Jerry Jones speaks on Dak Prescott's contract situation, praises Deion Sanders for CU win

Jerry Jones has seen many iterations of the Dallas Cowboys in his decades as owner of America's Team.

The current leader, quarterback Dak Prescott, returns at the helm of the franchise for his eighth season after being drafted in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL draft.

Prescott has been named to two Pro Bowls, but was hindered with injury last season. He is entering the third year of his four-year, $160 million contract and next year, will be cutting $59.4 million into the team's salary cap. Dallas made a series of deals this offseason and, in 2024, will be in the last year of Micah Parson's rookie contract and that of CeeDee Lamb's after they picked up his fifth-year option.

In a Tuesday interview on 105.3 The Fan's "Shan and RJ," Jones said amid the constant numbers game, he remains committed to Prescott.

"Those contracts, those types of numbers, especially the big ones, you live with constantly. They're always on your mind. There's never a time where it goes away," Jones said. "Because you've got to make the entire thing fit. And so, it's on the mind of a player decision in the middle of the year. It's just a fundamental. We expect Dak to be with us a long time and yeah, we're always working around it with several machinations of numbers that would work.

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"It's a moving target because you don't know where you are on any given day for sure with a salary that you wanna have on the books in the future. Such as something you might want to be doing with a CeeDee Lamb. I know our fans need some points to start from here, but those contracts you have to kind of assume that you're going to have in place at some number, knowing that it's not going to be exact until you get it negotiated."

Jones goes on to say that the nature of the game and each person's sense of urgency makes it hard to lock in exact figures.

"It may be a better time for them to get to a point where they can make a decision. We all, I know I do, have times that I get up and I feel like locking something down that may be a loose end. If I get a chance to, I'll do it," he said. "That should sound flexible because it is. It's a moving bar. And of course we deal, the real-life situation is that we deal with injury and we deal with appreciating and depreciating talent levels. It goes up and down. And it happens there right before your eyes. It can happen during a season. So how you start a season off is not how you end up a season with a short-term and long-term look, either."

Jerry Jones explains Trey Lance trade

The Cowboys raised eyebrows last week when they traded for former No. 3 overall pick Trey Lance only 48 hours after the San Francisco 49ers demoted the quarterback. Jones reportedly made the trade, which shipped a 2024 fourth-round pick for Lance, without much input from other leaders in the franchise.

"The way we're structured gives us a lot of criticism, unquestionably it does. But it lets us do a trade like we did the other day on Lance. Because I didn't have to fool around, I can make that trade in five minutes," he said. "And the reason I can is I had all the information when we drafted him, I had all the information just right at my fingertips of what we thought of his play these last couple of years, what we thought of him. I didn't have to visit with anybody about what kind of player he is. So I was able to make the call, we want to put the resources in him, want to develop him, where he'd fit on the whole thing. I don't have to talk to anybody about that."

The owner, who also serves as general manager, further explained how his ability to make quick decisions for what he believes is in the best interest of the Cowboys is essential to his role.

"It's a continual thing. You're continually prepared to catch an opportunity," he said. "If you had to think long and hard or have a committee meeting over something like that, that train's gone. You missed it. So many things are like that. And so, we don't have that internal three-man, four-man check off in the organization. We don't have to have that if it's not called for."

Jerry Jones praises Deion Sanders for first Colorado win

Jones' days with the Cowboys go back to the 1990s when Deion Sanders electrified the field.

The Hall of Fame two-way star has taken the nation by storm in his new role as a college football coach. On Saturday, he won his first game as the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes. With a record day from his son, Shedeur, at quarterback, they upset the No. 16 TCU Horned Frogs.

"To have Deion have the kind of game and story and anything you wanna call it, how exciting for college football," Jones said, "how exciting for our game and then certainly for anybody that has an orientation towards the Cowboys, that was an exciting time for him. What a job he's done."