CLEVELAND (AP) — The Dallas Cowboys gave Dak Prescott everything he wanted. He intends to pay them back in full.
Hours before the season opened, Prescott agreed to a $240 million, four-year contract with the Cowboys, making the quarterback the NFL’s highest paid player while giving him a chance to win a Super Bowl for a team he loves.
“I wanted to be a Cowboy,” he said. “I wanted to stay a Cowboy and it got done.”
Prescott is the first in league history to average $60 million per season, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press on Sunday. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal hasn’t been announced.
The runner-up in NFL MVP voting was entering the final year of a $160 million, four-year contract that was a franchise record before this deal. It includes $231 million guaranteed, the person said, $1 million more than the record fully guaranteed deal Deshaun Watson signed with the Browns two years ago.
“I had an obligation to the league and to the other quarterbacks,” he said. “It’s because I was up (due) and the next guy, I expect to beat me.”
Prescott was in his Cleveland hotel room getting ready to leave for Sunday’s game against the Browns when his agent told him the deal was complete.
He then went out and threw one touchdown pass while leading the Cowboys to an easy 33-17 win in their season opener.
There had been speculation for weeks about whether the sides could reach an agreement. Prescott was entering his final year under contract and had hoped for a definitive answer that finally came.
“In any negotiation, one side wants something and the other side wants something else,” he said. “You’ve got to meet in the middle. I’m just glad it’s done and it works for everyone.”
Prescott said he spoke with owner and general manager Jerry Jones on Saturday and was assured the Cowboys were willing to finalize a deal.
“I know that these numbers are beyond anything that I could have ever imagined,” Jones told reporters about an hour before kickoff.
Prescott has led the Cowboys to the playoffs the past three seasons and five times in his first eight years. But Dallas is looking for a postseason breakthrough that hasn’t happened since the last of the franchise’s five Super Bowl titles to cap the 1995 season.
The 31-year-old said repeatedly he wanted to stay with Dallas and be the QB to get the club past the divisional round for the first time in 29 years. Prescott now will get at least several more chances.
“It’s about me holding up my end of the deal,” he said.
“This was the thing to do for what we’re here for and that is to win a championship,” Jones said. “I gave everything I ever had or hoped to have to get a chance to be a part of the Cowboys. And it’s beyond my fondest dreams where we stand today.”
The deal with Prescott comes less than two weeks after Dallas made All-Pro receiver CeeDee Lamb the second-highest paid player at his position with a $136 million, four-year contract.
Prescott was a fourth-round pick out of Mississippi State in 2016 when Tony Romo was entering his 10th full season as the starter.
Romo injured his back in a preseason game, which led to Prescott starting from Week 1 of his rookie season after backup Kellen Moore also was injured before the opener.
After losing to the New York Giants, Prescott led an 11-game winning streak that was a franchise record in a single season.
Prescott edged teammate Ezekiel Elliott, his running back, for 2016 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors as they led the Cowboys to the top seed in the NFC before losing their playoff debut to Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers.
The first playoff victory with Prescott came two years later against Seattle before a divisional loss at the Los Angeles Rams.
The first of three straight 12-win playoff seasons in 2021 ended with a wild-card loss to San Francisco at home.
Prescott played one of the best games of his career a year later in a wild-card victory at Tampa Bay that was Tom Brady’s last game. Another loss to the 49ers, this time in San Francisco, followed.
Hopes for a deep Dallas playoff run were their highest under Prescott last season when the Cowboys surged to the NFC’s No. 2 seed late and were in position to get past the divisional round at home.
Dallas didn’t even get to that game, with Prescott’s pick-6 part of a first-half meltdown for the team in a stunning 48-32 wild-card loss to Jordan Love and the Packers.
Arguably the most disappointing loss in the 34 years since Jones bought the team clouded a great regular season for Prescott, who led the NFL with a career-high 36 touchdown passes against nine interceptions and threw for 4,516 yards.
Prescott was already climbing the career QB charts for the Cowboys and now will have a chance to pass Romo and a pair of Pro Football Hall of Famers, and multiple Super Bowl winners, in Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach.
All three of his predecessors are still ahead of Prescott in career wins, with Prescott now four shy of Romo’s 78 in third. Prescott is second in TDs, 44 behind Romo, and third in yards behind Romo and Aikman.
Prescott is the club’s career leader with a 67% completion percentage. He has 29,638 yards passing and 203 touchdowns.