Even when the Cowboys have one of their most disappointing seasons in history last year going 8-8, they still continue to be THE SHOW to watch. On the field, meh. Off the field, watch us now! Drama in how we dismiss Garrett, Cobra like quickness picking McCarthy, and a million shades of gray around Dak.
What will the Cowboys do? It’s no secret Dak should be setting the market at the position for at least a good 2 or 3 days. People seem to get so caught up in today’s payment they keep forgetting in a few years it will be an average contract. Being the highest paid in the NFL is quite the honor for the 18 seconds you may have it.
To be “transparent”, I am not a huge Dak fan. Sure I loved his rookie year. Which fan didn’t? But I saw a lot of issues. Overthrown balls that just didn’t happen to be intercepted were common. I knew then that wouldn’t last. Inability to read a defense so wrong choices are being constantly made. Unfortunately I also felt that WOULD last.
But I didn’t know much about him before that. He really wasn’t on any draft radar very high. He was lost in mediocrity that usually falls in those rounds of QBs taken. YAY WE GOT SOMEONE WHO’S NAME RHYMES WITH ATTACK (sorta). I couldn’t wait to hear all the fun forum comments of people thinking something so obvious so clever. Then again 2019 gave us HOT BOYZ so hell, what do I know about quality naming conventions.
However, Dak does have some solid college creds. However they are more the good game kind. I’d prefer “good career”. But hey, choice made.
Year 2 did in fact show Dak dropped off. Team went from a room replacing 13-3 to a OH THERE THEY ARE 9-7 we’d gotten used to. One thing about the Garret led Cowboys was their consistency in never being able to string good seasons together. But in looking, the only stat that didn’t drop from his rookie season was interceptions. THERE THEY ARE! From 4 to 13, the waves came crashing down.
Year 3. Dak does pick it back up. Sophomore slump maybe? Most yards yet, rating up 13 points, interceptions normal. Ok, we’ve got average! We’ve got average! Man those are fun battle crys, huh?
Year 4. Contract year. Out of the gate we’re 3-0 and SIGN HIM NOW cries are heard for several states over. By the seasons end it was just simply crying. 8-8 mediocrity and just as many WTF games and decisions as ATTABOYS. But I can’t put all that on Dak. You see, even when the Cowboys are not playing well, they still dominate the news.
Enter Jerry Jones and instead of simply doing things where they should be done, he does them in front of a microphone. While it’s true that I showed up at Garretts house to help him pack and move, how Jones chose to do it destroyed any hope they had for doing much of anything at all. The team showed it each and every game. Except for the Rams game. There’s that tease of hope I’ve learned to ignore over the … decades.
It would have been far better to simply fire Garrett that day vs neuter him and shove him back into the gladiator arena. It wasn’t just Garrett he chose to destroy, it was the rest of the season and it showed in virtually every player, every play. So let’s not get carried away and say stats tell the whole story here. Far from it. This is a prime example of these just being numbers. Meaningless numbers in a disappointing season.
Pretty sure that was a sentence fragment, but I like it.
So here we are and it’s payday. Which version of Dak do you pay? The one that turned down $30 million dollars and is purported to want $40? Million, that is. Forty Million Dollars. After agent fees, paying the possee, buying random houses for others and so forth; whatever people in these positions love to do (and I’d like do in that position) he’s still going to clear more than most of us would collectively see in our lifetimes.
Going back to that transparency, I am not a Dak fan. But from what I saw this year, he’s the best option for the Cowboys for the next several years. Tom Brady for $30 million? To do what? We’re more than 1 year away and why would McCarthy in his very first year toss a hail mary on the only QB in the league to now be getting AARP reminders to plan for his future. You’re not going to draft anyone that would replace him any time soon nor likely to achieve what Dak has achieved. At times in spite of the Benny Hill music coming from the GMs office late at night and the RUDY speech coming from Garretts.
In the end, Dak isn’t going anywhere. I feel like I’m watching American Pickers where Mike is just doing the dance and we’ll see something around $35-$37 million. The # of years I could see being a hangmans noose potentially. Does Dak cash it all in now or play for at least 1 more big payday?
In a few weeks I suspect Dak will be the highest player in Cowboys history, or the NFL. Or as Deion Sanders once said about contract negotiations, both. But it won’t be long before Mahomes comes along gets his payday. In 2-3 years the contract will be old news and an average salary.
Whether or not Dak gets paid more on the next one is his gamble, today.
Photo: Jeremiah Jhass / Dallas Cowboys
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