https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/03/15/drew-brees-retires-nfl-free-agency-fmia-peter-king/?cid=fmiatwThe Dak Assist
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Sometimes the best deals are the ones you don't make. The Dak Prescott deal brought that home the other day, along with this quote on the $40-million-a-year Dak deal from owner Jerry Jones: "Most anything that I've ever been involved in that ended up being special, I overpaid for. Any time I've tried to get a bargain, it was just that. It was a bargain in a lot of ways and not up to standard."
I've got an interesting perspective on that. I covered the Cowboys draft room in 2016, when Prescott was Dallas' fourth-round pick, and I had impeccable sources for what happened in the Cowboys' room that weekend. The story:
With starting quarterback Tony Romo 36 and coming off an injury, Dallas wanted to draft his successor. The Cowboys hoped that would be Paxton Lynch of Memphis, but to do that, they'd have to trade back into the first round from overall pick number 34 to get him. For 67 minutes beginning in mid-round, VP Stephen Jones worked the phones with nine teams trying to get a mid- to late-round pick so they could acquire Lynch. Seattle was interested, but wanted Dallas' second- and third-round picks, 34th and 67th overall, in exchange for the Seahawks' 26th overall pick. Dallas offered a second and fourth, 34th and 101st overall. Much angst in the room. "No way with Seattle," Stephen Jones said, turning to his father in the room after his second call with Seahawks GM John Schneider. "They want our two and three. Thoughts?"
Silence. Dallas didn't up the offer, and so Seattle traded with Denver for a slightly better package of picks. And the Broncos chose Paxton Lynch.
Jerry Jones looked tormented. Crestfallen. The next afternoon, I met Jones in his office. He was glum. "When I got up this morning," he said, "I second-guessed the hell out of myself for not giving the three. I have always paid a premium for a premium. So many times my bargains have let me down. I'm not gonna go jump from Dallas's tallest, so let's put this in perspective. But if I had to do it all over again? I'd give the three."
That's not the end of the pre-Dak story. At the start of day three, Dallas had two quarterbacks atop its draft board. In order: 1) Connor Cook, Michigan State. 2) Dak Prescott, Mississippi State. To open the fourth round, Cleveland had picks 99 and 100. Dallas sat at 101. The Cowboys, to get Cook, offered Cleveland their pick at 101 plus their 2017 sixth-round pick. Browns said no. Then the Cowboys offered their two sixth-round picks this year. Browns said no. Incredibly, the Raiders jumped Dallas, trading with Cleveland for pick number 100 and choosing Cook. Again, Dallas got trumped. And so with their lower fourth-round pick, the Cowboys settled for Prescott.
Lynch started four games for Denver before being released in September 2018.
Cook last played professional football for the XFL's Houston Roughnecks last spring, serving as the backup quarterback before the league folded.
Neither quarterback threw a pass in professional football in the last three years, and neither was on an NFL roster last year.
And now Prescott, next to Patrick Mahomes, has the richest contract in the history of the NFL. Prescott has started all 72 Dallas games for which he's been healthy since being picked 135th by the Cowboys, with 106 touchdowns and 40 interceptions. He's a top 10 quarterback in the NFL and a top five leader, and without question the most popular athlete in the state of Texas.
Moral of the story? Jerry Jones is very glad he did not give the three.
There is a postscript to the story of the Prescott marriage with the Dallas Cowboys. The Paxton Lynch coronation in the team's draft room was not unanimous.
In 2016, the Cowboys quarterback coach was former NFL QB Wade Wilson, who, sadly, died in 2019 of complications from Type 1 diabetes. Inside the Dallas scouting world, Wilson was a notoriously tough quarterback grader. Many times in his 17 pre-draft seasons as an NFL quarterbacks coach, the available quarterbacks weren't good enough. They had some problem that Wilson considered disqualifying. But in 2016, after the Dak Prescott workout, Wilson told head coach Jason Garrett, "This guy can play. This is a guy we'd like." Garrett's ears perked up. And when Prescott was tabbed to make one of the team's few pre-draft visits to Cowboys headquarters in 2016, Garrett quizzed him on a few plays and on his recent DUI in Mississippi. When Garrett met with players before the draft, he liked to ask the questions fast and intersperse them with character questions, so the player might not have time to give what might be a polished answer to something troubling on his rsum. Prescott answered everything right. He picked up the plays from this foreign offense with photographic-memory proficiency. He took full accountability for the DUI, blaming no one but himself.
Prescott's grade, in Garrett's world, shot way up. So on day three of the draft, when Prescott's name came off the board, Garrett was very good with that. Offensive coordinator Scott Linehan liked Prescott too. And Wilson was over the moon, in his reserved way; he'd gotten his man.
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and coach Wade Wilson, June 2017. (USA TODAY Sports)
Wilson died on his 60th birthday, Feb. 1, 2019. After the funeral, which Garrett and Prescott attended, Prescott told Garrett something he'd never planned to tell him. Remember my pre-draft visit to the facility? Remember how you quizzed me about those plays and my off-the-field stuff? Garrett said of course he recalled it.
Well, Prescott told him, before that meeting, Wilson had briefed him in great detail on the plays Garrett would be quizzing him about, and told him he'd be pressing him on the DUI also. Prescott aced the test, it turns out, because Wilson had given him the questions and the answers before he walked into his Dallas Cowboys final exam.
So now, if you're a Cowboys fan and you love Dak Prescott, know that the late Wade Wilsona man who'd never have advertised that he'd been the biggest Prescott cheerleader in the buildingmight deserve a quiet but important assist in making him the long-term Cowboys quarterback