Did the NFL's Upcoming TV Deals Really Allow Jerry Jones to Finally Pay Dak Prescott?
Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys finally reached a deal on a contract extension on Monday following a saga that literally lasted years. With the new deal, Prescott will be very fairly compensated and in Dallas through at least 2024. After the deal was announced, ESPN's Adam Schefter tweeted the reasoning for Jerry Jones finally caving to his star quarterback's demands.
One league source on the Dak Prescott deal: "You know what this is? This is Jerry Jones tipping off the extraordinary TV deal that is coming."
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 9, 2021
I guess Jones and the NFL are actually doing alright. This is despite the fact that we're coming out of a pandemic and many thought the league was going to go broke after they went woke with kneeling and no longer using the Super Bowl halftime show to read Dr. Seuss books to America. So just how healthy is the NFL looking in the near future?
Per @CharlesRobinson some in the NFL think the new TV deal will be double, leading to cap around $250 million in five years.
— Joe Rexrode (@joerexrode) March 9, 2021
The salary cap for 2021 will be around $180 million. If the cap is really $250 million by 2025, that's an increase of nearly 40 percent. Considering the cap only increased about 22 percent from 2016 ($155 million) to this season, that's a pretty sizable jump. Especially, considering the circumstances of 2020.
So why is Jones the only person taking advantage of this? Why are other teams letting stars walk into free agency this week? Is Jones the only owner operating under this assumption — because that seems unfair. Is Jones finally financially secure if the NFL has a new big juicy TV deal? Considering he's worth about $9 billion and conducted last year's draft from a super yacht, I can't imagine money was ever the real issue.
Perhaps Jones and the Cowboys are trying to spin this deal. If they had just signed Prescott to a big deal a few years ago, he'd be making money in the $30 millions instead of the $40 millions. Would the extra $10 million a year have made a big difference in a salary capped league? Cutting Ezekiel Elliott next year would make up for some of that.
Does any of this really seem likely for a guy worth $9 billion who still buys his wine at a gas station in the middle of a weekday afternoon? It seems more like Jones got to the point where the Cowboys either gave Dak a contract or they would lose him. And both sides chose to stay together.