CLEVELAND — Let’s face it: When the Cowboys scored their third touchdown of the game early in the third quarter on Sunday to extend their lead to 24 points and secure a 33-17 victory over the Cleveland Browns, Dak Prescott had nothing to do with it.

(It was a 60-yard punt return by KaVontae Turpin).

And as for Dak’s lone touchdown pass of the afternoon, a 21-yard corner route to a wide-open Brandin Cooks, I think even the $40 million-a-year Dak could have made the pass.

Still, the reviews on Opening Day for the NFL’s first $60 Million Man were positive. Hours after agreeing to a four-year, $240 million extension with $231 million guaranteed, Prescott led the Cowboys to a thoroughly routine victory over a 2023 playoff team. Prescott finished a pedestrian 19 of 32 for 179 yards and one touchdown, but Dallas’ 17-point halftime lead didn’t call for anything extravagant.

“I’m not happy with my personal play today, just a sloppy second half,” Prescott said. “But it’s a great team win, great defensive effort, a super exciting start on the road where we weren’t good last year against a team that was great at home.”

And the money?

“To me, it just means I was next,” Dak said. “I told you guys I have an obligation to the league and the other quarterbacks. One of the guys in the locker room says I have to buy everybody a Rolex now, everybody gives me their wrist size.”

All in all, this isn’t the biggest problem after week one in the NFL.

So early September looks good. Does anyone have any idea where New Dak and Dallas are in January? Dare I even mention February?

About an hour before kickoff, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones recounted how he was returning to his home in Arkansas and walking around the neighborhood where he grew up before pledging to pay a $12 million bonus to Deion Sanders, a move that helped secure his third Lombardi Trophy in four years.

Fast forward a generation, and the commitment for a single player is 20 times larger. Does the $94 million-a-season promise to Dak and CeeDee Lamb come with any real guarantees, other than Dallas having a nice QB-WR combo? Lamb had five catches for 61 yards.

Until Sunday, Dak was poised to play out his second contract and try to earn his way to the $60 million-per-year mark with his play in 2024. Instead, he and Lamb have both been signed in the past two weeks to contracts that make them by far the highest-paid quarterback-receiver duo in league history.

Of course, these things are fleeting. At some point, Buffalo’s Josh Allen will sail past Prescott and into the $65 million to $70 million-a-year stratosphere, but that’s still a ways off. Prescott will likely hold on to the floating title of highest-paid player in NFL history for at least a season. Is that deserved? Can a quarterback with stellar regular-season stats but an ugly 2-5 playoff record be considered to have earned his way to the top? It’s more a matter of how the game is played, and as long as you’re a top-10 quarterback in the eyes of your employers, the money will come rolling in when it’s your turn.

“That’s a big step when you can sign your quarterback for that many years,” said head coach Mike McCarthy.

I didn’t think the idea of ​​Dak playing for his future was the worst approach for 2024. Instead, we’re left with McCarthy coaching for him.

The last time Dak got his money’s worth was in 2020, and it’s hard to say the pressure hurt his game. He threw for over 400 yards in three of the Cowboys’ first five games, but was injured in the second half against the New York Giants and missed the rest of the season. That didn’t stop him from signing a four-year, $160 million contract through the 2021 season.

During a recent press conference, Jones said there’s an abstract way in which it makes sense to have players compete for those salaries, but he also said that’s a small piece of the puzzle. He said that in Dak’s case, the negotiations were more about how to fit it into the bigger picture for the team. Now, the club has two players playing pitch and catch for an average of $94 million over the next few years. Add Micah Parsons next season and the Cowboys will pay an average of about $130 million for three of their 53 players.

Is that sustainable?

I suspect the recent contracts Detroit has handed out to quarterback Jared Goff, wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and elite offensive tackle Penei Sewell (averaging about $111 million) suggest it can, especially with a salary cap that increases about 10 percent per season.

But this puts more pressure on Prescott than he’s ever had to endure. It’s one thing to get that second contract after playing like an underpaid fourth-round pick to start your career. It’s another to outpace Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow and Jalen Hurts and others who led their teams to the Super Bowl.

The protracted negotiations may be over, but the clock is ticking faster than ever for Dak to make a real splash in February. Jones is counting on Dak to go where no quarterback has gone in mid-career flight since Troy Aikman. Aikman, by the way, is 57.

“I want to honor my end of the bargain and deliver,” Prescott said.

Sunday was just the beginning of a long road, but it was better than most of us expected.

X: @TimCowlishaw

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