NFL
Dak Prescott’s $160 Million Offseason Just Became Even More Profitable With a Move to the Jordan Brand
Joe Kozlowski began his career as a sports journalist in 2013 and joined Sportscasting in 2019. He covers the NBA and soccer for Sportscasting, with specialties in legacy NBA players such as Michael Jordan and Premier League club Arsenal. Off the clock, he's a Kansas City Chiefs fan and a hockey goalie. Growing up loving Shaquille O'Neal and reading everything he could about the great big men throughout NBA history — likely because he was still tall enough, at least relative to his peers, to play center — he's continued to love learning about and exploring the historical and story-based sides of the basketball archives. As for Arsenal, Joe spent a year living in London and latched onto the local support of the club. He's barely missed a match since, loving Arsene Wenger, enduring the Banter Era, and following along through rebuilds. The Premier League interest developed into a passionate following of the Champions League, Europe's big five league, and international soccer as a whole when played at the highest level. Regardless of the sport, Joe is captivated by the stories of athletes beyond the box scores and how they push the envelope — both in terms of what we think a human is capable of accomplishing and how they find new competitive tactics to win.
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On the whole, 2020 was a tough year for just about everyone. From a sporting perspective, Dak Prescott would certainly agree. The Dallas Cowboys quarterback couldn’t agree to a long-term contract and then suffered a brutal ankle injury in Week 5. The next year, however, has been a much different story.
Prescott kicked off the 2021 offseason by inking his long-awaited extension and scoring $160 million in salary in the process. He wasn’t done there, though. On June 9, news broke that he was teaming up with the Jordan Brand and further increasing his bottom line.
Dak Prescott finally got the $160 million contract extension he wanted
In the modern NFL, the best offenses are built around a star quarterback. That reality helped Prescott earn a nice contract extension from the Cowboys, even if he had to wait an extra year.
As alluded to above, Dak’s rookie contract expired ahead of the 2020 NFL campaign. He and Jerry Jones couldn’t agree to the length of a new deal, though, and failed to hammer out a new contract. The quarterback took the field on a one-year franchise tender before suffering a gruesome, season-ending ankle injury in Week 5.
While a serious injury is never a good thing, Prescott’s absence did help underscore his importance to the Cowboys. The club did mount a late-season push, but without its star quarterback, it couldn’t make the playoffs.
On the back of that disappointing campaign, Jones and Prescott returned to the negotiating table. Although it was a year later than originally planned, the quarterback inked a four-year, $160 million extension, essentially getting exactly what he wanted.
The Cowboys quarterback continues his profitable offseason by joining the Jordan Brand
Between his big-money contract extension and a move into the restaurant industry, Prescott has had a pretty profitable offseason. On Wednesday, June 9, that trend only continued.
“Cowboys’ QB Dak Prescott is leaving Adidas and signing a five-year agreement with the Jordan Brand, per source close to [the] situation. Prescott will be the only Jordan Brand QB, the only Cowboys player, and highest-paid NFL player on the Jordan Brand roster,” Adam Schefter reported in a late-night tweet. “Dak Prescott’s deal was negotiated by his marketing agent Peter Miller of JABEZ Marketing Group and the Jordan Brand team, and they believe this ground-breaking deal creates a perfect marketing storm around the standout QB, the Cowboys, and the Jordan Brand.”
While we don’t know anything about the deal beyond Schefter’s reports, the financial benefits are plain to see. For Dak to leave Adidas and join the Jordan Brand, they presumably had to pay him a pretty penny. Beyond the raw terms of the deal, there’s also a certain amount of cachet to the partnership. Playing quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys is an iconic role; Michael Jordan is still one of the biggest names in sports.
Put those two factors together and Prescott’s stock will rise even further than it already has. Even if it’s not the perfect marketing storm that Miller imagines, it’s safe to assume the arrangement won’t hurt Dak’s bottom line.
Can Dak Prescott things up by leading the Dallas Cowboys to the promised land?
While Prescott has had a profitable offseason, his ultimate goal is to lead the Cowboys to the Super Bowl title. Even the most optimistic fan will probably concede that dream is a bridge too far, at least right now.
So how far can America’s Team go?
At the risk of citing the same talking point as every campaign, Dallas should, at least on paper, have enough talent to escape the weak NFC East. Between Prescott, the Cowboys receiving corps, and Ezekiel Elliott, the club should be capable of putting up some points; as long as the defense is better than the dumpster fire it was during the early weeks of the 2020 campaign, it’ll win some football games.
Beyond the overall weakness of the NFC East, the Cowboys received an overall assist from the NFL schedule-makers. Despite making trips to both Kansas City and Tampa Bay, Dallas still has the second-easiest slate of games in the entire league.
Although the Cowboys have fallen short of expectations over the past few years, they are technically favored to win their division. Even if lifting the Lombardi Trophy is still a couple of bridges too far at this point, making it back to the playoffs would be a solid way for Prescott to follow up his profitable offseason.
