“So, um, you know, the Brock Purdy contract is interesting. I was not a fan of the Dak contract, and I wasn’t a fan of the Tua contract—and I think I’ve been validated.” Colin Cowherd’s voice crackled through sports radio like a halftime buzzer, sharp and unapologetic. The retired quarterback-turned-analyst didn’t hold back, framing Brock Purdy as the NFC’s answer to Tua Tagovailoa—a quarterback whose success, he argued, hinges more on coaching wizardry than individual brilliance. Meanwhile, Dak Prescott, fresh off rehab and flirting with a decade in Dallas, finds himself in the crosshairs of a familiar debate: Is he worth the cash?

“A B Quarterback Paid Like an A” Cowherd’s critique of Purdy’s $265 million extension cuts like a linebacker blitz. “It’s not an egregious contract. It’s not $58 million… not Dak’s,” he concedes, but warns the 49ers are “dangerously top-heavy,” leaning on stars like Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, and Kevin Warner—positions the Rams famously avoid splurging on. “They’ll be a good team,” Cowherd quips, “but they’re a Trent Williams knee sprain from being a bad team.” Translation? San Francisco’s title hopes dangle by the thread of health, a reality as precarious as a ‘Hail Mary into triple coverage.’

Chris Simms, ever the counterpuncher, fires back: “They realized how top-heavy they were.” He nods to departures like Javon Hargrave and Eric Armstead, signs the Niners are rebalancing. “I’m with you in that it’s not as egregious as Dak… Dak’s the highest-paid quarterback in football, and I would say Dak is not one of the 10 best quarterbacks in football. So, that’s egregiously bad.” Simms laments, but Simms doesn’t absolve Purdy. “Is he the type of guy, though, that I look at and go, ‘Oh, he can carry the team through injuries or a bad spot’? No.”

“Your point with Tua—you can’t be the highest-paid guy on your team and then, in every big game, you’re the main question about whether you can perform. That, to me, is a bad contract.” Now, Purdy’s 6–11 skid to close 2024 lingers like a bad replay, raising questions louder than a ‘Lambeau leap’: Is he a system savant or a Shanahan-generated mirage? Yet his stats shimmer—9,518 yards, 64 TDs, and a 104.9 passer rating over 36 starts—numbers that scream ‘franchise QB,’ even if the paycheck whispers ‘prove it.’ Simms sums it up: “We wonder how much is Shanahan… and how much is [Purdy].”

Dak’s decade: Uncle status & unfinished business

Meanwhile, in Dallas, Prescott isn’t just rehabbing a hamstring—he’s a wrestling legacy! Entering Year 10, the Cowboys’ ‘Uncle’ (as teammates cheekily call him) is now the longest-tenured star following Zack Martin’s retirement. “It’s amazing how fast it happens,” he muses, his 31,437 career yards inching him closer to dethroning Tony Romo as Dallas’ passing king. But critics pounce like hungry DEs branding his $240 million deal “egregiously bad.”

Prescott’s 2024 season—1,978 yards, 11 TDs, and 8 interceptions before injury—was a flicker of his Pro Bowl self. And all he took was 8 games to make it happen! Now, as he takes first-team reps in OTAs (“Pretty much can do it all. Feel good”), the pressure mounts. Can he silence doubters who see his contract as an anchor on Dallas’ cap space? Or will he mirror Tagovailoa, whose $212.4 million Dolphins deal draws side-eye when he falters in prime time?

The NFL carousel spins relentlessly. Purdy, the former ‘Mr. Irrelevant,’ now commands a paycheck heavier than his draft slot. Prescott, the fourth-round phenom, turned a $60 million-a-year icon, battles time and tendons. Tagovailoa, the southpaw stat-magnet, juggles praise and skepticism like a flea-flicker. Their stories intertwine like play-action fakes—each a testament to resilience, each shadowed by ‘what-ifs.’

In a league where contracts are gambles and legacies are written in grass stains, these QBs march on. Purdy’s gotta prove he’s more than Kyle Shanahan’s puppet. Prescott’s chasing ghosts of Aikman and Romo. Tagovailoa? He’s battling narratives tighter than Cover 2. As Cowherd quipped, “You can’t be the highest-paid guy on your team and then, in every big game, you’re the main question.” So here we are—OTAs humming, rehab reps counting, and wallets weighing. In the NFL’s poetic grind, the next chapter’s always a blindside hit away.