Dak Prescott becomes highest-paid player in league history, based on value at signing

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Dak Prescott had a big hen in his hand. He’s received an excellent larger one now.

With a reported four-year, $160 million contract from the Cowboys, Prescott will make $40 million per 12 months.

There are two methods to guage NFL contracts. A technique, which applies when a participant indicators a brand new cope with time left on a previous one, appears to be like on the common worth of the so-called new cash (i.e., the money to be paid on the additional years past the present contract). The opposite manner appears to be like on the whole worth of the contract from the second it’s signed.

Brokers strongly desire the new-money evaluation, because it generates a better whole common. It’s a bit deceptive, nevertheless, as a result of there’s no precise extension of an NFL contract. The previous contract goes away, and a brand new one takes its place.

For instance, the contract signed final 12 months by Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has a new-money common of $45 million. That places him $5 million per 12 months forward of Prescott. From signing, nevertheless, Mahomes’ deal has a worth of $39.8 million. At $40 million from signing, Dak has a greater deal.

Prescott additionally has a greater deal as a result of Mahomes’ contract runs by 2031. When Prescott’s deal expires, Mahomes might be beneath contract for seven extra years. By then, the market could have modified. By then, Mahomes might be underpaid. Prescott might be getting paid once more.

Certainly, some identified that the four-year deal given by the Titans to Ryan Tannehill compares favorably to the Mahomes deal. Tannehill’s deal is value $118 million over 4 years, $42 million lower than Prescott’s.

Prescott’s whole common at signing additionally surpasses Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson‘s new-money average of $39 million per year. From signing, Watson’s deal averages $29.11 million per 12 months.

As recently explained, contracts given to different quarterbacks have been in the end irrelevant to Dak Prescott, as a result of his deal was pushed by the leverage that got here from the prospect of being tagged once more, at $37.68 million in 2021. The Cowboys would have been over, inside, and/or beneath a barrel in 2022, with the probabilities of Prescott hitting the open market growing considerably if he’d been tagged once more.

In order that they gave him a four-year, $160 million deal, and he determined that taking the deal was superior to enjoying beneath the tag and seeing what occurs subsequent 12 months. The truth that it was superior to the contracts signed by Mahomes and Watson is a collateral query, but it surely doesn’t damage.