#Cowboys drafting Dak Prescott replacement is ‘crazy’: Jerry Jones

There’s a new wrinkle in the contract saga between the Dallas Cowboys and Dak Prescott.

Because the 2-7 Cowboys are headed for a top-five pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, they could consider letting Prescott walk away in free agency and replacing him with a first-round rookie who would provide salary cap relief. Is that a crazy proposition?

“Yes,” owner/general manager Jerry Jones said Tuesday in a radio interview with 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “You’re asking me is it crazy to bring the idea up and I’m answering: Yes.”

He added, “We’re playing games here guys, but it’s not the thing to be talking about here at all. You know, Dak is our quarterback.”

And his son Stephen, the Cowboys vice president, said he is “so fired up about [Prescott] leading us in the future,” according to USA Today.

So, it sounds like Jones family isn’t even willing to entertain the idea as negotiating leverage over Prescott.

Prescott and the Cowboys couldn’t reach an agreement on a long-term extension last offseason and Prescott rolled the dice by playing on a one-year deal at the franchise-tag salary of $31.4 million.

If he had a huge season, then Prescott’s price would have skyrocketed. But he suffered a season-ending broken ankle in a Week 5 game against the Giants and will not be back on the field until OTAs, after free agency and the draft.

The Cowboys haven’t won since finishing off the Giants and have started three quarterbacks since Prescott was sidelined – Andy Dalton, rookie Ben DiNucci and Garrett Gilbert.

If the season ended today, the Cowboys would hold the No. 3 pick in the draft based on strength of schedule tiebreakers, but there are eight teams with two or fewer wins.

Even if the Cowboys are out of range for the presumptive top two picks, Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State’s Justin Fields, then Alabama’s Mac Jones, North Dakota State’s Trey Lance, BYU’s Zach Wilson and Florida’s Kyle Trask all are quarterbacks worthy of first-round grades.

Troy Aikman, who changed the direction of the Cowboys as the No. 1 overall pick in 1989, told USA Today that the Cowboys should be looking to plug their many other holes.

“The Cowboys aren’t in need of a quarterback,” Aikman said. “I can see where maybe some teams might look at it as, ‘Trevor Lawrence is sitting out there, we’d sure like a shot at him.’ But I don’t think Dallas is in the market for his services.”