PFT’s Mike Florio recently dropped his list of NFL quarterbacks on the hot seat this fall. There are the usual suspects you’d expect to see there.
There was one quarterback, however, that Florio has proclaimed not to be on the hot seat.
His reason why this is so might come as a surprise. But is Florio right?
First, the player in question is Dak Prescott.
Now let’s examine Florio’s thinking.
Too Big To Cut
Florio points to the contract Prescott signed a few hours before the 2024 season kicked off. In all fairness, Florio does hedge his bet a little by saying “He’s probably not on the hot seat.”
Florio thinks that the $60 million per year albatross around the Cowboys’ neck would “wreak havoc on the salary cap if the Cowboys were to cut or trade him.”
As Florio noted, yes, Prescott could still be traded if he waved his no-trade clause.
Another issue for Dallas is that the contract fully guarantees Prescott’s $45 million salary for 2027, just five days into the 2026 league year.
They would have to cut him well before June 1, 2026, to save any money.
As Florio points out: “They’re basically stuck — all because they waited too long to give him his second contract, and then waited too long to give him his third contract.”
He hits the nail right on the head there. The Cowboys Front Office’s constant bungling of contracts continually puts them in these kinds of binds.
While Florio seems to think that alone keeps Prescott off the hot seat in 2025, I disagree.
Set On Broil
Prescott’s seat isn’t just hot, it should be fully engulfed in flames right now.
He’s been saying he’s fully recovered from yet another leg injury and in great shape going into camp. He was fully healthy going into camp last year too.
He lasted less than eight games and was 3-5 when his season ended.
He was also on pace to have a career high in interceptions before the leg injury saved him.
As Jimmy Johnson pointed out, Prescott should have been told to prove it in his final contract year in 2024 before being handed a contract that criminally overpays him.
Cue the Dak Defenders pointing to his regular season stats. Watch them flee when you bring up his postseason record.
Hot Seat Or Not?
Prescott’s contract may have to be eaten as Dallas goes through a rebuild if he doesn’t put it all together this year and at least make the Super Bowl.
He’s the NFL’s highest paid player. That player should be leading his team to deep playoff runs annually.
Prescott has not done so.
That alone should have him firmly seated upon the hottest of hot seats among any NFL player this fall.
Outstanding article. Well written and un biased. I salute you for your honest and factual comments here.
Its kind of Dak’s thing the last decade. His record against the NFC East and especially the Giants and Commanders surely help to skew those regular season stats. If ya looked at outside the NFCE or checked the record against above .500 or playoff opponents as you mentioned, there is where you’ll find the much more important and reality based stats.
Again, well done.
Not well done!! Like I said in my long comment, records are a TEAM STAT, not just a QB stat!! It takes a whole team to win a game, not just the QB!! That’s why this game is called a TEAM SPORT, cause it takes a whole team to win!! You don’t see Dak running out on the field by himself every game…. No, there’s 10 other players with him, and Dak don’t even play defense, so there’s 11 more players on the field!! So that’s 22 players playing in every game, and that’s not including all the backups that play or all the players that play on special teams!! So no, this article is not well done!! His arguments make no sense!! He tries to compare Daks regular season STATS to the WHOLE TEAMS playoffs record!! Like I said, it makes no sense!! But I’m not gonna get into all of that again, I have a really long comment already, and I threw some knowledge in it for the writer, so you can read that comment if you want!!
Correct!
Wrong
Cue the Dak Defenders pointing to his regular season stats. Watch them flee when you bring up his postseason record….. That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen!! Anybody with even a half a brain and knows anything about football knows that a record is a TEAM stat, not the QB!! That’s why the “Dak defenders” have a case with Daks stats in the regular season, because those are actually “Daks stats”, but you idiots that keep bringing up “his record” in the playoffs have no case at all, because the playoff record is the fault of the whole team….. The coaches, and every player on the TEAM…. THE TEAM!! That’s why this game is called a TEAM SPORT and not a QB sport!! It takes a whole team to win a game, not just the QB!! Does having a good QB give a team a better chance at winning…. Yes it does, that’s why pretty much every year Dak was fully healthy, the Cowboys TEAM went to the playoffs!! And hardly won any games with Cooper Rush or any other backup QB we had!! But the playoffs record or even the regular season record don’t fall on just the QB!! You don’t see Dak going on the field by himself on both offense and defense, there’s 10 other players on offense and he don’t even play defense, so again, the record does not fall on just the QB!! It falls on the WHOLE TEAM…. All 22 starters…. All of the backups, all of the coaches…. “the whole team!!” So stop with that stupid comment!! If you wanna find a way to put Dak down, find something that makes sense!! Try comparing his regular season stats to his playoffs STATS!! You know…. Things that involve only the QB!! Don’t compare HIS stats to the WHOLE TEAMS record in the playoffs!! It don’t make sense!! And it looks stupid!!
And as far as being on the hot seat, no, he’s not on the hot seat!! He’s the leader of the team, the coaches, players, and the front office love him!! Plus, he was just given a new contract at the beginning of last season, so how can he be on the hot seat!? That makes no sense either!! They’re not gonna give him the biggest contract in NFL history just to let him go a year or 2 later!! That would be stupid!! It would be just about as stupid as this article is!! Daks not going anywhere!! He’ll be here at least until his contract runs out!! And even then he mite even get a new contract when this one runs out!! Cause some of us are smart enough to know that we are better off with Dak than we are without him!! Some of us remember what it was like after Troy Aikman retired, and all the has been, and the never have been QBs we had to go through before we got lucky and found Romo and then Dak!! So all of you can make all these stupid comments about the playoffs record all you want, (even though the record is what comes after the WHOLE TEAM wins or loses), and you can say we need to get rid of Dak all you want, but I’m good with Dak, and the other smart people are good too, cause we’re not trying to go back to the old days of Vinny Testaverde or Ryan Leaf or Drew Bledsoe or Branden Weeden or Quincy Carter or Kyle Orton!! I’ll pass on that!! I’ll stick with Dak!!
**APPLAUSE**