Dak Prescott's Christmas wish list: How wanting more say could shape the Cowboys' 2026 offseason

Prescott wants more say with the front office as Dallas looks to avoid another lost season in 2026

FRISCO, Texas — Players all around the NFL found out they made the Pro Bowl for the 2025 season on Tuesday, and the Dallas Cowboys ended up with five amid a 6-8-1, postseason-less year.

Quarterback Dak Prescott, wide receiver George Pickens, left guard Tyler Smith, defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and kicker Brandon Aubrey were the five to earn the individual All-Star accolades for the Cowboys. Given how the year has gone on the field, Prescott wasn't in a celebratory mood when discussing the honor despite producing like a top-five quarterback a year removed from a season-ending hamstring injury in 2024.

"It's cool. It's something good within the season. Understanding every year I work my tail off to try to be the best quarterback I can for this team. Ultimately, I feel like I'm judged off of wins. I didn't get it done this season. However, the individual numbers, performance record, allowed an individual accolade, but that's 100% still a team deal," Prescott said Tuesday. 

"When you're the quarterback of this team, to be able to put up numbers like that, you've got to have receivers like George, CeeDee, Ferg, the rest of the guys. And you've got to have a great offensive line. ... My success, that accolade, is 100% with each and every one of those guys in there. It's pretty cool to be a Pro Bowler, but at the end of the day, it's not what we're going for."

Dak Prescott		NFL rank
Completion percentage	68.5%	5th
Passing yards	4,175	2nd
Passing TD	28	3rd
Expected points added (EPA)/dropback	0.17	7th
Passing first downs	202	2nd

Dallas owner and general manager Jerry Jones took accountability for the Cowboys' 30-year Super Bowl drought after the team's Week 16 defeat against the Chargers on Sunday. A year like 2025 has everyone from top to bottom in Dallas looking in the mirror.

"I'll admit that the Cowboys management has played a big role (in the 30-year Super Bowl drought)," Jones said postgame. "But seriously, I'm very disappointed that the way we're structured, and my role, puts us here tonight. I'm tremendously disappointed."

The 2025 season marks just the third of Prescott's 10-year career in which he will have played at least 12 games and missed the playoffs, along with 2017 and 2019. He'll be 33 years old at the start of the 2026 season, and he knows he's on the back nine of his NFL career. 

That's why Prescott plans to seek more input with Jones and the Cowboys' front office when it comes to communicating exactly what he feels the team needs to thrive going forward.

"We won't be back here in this spot. I feel like the last few times I've probably said that were playoff losses, right? So each year has its own troubles. ... I'm going to do my damnedest just controlling what I can, and you know as you get older, having more input, having more say-so and being asked more questions from the front office, maybe there's a little bit more that I can do. It's not just physically or me getting better at my game. Maybe it's speaking up and saying that, 'This will help, or I think this can help.' So, whatever it takes, I'm going to do my damnedest and make sure that I'm influencing and encouraging everybody else around me -- not just players -- to do the same."  

Here's a look at three moves Prescott could influence once Dallas enters the offseason in two weeks.

Re-signing WR George Pickens

New Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens broke out in his first year in Dallas at age 24, playing like a top-five player at his position while catching passes from Prescott. The Dallas duo has connected for 13 plays of 25 or more yards this season, tied for the third most in the NFL, and now they'll head to the Pro Bowl together.

"Super explosive," Pickens said of the connection he built in Year 1 with Prescott. "I feel like that's one of the biggest things when you look back on the year, even though it's not over. Just look at the explosive plays that me, him, CeeDee [Lamb], Flo [Ryan Flournoy], everybody produced on offense. Javonte [Williams], too."

Pickens' career year came at the perfect time, with the 2022 second-round pick set to become a free agent next offseason upon the expiration of his rookie deal.

"It improves my career, but as far as contractually, I can just wait until the offseason," Pickens said of making the Pro Bowl. "Trying to finish up this season on a positive note." 

