Dak Prescott figures to get paid, either by Dallas or another team willing to go north of $50 million per year if the Cowboys let his contract expire after this season.
Russell Wilson hasn’t been announced as the starter for Pittsburgh’s opener in what’s shaped up to be the nine-time Pro Bowler’s last chance to revive a career that has stalled since his days as a star in Seattle.
The look and feel of the hot seat is a bit different for Prescott and Wilson, among others in potential make-or-break situations, but it’s a hot seat nonetheless.
In Prescott’s case, the runner-up in MVP voting from last season badly wants to take the Cowboys where they haven’t been in nearly 30 years — past the divisional round of the playoffs.
After his worst flop yet in a shocking home wild-card loss to Green Bay last season, Prescott faces questions of whether he’s the guy to do what Tony Romo couldn’t in 10 years as the starter.
This will be the ninth try for the 31-year-old entering the final season of a club-record $160 million, four-year contract.
The first was a dynamic rookie season with fellow first-year star Ezekiel Elliott in the backfield, leading Dallas to the top seed in the NFC, but losing to Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in their playoff debut.
The Cowboys say they want to keep him. Prescott, who replaced an injured Romo in his first training camp and started from the get-go, says he wants to stay.
Yet the 2016 AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year remains a lame duck QB for 2024, with the Cowboys at 28 years and counting since their most recent trip to the NFC championship game. Dallas won its fifth Super Bowl title to finish the 1995 season.
“I don’t think that’s pressure,” Prescott said from training camp in California this month. “I don’t necessarily worry about the talk. I’m confident in getting something done. I’m confident in the front office here. I’m under contract right now so all I need to do is be the best I can be for my job.”
Quarterbacks whose clocks are ticking, or otherwise find themselves in potentially tricky circumstances:
Russell Wilson
The 35-year-old joined the Steelers after two mostly miserable seasons in Denver, where he signed a huge extension following a trade that ended a 10-year, Super Bowl-winning run with the Seahawks.
Days later, Pittsburgh traded for Justin Fields when Chicago decided to move on from its 11th overall pick in 2021, clearing the way for the Bears to get Caleb Williams at the top of this year’s draft.
The presumption all along has been that Wilson would start, and Fields would be ready if Wilson continues to look like a player with a 17-27 record as a starter over the past three seasons.
