Dak Prescott has constantly been riddled with adversities in his personal life and his life on the gridiron field. He gets a lot of scrutiny for his playoff success and now that pot might have come to a boil. Prescott hasn’t reached an agreement with Jerry Jones, and this is his do-or-die season with the Cowboys.

Prescott is working out in the OTAs and is already getting bombed by the media about obvious questions. He replied, “I know my business will take care of itself,” implying over and over that he doesn’t play for the money. But Prescott has a journalistic hit out on him that constantly challenges his football prowess.

Dak Prescott in his ‘prove it’ season

The hosts of First Things First had a few things to say about Dak Prescott’s lingering contract. First, it was Chris Broussard  of the show who gave a few pointers about Dak’s contract having a toll on the Cowboys’ season this year. Broussard was condescending towards the Dallas team’s approach to handling business. Per him, the Dallas Cowboys management should give a year’s ultimatum to Prescott and the coaching staff that has Mike McCarthy at the helm.

Per Broussard, the Dallas QB has a “chip on his shoulder,” which will eventually improve him. The host then proceeded to rate the Cowboys’ off-season an “F.” The Cowboys have been vulnerable at the running back and O-Line positions for a long time. Though they got Ezekiel Elliott back, some fans still think that Jones and his cohorts should have signed Derrick Henry when they had that chance. But coming back to the QB position, Broussard thinks that this is Dak Prescott’s trial by fire.

“I’m not saying they’ve been great this off-season obviously I’ve given him an F,” said Broussard and proceeded, “Like if Dak can’t handle this situation, then maybe you’re not the guy to lead us to a Super Bowl.” Prescott is at the end of his 4-year $160 million deal with a 2-5 playoff record. Their last surrender came when Jordan Love and the Cheese Heads beat the America’s team in their own home.

Colin Cowherd dubbed this situation as the “Dak Dilemma,” where the team is just kicking the can to see what he yields in the future, and at the same time know, that Dak can ball out in prime-time games. It was his juxtaposition to its NBA counterpart, the “Bird Exception,” taking after Larry Bird, where the teams don’t care about the cap space to keep the star player happy. Cowherd also called out Jerry Jones for being “petrified” and potentially “irrelevant.”

Dak’s dilemma is that he checks the boxes of “productivity, team success, health, and leverage,” but his bad playoff performance confuses the owners. But this time, Dak Prescott is focused on delivering.

The contract crunch is just a hiccup for Prescott

Prescott has been showing up to the OTAs and has been heavy on the notion of “not holding out.” That’s because he’s been in the same situation before his contract extension in 2020, where, unfortunately, it’s agreed upon that the Cowboys can’t franchise tag Prescott after this season. Despite being a leader in passing touchdowns with 36, Prescott was at his career peak last season. He was second in the league in pass completion percentage, 69.5%, and third in terms of passing yards, 4,516.

“Right now, it’s about being my best for this team right now in this moment. OTAs is helping these guys out and just focused on that and I know my business will take care of itself. Been in it before, experienced [in talks with Jerry and Stephen Jones] and just controlling what I can right now,” said the Dallas QB.

Prescott insisted over and over that becoming rich was not his penultimate goal. He even said that he’d “give it up” just to play football. But looking at Joe Burrow’s $55 million per year contract, or Kirk Cousins’ $100 million guaranteed deal, it certainly feels odd to not see Prescott get paid. But then again, the Dallas signal-caller stayed modest in his dealings.

“I don’t play for money,” Prescott said. “Never have never cared for it to be honest with you. Yeah. Would give it up just to play this game. So I allow that to the business people to say what it’s worth what they’re supposed to give a quarterback of my play.

Earlier, Tom Pelissero pointed out that Prescott’s future has the potential to be very shiny, as far as monetary gains are concerned. He may be due for a deal as high as $60 million per year because there are teams for whom hiring Prescott is a no-brainer. However, the Dallas Cowboys quarterback seems to be committed to proving himself and he is choosing to be humble, modest, and steadfast about the whole situation.

Perhaps Jerry Jones saying, “We want Dak and that’s that,” will pan out fairly for both parties.