National Football League

Cowboy Up

Updated Jul. 17, 2020 6:36 p.m. ET

There is precedent for quarterbacks to have success playing under the franchise tag – just ask Kirk Cousins.

On March 16, the Dallas Cowboys slapped the exclusive franchise tag on Dak Prescott, which will earn him more than $30 million this upcoming season.

Still, Prescott and the Cowboys are hoping to get a long-term deal before the season, and the latest reports are that the two sides aren't so much arguing over the dollars as they are the years.

The franchise tag, even though high-paying, is essentially a 1-year deal, considered a nightmare scenario to most football players – except one.

Kirk Cousins recently spoke out about Prescott's situation in Dallas, considering he faced similar circumstances years ago as quarterback of the Washington Redskins.

Entering the 2016-17 season, the Redskins placed the tag on Cousins, earning him right at $20 million. That season, Cousins threw for a career-high 4,917 yards, third most in the NFL that year. He also tossed 25 touchdowns.

The Redskins finished the year 8-7-1 and missed the playoffs, but Cousins was named to the Pro Bowl for the first time in his career.

However, heading into the 2017-18 season, Cousins and the Redskins were still unable to agree on a long-term deal and Cousins became the first quarterback in NFL history to be franchise-tagged in consecutive seasons.

Cousins passed for 4,093 yards and 27 touchdowns, but the team as a whole digressed, finishing the season 7-9 and missing the playoffs once again.

Still, when Cousins hit the free agency market after that year, he found the deal he was looking for.

At the time, the fully-guaranteed deal made Cousins the highest-paid player in NFL history, and currently, he's the fifth-highest paid QB in the league.

NFL reporter Ian Rapoport elaborated on the contract back in 2018:

Cousins receives a $3 million signing bonus. His base salaries are $22.5 million for 2018, $27.5 million for 2019 and $29.5 million for 2020. In each year, he gets a $500,000 workout bonus. That's $84 million. So it's $26 million in Year 1, $28 million in Year 2, $30 million in Year 3, a top 5 cash flow. There is no hefty signing bonus, but the fully guaranteed $84 million is far more than the previous high of $60 million.

Fast-forward to today, and Cousins' advice to Prescott is simple: playing under the franchise tag is okay.

"If he has a long-term opportunity that he signs, that's a win for him and a win for the Cowboys. He's played himself into the position he's in. I think he knows as well, were he to play on the franchise tag, that's not the end of the world ... It's just a matter of figuring out the contractual details around that. I don't see a world where Dak Prescott isn't the quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys for many years to come."

If anyone can speak to the advantages and disadvantages of playing under the tag, it's Cousins, but he doesn't seems to think there are as many disadvantages as most people perceive.

On Monday, Rapoport addressed the Prescott contract situation, using Cousins' years under the franchise tag as context and reaffirming the idea that Prescott and the Cowboys are close on salary – it's the length of the contract that the two sides can't agree upon.

"The franchise tag can be something that creates incredible leverage for you, especially if you play it out, which Kirk Cousins famously did ... The franchise tag can indeed be your friend. Playing it out is not something Dak Prescott is afraid of ... It's not really a question of money. It's more a question of years. The Cowboys want to keep Prescott under contract for a long time. He wants a 4-year deal."

There have been a number of differing opinions on the Prescott contract situation, from current and former players to members of the media.

Former NFL MVP and Super Bowl winning Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann offered his thoughts late last week, firmly advising Prescott to sign the deal the Cowboys have on the table, which is rumored to be larger than the 4-year, $134 million deal signed by Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff last year.

“Dak Prescott’s situation confuses me a bit... If I was advising Dak Prescott, I would say, ‘Take the money.' The aggravation to go through, the unknowns if you happen to go through a year, the free agency ... What are you looking for? Another couple million? You’re never going to see the last year of this contract anyway ... You’re not a top-five quarterback in the National Football League ... You’re a good football player. You have the potential to be better, but what have you done?”

Former Pro Bowl center Jeff Saturday, however, thinks that Prescott should take the Cousins route in an effort to stick it to Dallas for not giving him his desired contract.

“If I’m Dak Prescott, I’m signing my tender today, I’m going to Kirk Cousins them the next year or two. I’m going to make it happen... From Dak Prescott, you’ve watched them sign your receiver, your running back, linemen, you name it, you keep going through it, and you keep waiting for your contract. I don’t like the whole way it played out for Dak Prescott.”

The deadline for the two sides to come to an agreement is July 15.

That gives us plenty of time to see if Cousins actually rubs off on Dak.