INDIANAPOLIS — From the moment Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones stood in front of the cameras on Tuesday afternoon outside of a ballroom at the J.W. Marriott in downtown Indianapolis, he was asked about a potential extension for Dak Prescott.
It's a pressing matter for the team considering that the current structure is set up for the Cowboys to take on a $59.4 million cap hit in 2024 – the final year of the contract – for their starting quarterback unless an extension can be worked out to spread that money out further and allow for more cap space this offseason.
While negotiations are expected to be ongoing, Jones chose not to dive into any specifics regarding the process or anything to do with the potential deal.
"We won't be expounding on those types of things with our negotiation," Jones said.
"That's obviously something as we move forward, hopefully we'll continue to make progress and communicate, but we're not going to be giving reports on how things will be going."
The one bit of clarity that Jones was able to offer was that the team "absolutely" wants to extend Prescott after mentioning at the Senior Bowl – along with owner and general manager Jerry Jones – about how the team's future includes their starting quarterback.
"Our whole thing with Dak is him being a Cowboy," he said. "That's all that's on our mind."
If the Cowboys cannot get an extension done, Jones said that there are ways for Prescott's cap hit in 2024 to be adjusted to fit a roster around him along with extensions for CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons into the future.
"Well, we've got ways to adjust his cap number for this year," he said. "Obviously, between Dak and between Micah and CeeDee, the salary cap is real for us with those three guys in a situation where we want to do a deal with all three of them."
The league announced a record-setting salary cap bump last week to $255.4 million, and while that could help in getting Prescott's extension done as well as others on the team, Jones sees the same opportunity for the rest of the league.
"The cap bump obviously helps in some ways," he said. "But all 32 teams get a cap bump so we all know what that can mean as well in terms of the price of doing business with whatever situation you're working on."
Jones declined to mention if the team was meeting with his representation this week in Indianapolis or any other details of the negotiations around a possible extension.
