It’s November 10, and the 3 p.m. trade deadline is fast approaching. While Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones has made multiple trades over the past few months and is known for making moves just before the deadline, he recently faced a different kind of question.
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During a recent appearance on 105.3 The Fan, Jones was asked whether any team had ever inquired about trading for quarterback Dak Prescott over the years. However, Jones made it clear that the Cowboys have never considered trading their franchise quarterback.
“No. No, not really. We’ve always, let’s say for two-thirds of his contract and two-thirds of time with us, we’ve had him in a position where it wouldn’t make any sense to trade him,” said Jones.
The biggest reason the Cowboys currently don’t consider trading Dak Prescott is his contract. Dallas signed Prescott to a four-year, $240 million deal just before the 2024 regular season, making him the highest-paid quarterback in the league at that time.
While the deal included $60 million in average annual value and $231 million in total guarantees, it also included no-trade, no-franchise-tag, and no-transition clauses, allowing the Cowboys to trade Prescott only after the quarterback’s approval. So even if another team called Dallas about Prescott, the Cowboys couldn’t treat him like an ordinary trade asset.
But at the same time, Dallas has treated Dak Prescott as its franchise quarterback for the past several years. Following the 2023 season, Prescott was entering the final year of his existing deal while seeking a new contract extension. At that time, however, Jerry Jones was asked about the Cowboys’ plans for their quarterback amid uncertainty over his contract. Jerry, meanwhile, bluntly responded:
“We want Dak Prescott, and that’s that.”
And the 2024 contract extension showed just how strongly the Cowboys were committed to him. Meanwhile, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that even if Dallas had wanted to trade Prescott, there was a period when such a move was far more conceivable. Before the extension, Prescott was entering the final year of his contract. He had a no-trade clause.
That means Dallas couldn’t simply trade him without his approval, but there was a genuine possibility that he could leave the Cowboys in free agency after the season. Even then, Jerry Jones made it clear that the Cowboys were committed to Prescott as their starting quarterback. And now, the owner/general manager has doubled down despite the Cowboys struggling to perform well.
With Dak under center, Dallas is 4-5 following their Week 9 win over the Indianapolis Colts. Since taking over the starting quarterback duties, Prescott has an 87-60-1 regular season record. In the process, he has completed 66.8% of his passes for over 38,000 yards while recording 259 touchdowns.
However, it’s Prescott’s postseason record that continues to draw criticism, with the Cowboys going 2-5 in the playoffs with him leading the offense. At the same time, Prescott and the Cowboys have failed to reach the postseason in each of the last two seasons. While many expected Dallas to return to the playoffs this year, it remains to be seen how the Cowboys’ regular season will unfold from here.