Report: Dak Prescott had second unreported surgery on ankle, two sides are not close on long-term contract

We are about a month away from a very significant point in the Dak Prescott contract negotiations. March 9th is the deadline for which the Dallas Cowboys, if they are unable to ink their quarterback to a long-term deal, will have to either use the franchise tag or not. Spoiler alert: They will absolutely tag him if they do not have a deal in place.

The thing about tagging Dak is that it would be a huge financial boost to his market value (a subject we have talked about before). Prescott played on the tag last year for a value of $31.4M (remember the tag is fully guaranteed in a particular year), and it would cost $37.7M to do it again in 2021.

Should the Cowboys have to ride out the season with their quarterback on the tag for the second year in a row, they would be giving Dak even more leverage than he already has (which is 100%, by the way). A third straight tag in 20222 would be valued at $54.2M which, in a literal sense, would be his defined market rate on an annual average value basis. That is astronomical and there is no way the team could do that as evidenced by the situation that led to Kirk Cousins leaving our nation’s capital.

Dak Prescott reportedly had a second surgery, and the franchise tag is imminent if no deal if agreed to

In the Super Bowl morning reporting there was of course conversation had about the Dallas Cowboys quarterback. According to NFL Network, the Cowboys will tag Prescott if they cannot agree to a deal by the deadline. Again, we already knew this.

What is new information to us all is that Prescott had a second surgery on the ankle that he injured back in October (that led to him missing a majority of the season) that was previously not reported.

Sources say Prescott underwent a second — and previously unreported — procedure on the ankle about two months later to strengthen his deltoid ligament, clean out the ankle and make it more structurally sound. That procedure wasn’t directly related to the October surgery; rather, doctors then spotted issues related to past injuries to the same ankle, and so once the risk of infection was eliminated, they went back in to clean up the rest.

After the second surgery in early December, Prescott had to take about a week off from rehab to let the wound heal, but it improved the stability and integrity of the ankle and should accelerate his overall recovery, per sources. He’s now walking without issue, doing weight-bearing exercises and is expected to be ready for action long before the 2021 season begins.

The report goes on to say that Dak is ahead of schedule medically so it appears that this second surgery was a good thing for him overall. Dak is on pace to return from his injury and will come back to find an NFL that has an exploding quarterback market. More teams than ever in recent history are expected to be changing hands at the most important position in the game. Needless to say, for the who knows what time, Prescott has all of the leverage.

ESPN reported that the two sides are not close (sigh), but as noted the next month is going to be rather important. It is difficult to understand why the Cowboys seem to be continue going about things this way, a concept that Emmitt Smith himself found perplexing.

Will the Cowboys be able to get this thing done on their third try? We will have to wait and see.