Dak Prescott figures to get paid, either by Dallas or another team willing to go north of $50 million per year if the Cowboys let his contract expire after this season.
Russell Wilson hasn't been announced as the starter for Pittsburgh's opener in what's shaped up to be the nine-time Pro Bowler's last chance to revive a career that has stalled since his days as a star in Seattle.
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The look and feel of the hot seat is a bit different for Prescott and Wilson, among others in potential make-or-break situations, but it's a hot seat nonetheless.
In Prescott's case, the runner-up in MVP voting from last season badly wants to take the Cowboys where they haven't been in nearly 30 years — past the divisional round of the playoffs.
After his worst flop yet in a shocking home wild-card loss to Green Bay last season, Prescott faces questions of whether he's the guy to do what Tony Romo couldn't in 10 years as the starter.
This will be the ninth try for the 31-year-old entering the final season of a club-record $160 million, four-year contract.
The first was a dynamic rookie season with fellow first-year star Ezekiel Elliott in the backfield, leading Dallas to the top seed in the NFC, but losing to Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in their playoff debut.
The Cowboys say they want to keep him. Prescott, who replaced an injured Romo in his first training camp and started from the get-go, says he wants to stay.
Yet the 2016 AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year remains a lame duck QB for 2024, with the Cowboys at 28 years and counting since their most recent trip to the NFC championship game. Dallas won its fifth Super Bowl title to finish the 1995 season.
“I don’t think that’s pressure,” Prescott said from training camp in California this month. “I don’t necessarily worry about the talk. I’m confident in getting something done. I’m confident in the front office here. I’m under contract right now so all I need to do is be the best I can be for my job.”
Quarterbacks whose clocks are ticking, or otherwise find themselves in potentially tricky circumstances:
Russell Wilson
The 35-year-old joined the Steelers after two mostly miserable seasons in Denver, where he signed a huge extension following a trade that ended a 10-year, Super Bowl-winning run with the Seahawks.
Days later, Pittsburgh traded for Justin Fields when Chicago decided to move on from its 11th overall pick in 2021, clearing the way for the Bears to get Caleb Williams at the top of this year's draft.
The presumption all along has been that Wilson would start, and Fields would be ready if Wilson continues to look like a player with a 17-27 record as a starter over the past three seasons.
Wilson was slowed by a calf injury in training camp, and neither QB led a drive to a touchdown in the first two preseason appearances. Each was in charge of one TD march in the preseason finale.
And Fields isn't going quietly.
“I think I’ve shown what I can do,” Fields said last week. “I think the time that I did have with the (first team) practicing in training camp, I think that went well. I think we grew a lot each and every day, but at the end of the day, it’s not up to me.”
Daniel Jones
The former Duke quarterback has been dogged by questions of whether he was the answer for the Giants since New York made him a surprising choice at No. 6 overall in the 2019 draft.
Now Jones is coming off an ACL injury that ended his 2023 season in November. That 1-5 record was his fourth losing season in five years with the Giants, but Jones signed a $160 million extension — about half of it guaranteed — following his only winning season when he led the Giants to the playoffs in 2022.
New York will have a financial decision to make on Jones' roster spot when the new league year starts next spring, and his release would generate substantial savings under the salary cap.
Derek Carr
The Raiders gave up on Carr late in his ninth season with Oakland/Las Vegas in 2022, and he signed with New Orleans as a free agent last year.
As was the case several times with the franchise that drafted Carr, the debut with the Saints came agonizingly close to the playoffs. Carr was beat up and booed the first half of the season but played great late, and New Orleans missed out on the postseason because of tiebreakers.
Going into his 11th season, Carr is without a playoff victory and part of just two teams that got in. His best chance was in 2016, when a broken leg in Week 16 kept him out of a wild-card loss to Houston for a 12-win Oakland team.
The Saints have a new offensive coordinator in Klint Kubiak, and it's realistic for Carr to get two more seasons based on the structure of his $150 million, four-year deal.
Jalen Hurts
It seems crazy to include the quarterback who finished second to Patrick Mahomes in MVP voting in 2022 while leading Philadelphia to the Super Bowl, where the Eagles lost to Mahomes and Kansas City.
Then again, 2023 was a crazy season for Hurts and company.
The Eagles started 10-1 before losing six of their last seven games, including a 32-9 wild-card loss at Tampa Bay.
Coach Nick Sirianni took the brunt of the blame, but there were plenty of questions about Hurts shockingly soon after he signed a $255 million, five-year extension.
Because of that contract, Hurts isn't going anywhere anytime soon. But the 26-year-old and his team need another U-turn that's just about as quick as the one that ruined last season.
Kirk Cousins
There's no question the former Minnesota quarterback is the new starter in Atlanta. That's because of the $100 million guaranteed in the $180 million contract Cousins signed with the Falcons in March.
Funny thing is, Atlanta turned around and drafted Michael Penix Jr. eighth overall less than two months after signing Cousins. The 36-year-old says he's fine with it, and the Falcons say they were just looking out for their future with Penix available when they picked.
None of which stopped the befuddlement across the NFL.
“Kirk Cousins is our franchise quarterback. He is our starting quarterback. And he seems to be doing great ... so we couldn’t be happier with that situation,” said 81-year-old Falcons owner Arthur Blank. “But, you know, age does kind of creep up. I can speak for myself personally on that a little bit.”
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