Dak Prescott Justifies Jerry Jones’ $240M Contract as Tua Tagovailoa’s INT Streak Continues

Ever since he first put pen to paper, Dak Prescott’s contract with the Dallas Cowboys has been one of the most controversial deals in all of professional sports. When he was the runner up in MVP voting just two seasons ago, it seemed understandable, but when Prescott was averaging the worst passer rating of his career and was sidelined with a season-ending hamstring injury in 2024, Jerry Jones was viewed as a laughing stock.

Now, through the first seven weeks of the 2025 regular season, it appears as if the money was worth it. Prescott’s 1,881 passing yards are the second most in the league, and his passer rating of 107.6 is the third best among quarterbacks with 200+ passing attempts.

Dak’s 16 passing touchdowns are also the second most in the NFL, while his 91 passing first downs currently stand as the third most. Suffice to say, Prescott is beginning to play himself back into the MVP conversation, and if that isn’t enough to vindicate Jones’ decision to pay him, then perhaps it’s worth noting what the Miami Dolphins were able to get while handing out similar money.

Tua Tagovailoa, who’s APY of $53,100,000 grades just below Prescott’s league-leading rate of $60 million, is arguably enduring the worst campaign of any franchise quarterback right now. Not only is Tagovailoa struggling to maintain the narrative surrounding his own locker room and the fact that players are skipping out on player-only meetings, he’s also struggling with turning the ball over.

His 11 touchdowns have been nullified by the 10 interceptions that he has already thrown. If it wasn’t for a disastrous Week 4 showing from Geno Smith, Tagovailoa would be the runaway interception leader on the season.

In that same vein, Trevor Lawrence, who currently boasts the second highest APY in the NFL, ranked 30th overall in completion percentage prior to this Sunday. Since Lawrence first entered the league, he’s managed to scrape together a regular season record of 26-40, good for a 39.39% win rate.

Meanwhile, Prescott has managed to win more than 61% of his games, recording a regular season record of 36-22-1 since 2021. Throw in the fact that Jordan Love, who currently ranks just 13th in passing yards, is also receiving the same $55-million APY that Lawrence is, and it seems as if Jones actually managed to get some bang for his buck in terms of QB production.

It may be a bit jarring to hear that Jerry Jones actually made a sound business decision, and there may even be a lack of playoff wins that you could point to in order to argue against Prescott’s contract, but in the end, when you look at what other teams have gotten for paying the same amount of money, you can’t deny that the Cowboys’ offense has benefited from this deal.

In other words, Jones may not be as good as he once was, but he’s still as good once as he ever was, and that’s worth remembering as Dallas continues to move on from Micah Parsons.