Cowboys trade Dak Prescott before deadline? Rules, cap & draft ramifications

DAMAKORONKOWA - The Dallas Cowboys have fallen to 3-5 on the season and appear on pace for their third consecutive campaign to finish under .500. Back in the day, that only happened when quarterback Dak Prescott was hampered with a serious injury but, knocking on wood, Prescott has been healthy for the entire duration from 2024 onward.

Prescott's $60 million per year pact, signed in 2024, came with no-trade and no-franchise tag clauses, similar to his previous contract. But that doesn't mean it's the end-all be-all. As the Cowboys are low on draft picks for 2027 and low on hope after yesterday, it's a fair question to ask, if Prescott were to waive his no-trade clause, could Dallas even make a deal happen?

Explaining Prescott's no-trade clause

A no-trade clause is literally what it sounds like; it bars the player's organization from sending him to another team, without their permission. That permission is the key ingredient, because the player has the ability to waive the right.

The clause is essentially the player's ability to dictate which franchise's they would accept a trade to, allowing them to block moves that would send them to cities or situations they are not comfortable with. If a player likes the city, the organization and almost always the club's willingness to tack on some extra years to the contract, then they would consider waiving the ban.

Prescott's remaining contract value

Even if Prescott were willing to move to another organization, that club would absorb the remaining money on his deal. Fortunately that's not a sticking point. Prescott's base salary for 2026 is just $1.8 million, one million a week for the regular season. His acquiring team would only absorb $1 million in 2026 salary cap hit.

Prescott has two years remaining on his current deal, 2027 and 2028. His base salary for each is $45 million then $55 million respectively, for a total of $100 million. The 2027 total is fully guaranteed.

For the last two years, Prescott spent the season as the NFL's highest-paid player, only surpassed this offseason when Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes renegotiated his deal to move to $64 million a year, on average.

One would assume, before Prescott allowed a team to trade for him, he'd have worked out the parameters of a contract extension already. $100 million is nothing to sneeze at, but one would imagine he'd be looking to at least have 2028 and effectively 2029 guaranteed before waiving his right of refusal.

Impact to Cowboys' salary cap

This, of course, is the money part of the conversation. Could Dallas "afford" to trade Prescott. Technically, yes.

When a player is traded during the NFL season, the only impact on that year's cap is the removal of the remaining base salary and any incentives the player was set to receive. The signing, restructure and option bonus money already paid to the player and allocated across multiple NFL seasons is a different story.

Whatever was allocated to 2026 for a traded player, in this case $41.7 million, was already accounted for in a team's cap calculations and remains there.

All future bonus allocations -- the money from those bonuses that was allocated to future years and void years -- would all come due the following season, or 2027.

For Prescott, that's as follows (numbers rounded, courtesy of OTC):

2027: $31 million

2028: $31 million

2029 void year: $17 million

2030 void year: $7.6 million

Total Acceleration: $86.6 million

Prescott's base salary of $45 million would fall off the team's expected cap hit for him, and would be replaced by $55.6 million of 2028 through 2030 cap hits. They were already expecting to carry Prescott's $31 million allocation as part of a $76 million cap number.

Trading Prescott would result in just under $11 million more in cap hit, with the player obviously not on their team any more.

Of course, the Cowboys aren't planning on having Prescott count $76 million against their cap in 2027; that's the rub. There are still two unused void years left on his deal, 2031 and 2032, and the expectation is that were he to remain on their roster they'd restructure his $45 million salary down to under $2 million and save over $34 million in cap space.

This is the true "other side" of the conversation.

Future cap hit?

In this scenario, there'd be no future cap hits tied to Prescott for the Cowboys. They'd pay him no more money, have a huge number on the 2027 cap, and then be free and clear after that.

Draft Compensation?

It's almost impossible to imagine the Cowboys taking less than any of the more recent blockbuster QB trades around the NFL. Two first-round picks would not be enough.

Deshaun Watson (2022), Browns | 3 firsts, 1 third, 2 fourths

Russell Wilson (2022), Broncos | 2 firsts, 2 seconds, 1 fifth, 3 players

Matthew Stafford (2021), Rams | 2 firsts, 1 third, Jared Goff

Jay Cutler (2009), Bears | 2 firsts, 1 third, Kyle Orton

This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Cowboys trade Dak Prescott before deadline? Rules, cap & draft ramifications

 

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