Dak Prescott “pretty sure” he’ll have say in Cowboys personnel decisions this offseason

The Cowboys franchise QB is entering the second year of his new contract.

Remember the Cowboys offseason where “Dak-friendly” was a household term, and all it meant was adding more talent at receiver and keeping a strong offensive line in front of the Cowboys franchise quarterback? In the full-circle nature of professional football, how the Cowboys can elevate Prescott’s game is a topic of the offseason once again, and entering year two of his contract extension Prescott expects to have some say in how Dallas will build the 2022 roster.

Prescott had this to say in an interview with USA Today:

“I think that just depends on whether they ask me,” Prescott said. “I’m not going in and knocking on doors saying, ‘Hey, I want this done, I want that done.’ But I’m pretty sure that my opinion will be valued in certain decisions, as I hope. So with that being said, just plan on helping this team get better in every which way I can.”

Just how the Cowboys plan on evolving their offense to avoid a late-season dip again is a complicated picture. Everything from further upgrades at receiver, retooling the offensive line, or bringing in a new quarterbacks coach to work with Prescott have been floated as potential ideas.

Some of these issues came up unexpectedly, brought on by the amount of cap space Prescott now occupies. Wide receiver went from an overwhelming strength to a position of uncertainty, as the Cowboys deal with the possible cap casualty of Amari Cooper and free agent status of Michael Gallup and Cedrick Wilson.

The Cowboys had their chance to build a championship team with Prescott on his rookie contract, drawing a lot of comparisons at the time to Russell Wilson’s Super Bowl team in Seattle. The Cowboys never built the defense the Seahawks had to support an offense with Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, and one of the league’s best offensive lines.

Now they simply have Prescott as a focal point to build around, and finally a strong defense under Dan Quinn that will also need reinforcements this offseason. Their usage of Elliott in the ground game, and the case for giving Tony Pollard more touches, is another area of improvement to address.

Photo by Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty Images

There is a concern around the NFL that the closest the Cowboys will get to going all-in, like the current Super Bowl champion Rams did, was this past offseason. Prescott, of course, spent these long months negotiating his new deal with the Jones’ – one that Stephen could easily use as an excuse for why Dallas isn’t more active in free agency this year.

Whether or not this changes Prescott’s mind on if he wants to “knock on any doors” around The Star remains to be seen as he enters his first offseason in four years with total contract certainty.