How the Dak Prescott deal impacts the Washington Football Team

For yet another offseason, the Dallas Cowboys and Dak Prescott were trying to negotiate a long-term deal to make Prescott the team’s franchise quarterback. They were once again coming down to the franchise-tag wire, and it looked like the Cowboys would have to consider tagging Prescott for a second consecutive season and creating a Kirk Cousins-type scenario.

Instead, the two sides managed to work out a deal on Monday night.

According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Cowboys inked Prescott to a four-year deal worth up to $164 million. The deal also comes with $126 million in guarantees and a no-trade clause.

As Rapoport said, this deal is, in fact, massive. The Cowboys are committing to Prescott and are hoping that he can lead them to relevance in the NFC East. Their offense is in solid shape now, but their defense needs some work.

Dak Prescott’s signing does have an impact on the Washington Football Team.

That’s the case any time a team is looking for a quarterback and a big name comes off the market. But in reality, Prescott was never going to be available. The Cowboys were always going to tag him if they couldn’t agree to a long-term deal, so the odds of Prescott making it to the open market and signing with the Washington Football Team were astronomically thin.

That said, this does impact Washington in a couple of key ways.

First of all, it ensures that the Cowboys will be competing for a division title in the NFC East for the duration of this deal. Their offense was great with Prescott last year, and while their defense wasn’t good, the team can now focus on improving that side of the ball to balance their team better.

So long as Prescott is healthy, they appear to be Washington’s main competition in the divison. And maybe the high-flying Dallas offense and top-tier Washington defense will square off and add some new life to the Washington-Dallas rivalry.

The other way this deal impacts Washington is a bit more outside-the-box. It takes away a trade option for the Seattle Seahawks in the event that things deteriorate completely with Russell Wilson. The veteran QB had Dallas on his potential wishlist of new teams, but with Prescott signing and getting a no-trade clause, a deal for Wilson will not happen.

Washington isn’t on Wilson’s four-team wishlist, but maybe if his options dry up, he’d consider coming to the Football Team. Again, odds are that Wilson will remain in Seattle, but at least the WFT faithful can daydream about Wilson’s availability and know he won’t land in Dallas.

Overall though, Prescott’s deal won’t change the Washington Football Team’s plans this offseason. They’re still looking for a quarterback upgrade and will have to find one either on the free-agent market, via a trade, or (most likely) via the draft. We’ll see what they do soon enough.