FRISCO, Texas — If Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott wins a Super Bowl and plays in 50% of the snaps in the title game, he will earn a $1 million incentive, according to the contract he will officially sign Wednesday.
The Houston Texans have the same clause in their contract with quarterback Deshaun Watson.
Prescott, 27, will receive a six-year, $240 million deal from the Cowboys that includes $126 million guaranteed and a record $66 million signing bonus, however, the final two years of the deal void, making it a four-year, $160 million deal.
Here is a breakdown:
Signing bonus: $66 million
2021 base salary: $9 million
2022 base salary: $20 million
2023 base salary: $31 million
2024 base salary: $29 million ($5 million roster bonus due the fifth day of the league year)
2025 base salary: $40 million (voidable year)
2026 base salary: $40 million (voidable year)
2021 cap figure: $22.2 million
2022 cap figure: $33.2 million
2023 cap figure: $44.2 million
2024 cap figure: $47.2 million
2025 cap figure: $53.2 million (voidable year)
2026 cap figure: $40 million (voidable year)
The final two years of the contract void after the deadline to use the franchise tag in 2025, but the Cowboys would have difficulty in using the tag in 2025 even without that deadline. Since they are putting the tag on Prescott Tuesday for mostly procedural reasons, if they wanted to tag him in 2025, it would come at a 144% increase over his 2024 cap number and effectively cost $68 million.
In 2022, the Cowboys can create upward of $15 million in salary-cap space by lowering his $20 million base salary to a little more than $1 million and turning the difference into signing bonus for accounting purposes. That is the benefit of the extra voidable years on the contract to spread out the restructure over five remaining years, but such a move would add about $3.8 million to the cap figures in 2023-24.
When the deal voids in 2025, the Cowboys would have about $21 million in dead money against the cap, which is still far less than what the Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles have as their 2021 cap charges for Jared Goff and Carson Wentz, respectively.