In one sense, Sunday night’s prime-time NFL game will be the battle of the quarterbacks I can’t believe how much they paid him vs. I can’t believe how much they’re going to pay him.

This is Dak Prescott vs. Brock Purdy in 2024, the Week 8 matchup we all thought would define NFC supremacy near the middle of the season. Instead, this duel came to a crossroads of desperation and pressure.

The focal point of the creeping misfortune: Which quarterback can save his team’s season and what does that say about his money? The Dallas Cowboys desperately need Prescott to justify his spot as the NFL’s highest-paid player, and the San Francisco 49ers desperately need Purdy to prove he’s worthy of playing in the same financial stratosphere.

We may say this game isn’t about quarterback money, but when it’s over, take a walk through the fan base of the quarterback who loses this game. That’s the prism through which Prescott and Purdy are focusing losses this season: the “Is he worth it?” distortion field. With his failures mounting, is Prescott worth the $60 million per season the Cowboys are paying him, and is Purdy worth the $60 million per season the 49ers are expected to offer him?

Of course, that’s a debate that requires a more comprehensive look at their careers, along with mountains of data and a seminar on how the league’s skewed quarterback marketplace currently works. It’s an argument that will be revisited weekly, monthly and seasonally – well into retirement. But for now, in this window of time, it comes down to a simple calculation: what each individual can do to fix their teams, which are in varying degrees of disarray.

That’s what happens when you’re Prescott and Purdy, you’re approaching the middle of the season and everything around you is either turned upside down or falling to pieces. A quarterback in Dallas who had a 3-3 season that recently ended with a 47-9 home loss to the Detroit Lions. The other quarterback in San Francisco, coming off another frustrating loss to the Kansas City Chiefs that included three costly interceptions that helped cement the defeat and a 3-4 record.

Both losses resulted in surprisingly visible organizational attrition. First, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones casually threatened to fire two radio hosts – live on air – who work for the team’s flagship station and pressure Jones on his general management decisions. A few days later, in the locker room after the 49ers’ loss to the Chiefs, reporters saw head coach Kyle Shanahan deliver an ostentatious diatribe to Purdy’s face, in the locker room and in full view of the media and Purdy’s teammates. To be fair, neither incident was a novelty for either Jones or Shanahan. Both had their moments with either the media or their players. But it’s compelling that these things are happening on the doorstep of the Cowboys and 49ers, who face each other and both desperately need a win to quell their discontent.

That brings us back to Prescott and Purdy — neither of whom are playing at their ideal level — and the task that lies ahead of them.

For Prescott, there are a multitude of issues surrounding him. The Cowboys’ scheme was extremely unbalanced, with the worst running game in the league and a complete inability to maintain a scoring plan that took into account both passing and rushing aspects. CeeDee Lamb is clearly Prescott’s favorite player, but her timing and chemistry have been something of a roller coaster ride all season, especially in critical moments that require a playful connection from both sides. Aside from Lamb, Prescott hasn’t found consistency or rhythm with other pass catchers either. His accuracy is down significantly compared to last season, while his interception rate is up significantly. And it all comes on the heels of a gigantic contract extension that raises expectations that Prescott is the kind of quarterback who will cover up bad circumstances rather than fall victim to them.

In Prescott’s own words? He has been “average” this season.

“I would say I played average, and average is by no means good enough right now,” Prescott told reporters this week. “It was never good enough for me. I can’t say I was happy or excited after any of those games I played.”

The solution? To be honest, there is not much clarity about this. Perhaps the only breadcrumb came from Lamb, who told reporters that he and Prescott used the week off to do extra work on the timing and chemistry of their routes. So there is that. There is an offensive line that can play better. In head coach Mike McCarthy and Brian Scottenheimer, there are two offensive minds who can continue to work to remain two-dimensional even if Dallas doesn’t jump out to a lead early in games. And then there’s Prescott himself, who has to find a way to make his performance live up to expectations. That’s the responsibility that comes with a $60 million season salary. “Play better” is a nebulous, cliched expectation that elite, highly paid quarterbacks in the NFL often place on themselves. It’s real too.

It’s certainly something Purdy has to do with his multitude of problems – which are extensive and seemingly only getting worse. Wideout Brandon Aiyiuk is officially out for the season with a knee injury. Wideout Deebo Samuel Sr. is in the hospital with pneumonia. George Kittle is dealing with a sprained foot that is limiting his practice time. And running back Christian McCaffrey is still hoping to return in Week 9, but until he’s back on the field, nothing is set in stone. Honestly, even if McCaffrey comes back, no one is sure what he will look like as he has issues with both Achilles tendons. And all of this comes at a point in the season when critics have found a new strength in Purdy’s game: his issues with man coverage this season.

Overall, the implication is hard to miss. If Purdy wants to sign a contract extension next offseason that pays him $50 million per season… or $55 million… or $60 million… then he needs to be able to be on point in negotiations to point out by effectively saying: When the team hit a wall of injuries, I was the one who put the offense on my shoulders and climbed over it. If he can do that, it will go a long way toward reassuring those who continue to focus his problems on the question of whether he’s worth a massive extension.

Given the injuries and the rotation with the wideouts, it won’t be easy. The 49ers’ offense relies heavily on timing and route chemistry with pass catchers. Juggling them so aggressively this season appears to be part of the problems Purdy is encountering.

“Yes, (the timing) is huge,” Purdy told reporters this week. “When a few young guys come in and you’re used to throwing to (Aiyuk), Deebo, (Jauan Jennings) – and you just understand how they move in routes and their landmarks and depths and just the timing of a concept and a route. And then new people come in that you haven’t done a lot of reps with, and that’s hard.”

That’s also part of being an elite quarterback. A guy who comes in and makes up for bad circumstances. As Shanahan put it: “A quarterback who can take wrong and make it right.” That’s what Purdy is supposed to be. And if he lives up to this standard, he will be paid for it. Just like Prescott has done in the past and must do again now.

When they face each other, it is an important problem-solving week for both of them. It’s a momentous opportunity to do wrong in time and make it right again, both for themselves, their franchises and for the rest of a once-promising season that is closer than ever to slipping away.