How Dak Prescott’s focus has been a model for Cowboys heading into season of uncertainty

With the Dallas Cowboys heading into the 2024 season, there is no hiding from the elephant in the room

All of the coaches are on one-year deals, including head coach Mike McCarthy, with the charge of going deep in the playoffs —and possibly the Super Bowl for the first time since 1996 — to keep their jobs.

Add 29 players in the last year of their contracts — led by quarterback Dak Prescott, receiver CeeDee Lamb, All-Pro guard Zack Martin and Pro Bowl defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence — the Cowboys are undoubtedly facing a season of uncertainty.

It would seemingly make for an untenable environment to prepare for a unknown future beyond 2024.

“You can throw the contract part to the side,” McCarthy said of the staff. “Those conversations weren’t easy. No one wants to be on a year contract. We all understand that. You know the emotion. You know what that does to your family and so forth. But once we got past the combine, I think once you get things set, there’s a job to do.”

It’s largely been the same way with the players, except for receiver Lamb who is boycotting the offseason program and this week’s minicamp in a contract dispute.

But everyone else in present and accounted for with the focus on being the best they can be in 2024.

McCarthy said Prescott has led the way in word and, indeed, despite the Cowboys’ failure thus far to fulfill their promise of securing his future with a long-term contract extension.

“I use Dak as an example. I think Dak’s having his best offseason program that he’s had,” McCarthy said. “And he has had really good offseason programs the whole time.”

McCarthy said the quarterbacks and wide receivers have excelled through out the offseason and Prescott has set the tone.

Prescott, coming off the best season of his career when led the NFL in touchdown passes and finished second in the NFL MVP balloting, should not still be wondering about his future.

But he knows only one way to approach the game.

“I’d agree,” Prescott said when asked if it was his best offseason. “First and foremost, it’s what I put into this game. It’s what this game means to me. I talk about it every offseason. Any chance we talk, my focus is always getting better. Getting better overall in every way that I can, every aspect of my game, making sure I push the other people around me. Mike’s comments are the results of us doing that from the time the offseason began, from before the offseason began with the team activities, us guys getting together.”

Prescott believes he is having such a good offseason because he is in the second year of McCarthy’s offense. He is just more comfortable with his footwork and the scheme and so are the receivers.

Everyone has a better understanding. They are playing faster and with more confidence.

“Things are just faster off the line from the huddle through the play to the scramble drill when it doesn’t work, we are truly understanding, everybody understands what to do,” Prescott said. “It just makes the communication, my approach better and allow me to play with more confidence.”

But Prescott doesn’t see the uncertain future as a bad thing. It creates a needed sense of urgency for an organization that has gone 28 years since it’s last trip to the Super Bowl and is coming off three straight 12-5 seasons with early playoff exits.

“It’s just the urgency that you should always have, to be honest,” Prescott said. ”So maybe guys who normally wouldn’t feel it, feel it. So I don’t mind it. I’ve been in this position before, I’m a gambling man. Will gamble on myself and my guys.”

Prescott went into the 2019 and 2020 seasons on one-year deals before securing a four-year, $160 million contract extension before the 2021 season.

He is back in the same position and taking the same approach.

If doesn’t get a new deal before season, the future of everyone arguably lies with Prescott’s play in 2024.

With just two playoff wins on his otherwise sterling resume, Prescott must do more in the postseason to secure his future in Dallas.

He’s betting on himself and so are the Cowboys.