Sunday, Sept. 8, the morning of the Dallas Cowboys’ first game of the season, the Cowboys and Quarterback Dak Prescott agreed on a large contract extension. After more than a year of debate and negotiation, the two parties finally settled on a four-year, $240 million deal. This should be celebrated.

Prescott has been Dallas’ leader since he took over for Tony Romo as a rookie in 2016, excelling and taking home the Offensive Rookie of the Year award. From 2016 on, he’s put up excellent numbers, accumulating a 17-game season average of 4,660 total yards, 34 total touchdowns, and only 11 interceptions. For reference, Lamar Jackson’s MVP campaign last season consisted of 4,499 total yards and 29 total touchdowns. Despite this, Prescott is still one of the most criticized players in the league, even receiving criticism from portions of his own fanbase. So, of course, there was some backlash in regards to Prescott’s new contract, “Why would you pay that choker $60 million a year?!” shouted casual armchair GMs who have no idea how the quarterback market works (and no idea how to identify a good quarterback in the first place). 

Before I argue in favor of the extension, we have to understand how the quarterback market works. There is no “step-ladder” system. The second-best quarterback doesn’t get paid a little less than the best quarterback, and the third-best doesn’t just get paid a little less than the second-best, and so forth. If you are a true franchise quarterback, you get paid. Period. With this logic, we can understand that just because Prescott is now the highest-paid quarterback in the league, Dallas’ front office was not admitting to him being the best in the league at his position. Every great quarterback will get paid more than the last one did, regardless of whether they’re marginally better or worse. By the end of Prescott’s contract, he likely will no longer even be in the top five highest-paid list. It’s the same thing that happened after his last deal. At the time of his signing that four-year-$160-million-deal in 2021, his $40 million AAV (Average Annual Value) made him the third highest-paid quarterback in the league. Last season was the final season of that contract, and he was only the eighth highest-paid quarterback, behind players such as Daniel “they gave that guy 40 million?!” Jones. The market is always inflating.

Now, to get paid top-tier franchise QB money, you have to be a top-tier franchise QB. Dak Prescott is exactly that. Some will point out his lack of playoff success as a reason to doubt his ability to lead a team to a championship. Granted, Prescott is 2-5 in postseason games in his career, but it’s a team sport. Anybody who has been following the Cowboys for a while knows the team tends to collapse in the playoffs. Not just Prescott. The whole team. The majority of quarterbacks cannot save a team that is in total free fall, including Prescott. He is not superhuman. When the team falls around him, he tends to fall with them. In his five playoff defeats, Prescott’s defense has allowed an average opposing point total of 31. For reference, Tom Brady was 2-4 in his postseason career when his defense allowed 30 or more points. It’s easy to paint the narrative that Prescott is someone who has held the Cowboys back in the playoffs, but if you look closely you’ll realize that the Cowboys would likely have looked even worse in those games had he not been leading the offense.

Prescott’s greatness is not just denied due to his playoff record though. Many fans just don’t believe he’s a good quarterback, which is unbelievably ignorant. I already gave some basic stats earlier in the article, but let’s look more in-depth, specifically at this past season. NFL Next Gen Stats’ passer rating metric, which measures overall production at the position, had Prescott ranked 2nd in the entire league with a 105.9. He also had the highest completion percentage over expected of any full-time starter at 4.7%. Prescott was one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the league, but this did not come at the expense of his trademark aggressiveness. The Cowboys’ leader had an 18.3 AGG%, a stat which measures how aggressively a quarterback plays. Despite this, he still put up the MVP-runner-up caliber numbers that he did. Prescott had by far the best numbers of all quarterbacks with an AGG percentage of 18 or higher, posting a passer rating of 105.9, extensively larger than second place (90.2). He was the only quarterback in the league capable of putting up these kinds of numbers while taking aggressive shots. This is due to his elite ball placement and decision-making ability, something that has noticeably improved throughout his career. Under Prescott’s leadership, the Cowboys offense was the highest scoring in the league last year, putting up 509 points over their 17 games.

In December 2013, during his third year at Mississippi State, Prescott’s mother died of cancer. Despite this monumental event, Prescott put up a solid 2013 season along with two First Team All-SEC campaigns in the two following seasons. But what he did off the field is more impressive. From that moment on, Prescott became a leader in his community, citing his desire to carry on his mother’s strength and morals. In 2017, he started the Faith Fight Finish Foundation, which initially was focused on funding colon-cancer research, but soon became much more. During the pandemic in 2020, Prescott’s brother Tad lost his battle with depression and committed suicide. Following this, mental health and suicide prevention became another priority for his foundation. In 2020 Prescott suffered a horrific season-ending ankle injury. Even after those two subsequent horribly depressing events, Prescott never backed down and continued to fight to get back on the field and lead his team. All his off-the-field endeavors eventually led to him receiving the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 2022, a tremendous honor. Throughout his career, teammates of Prescott have cited his leadership and character as one of his best traits, and you can see it by the way the team rallies around him on gameday. His ability to fight through adversity and desire to be a standout person is what I admire most about him, and another reason why I think he is absolutely deserving of the money he received.

Dak Prescott is a great quarterback and a great person. He deserves every penny of his new extension, and I can’t wait to watch him play for my team for five more seasons.