For nearly 20 months, going back to the offseason before the final year of Dak Prescott’s rookie contract, the pressing question in a tense extension negotiation with the Dallas Cowboys was what would it take to generate middle ground.
One side or the other was pressured to move things forward, whether it was an aggressive overture, a good-faith gesture, a fair compromise or an outright surrender on terms.
The product was failure and frustration, which is now further complicated by a season-ending injury to Prescott. This was the one scenario nobody wanted to plan for: A catastrophic detour that would leave the two sides looking at each other and wondering, “How are we supposed to play this?