in the final year and despite both sides working hard to get something done, the Cowboys ended up having to use the franchise tag this season. This means Prescott is under contract for the single-season for about $31 million. From the Cowboys’ side, they don’t want to lose their star quarterback, so they do this to keep him and keep renegotiating for a long-term deal.
While that was the goal, after Prescott’s gruesome injury, his contract status is up in the air. Without a year more to prove his worth and there is always the case of what if Prescott is never able to perform at the same level? Some of Prescott’s best attributes as a quarterback is his ability to move and scramble, what if that becomes less efficient? Will he lose money? There’s a good chance he might.
The main reason to sign a long-term contract is to have some security for situations like this, so he would still have a large sum of guaranteed money but now who really knows. Some people feel that Prescott should’ve signed the contract offered to him as it still would’ve made him one of the top five highest-paid quarterbacks in the league, but if that’s not how Prescott sees it, and if he thinks his worth is more than that, it is his decision. He couldn’t have known this injury was coming for him. He hopefully will make a full recovery and get his money from then on.
With regards to the Cowboys’ status now, it is completely up in the air They do not have a good record at this point as they are 2-4. However, they are still tied for the most wins with the Philadelphia Eagles because the NFC East is truly awful. Even with Prescott, this team had a poor record. Even so, they were the consensus favorite and many thought they would win the division, considering no one trusts the New York Giants or the Washington Football Team, and the Eagles have been shaky as well.
Now their playoff hopes ride with Andy Dalton, former longtime Bengals starting quarterback before becoming the Cowboys backup this season. Dalton is by no means a bad player; he was average for many years in Cincinnati and had one really good year before starting to struggle a little towards the end of the run. That could be contributed to coaching, however, due to the fact that the Bengals team started to perform awfully as a whole as the years passed.
There are plenty of weapons in Dallas for Dalton to play with, he’s not working with a bunch of sub-par players. He’s got receivers like Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, and Ceedee Lamb—all extremely talented receivers—as well as star running back Ezekiel Elliot, as long as he stops fumbling the ball. They should still be able to move the ball well enough, the Cowboys just need to fix that defense, or even with Prescott, they wouldn’t be going anywhere.
With the terrible division that the Cowboys are in, they still have a chance at a somewhat successful season, until Prescott can return next season and if he is, once again, a member of the Dallas Cowboys. If they’ve made some adjustments with the team as a whole, they can start to make serious noise again.
