Last night, the Dallas Cowboys signed Andy Dalton to a one year contract worth $3 million but with incentives it could be as much as $7 million according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. The former TCU star was released on Thursday by the Cincinnati Bengals, where he spent his entire nine year career.

At worst, adding Dalton to the mix gives the Cowboys a capable veteran back-up for the 2020 season who can learn under new head coach Mike McCarthy and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. Dallas also has a proven starting quarterback who can play and win games if something happens to Dak Prescott. What is interesting is how some people believe that owner Jerry Jones will use Dalton as leverage in order to get Prescott signed. Once news of Dalton's deal with Dallas started to leak, former star receiver Dez Bryant took to Twitter to express his frustration with his former team's inability to lock up Dak.

Currently, the Cowboys have placed their franchise tag on Prescott, which will be worth $31.409 million in 2020. However, Dak has not yet signed the tender and the team still has until July 15th to negotiate a long term contract. While some people are wondering if the Dalton signing will put more pressure on the Dak camp to lessen their asking price, there is still a sizable gap between both sides. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk wondered if Jones would pull the franchise tender if both sides could not come to an agreement and make Dalton the Cowboys starting quarterback.

I still think Dallas will finalize a new long term contract with Prescott before the deadline and he will be the league's highest paid quarterback. Dalton will be a free agent in 2021 when the quality of available signal callers will be considerably weaker than this offseason. Still, it is interesting to note that Dalton chose to return home rather than sign with either New England or Jacksonville and compete for a starting job. The Cowboys now have one of the best insurance policies in the NFL.

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