Is Dak Prescott’s Salary Going Down to $1.21 Million?,, Looking Inside the Cowboys’ ‘Switch-Flip’ Cap Trick
To escape next season’s enormous $59.46 million cap cost, Prescott should just sign an extension. Even after accounting for another four years, his yearly value would surpass that of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who is currently earning $55 million.
With an aging offensive line and a head coach who isn’t fully committed, Dallas’ future is looking less secure by the day. The Cowboys should be able to avoid defeat by putting a top-ten quarterback in the pocket.
Still, an extension hasn’t been finalized, and Prescott’s present contract has a no-trade and no-tag clause, so Dallas might end up trading him for a compensatory choice. It’s possible that neither party has a contract extension in place for next season.
That doesn’t imply the Cowboys will have to pay that astronomical sum.
Michael Gehlken brought up the fact that teams can use the “automatic conversion” (sometimes known as “flipping a switch”) to convert a portion of a player’s pay into a bonus, which is then spread out over the course of the contract in order to stay under the salary cap. (Returning to our usual phrasing: “Converting base to bonus.'” when describing the Cowboys’ typical actions.)
It is possible to convert roughly $28 million of Prescott’s pay into the next three seasons at slightly over $9 million per year due to the two vacant years linked to his deal, which are mainly a formality to assist clubs manage the cap.
Based on some rough calculations, it appears that this would reduce his cap hit to $40.93 million, which is lower than other famous quarterbacks like Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills and Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams.
In a curious twist, Gehlken notes that Dallas would pay Prescott the whole $29 million, with the majority going toward a “bonus,” but they have the option to make Dak’s “base salary” a pitiful $1.21 million. Once again, a mathematical trick… but this time it’s really shocking!
What we have here is more of a band-aid than a permanent fix for the problem. With the “switch flipped” by March 13, the start of the NFL business year, while discussions in principle continue, it would have Dak still under contract for just one season, but in an economical manner.
However, this does little to address the issue of the Cowboys’ quarterback situation beyond 2025.
This may be the better choice if you’re bored with Dallas’ recent performance and are waiting for a rookie quarterback to shake things up. The rebuilding effort would be further impeded by the dead cap that would result from letting Prescott depart, which is approaching $55 million.
You can’t “escape” the cap hits; that much is certain. There will be ways for Dallas to “not pay Dak” in the end. The cap, however, needs to be “paid.”
Why not hold onto that $55 million for a quarterback who isn’t even here in 2025? Who knows what the supporting cast would be like for a new quarterback, what with edge rusher Micah Parsons and receiver CeeDee Lamb both in need of record-breaking deals. Not great, especially with Trey Lance and a small roster.
Could this be the answer that finally works? No. Is Dallas trying to get out of their $300 million obligation to Prescott in any way? Very possibly. Is it primarily, though, a means to purchase time? Dallas should probably get ready to “flip the switch” for that very reason.