George Pickens		NFL rank
Catches	88	8th
Receiving Yards	1,342	3rd
Receiving TD	9	7th
Receiving First Downs	69	3rd
Catches of 25 yards or more	13	T-3rd

Pickens would like to remain in Dallas, so Prescott will certainly look to make sure Jones knows he wants his co-No. 1 receiver back with the Cowboys for the foreseeable future. The success Pickens experienced in 2025 has enticed him to want to make Dallas his long-term home.

"Definitely, like I always said, the guys here, I feel like you can't get that everywhere," Pickens said. "I kind of have been at other places -- top 30 visits when I was coming out in the pre-draft -- the guys here and the culture here are just a little different."

Re-signing RB Javonte Williams

Dallas made 25-year-old running back Javonte Williams its first free agent signing in 2025, inking him to a one-year, $3 million deal in March. They got him at that price because he hadn't quite looked the same since a gruesome knee injury that resulted in multiple torn ligaments in 2022 with the Broncos. 

However, he fully bounced back from the effects of that injury to produce like a top-10 running back. Williams is certainly someone everyone involved with Dallas' offense would like to have around again in 2026.

"He certainly earned the right to be the bell cow here," coach Brian Schottenheimer said Wednesday. "We like him in that role."

Williams said last week that he's found a "very special" fit in Dallas. That's a fit Prescott would certainly like to remain going forward, given Williams is one of three players -- along with Tony Dorsett (1977) and Ezekiel Elliott (2016) -- to produce 1,000 yards and 10 rushing touchdowns in their first season with the Cowboys.

"You don't always want to just follow money and things like that," Williams said. "You want to go somewhere where you can succeed and be a part of something that's special. I feel like it's very special here."

Javonte Williams		NFL rank
Carries	239	7th
Rush yards	1,147	6th
Rush TD	10	T-7th
Rush first downs	63	T-4th

Keeping Tyler Smith at left guard

With 2024 first-round left tackle Tyler Guyton sidelined with an ankle injury since Week 13, Dallas has had All-Pro left guard Tyler Smith protecting Prescott's blind side for the team's final three games of 2025. It's an arrangement the Cowboys are experimenting with to see if they may want to keep Smith in that role in the future, even though they made him the NFL's highest-paid interior offensive lineman this offseason with a four-year, $96 million contract extension.

Guyton did play right tackle at Oklahoma, and current Cowboys right tackle Terence Steele leads the NFL in quarterback pressures allowed (42) this season, according to TruMedia. Dallas could save as much as $14 million if it designates Steele as a post-June 1 release. It is also worth noting Smith was a college left tackle at Tulsa.

"If you watch the way [Smith] played and how these guys functioned, we know he can play out there. We're not surprised. I'm not surprised," Schottenheimer said Monday. "At the end of the day, we made the move because we thought it gave us the best chance to win the next three games. That's the way it's going to be for these next two games now. We'll evaluate everything. It's no different from scheme. We'll evaluate everything."

Smith earned the third Pro Bowl selection of his four-year career in 2025, as he was Pro Football Focus' sixth-highest-graded run-blocking guard with a 79.8 grade. He's all for being a team player, but he'd appreciate continuing to play the position that made him a second-team All-Pro in 2023 and a Pro Bowler again in 2025.

"Bro, I'm an All-Pro guard, bro. You feel me? That's the simple truth that we're just looking at stuff, purely off facts," Smith said Tuesday. "So we'll see what happens. We'll have those conversations. Got to see where everybody's head is at."  

At 6-foot-6 and 332 pounds with 34-inch arms, Smith feels his best position is guard. That's something Prescott may need to help Smith relay to Schottenheimer and Jones this offseason.

"I'm a strong guy obviously. I think I'm strong. I feel like a lot of the strengths that I have as a player are very good for me at the guard position," Smith said. "I think I've had great vets around at the guard [Zack Martin] and tackle position [Tyron Smith], and I think that's really helped me be successful at both. But I really just think my strength and a variety of other things help me when I'm inside."