Eric Miller
The fan base in Dallas always has sky-high expectations for their franchise. After all, the Cowboys have won five Super Bowl titles — five of the first 30. Names like Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman, Tony Dorsett and Emmitt Smith resonate throughout the history of the league. The last 25 years have been frustrating for the fans, as the Cowboys have failed even to advance to a conference championship, let alone play for the Vince Lombardi Trophy. For the years between Troy Aikman and Tony Romo’s stints at quarterback, Dallas struggled offensively, settling for such retreads as Ryan Leaf and such unproven rookies as Quincy Carter to lead the offense. The Cowboys lucked into Dak Prescott, drafting him to be a backup to Romo, only to find they had a gem on their hands when Romo went down a few seasons ago during the preseason. With Prescott at the helm, the Cowboys have made it to the NFC divisional playoff twice — and missed the playoffs once. The Cowboys have yet to sign Prescott to a long-term extension, instead relying on the franchise tag to keep their quarterback in town.
Is Dak Prescott a True Franchise Quarterback?
Dak Prescott has turned into his back yard into an offense. That’s right — at his house in Prosper, he had enough turf installed in his sizable back yard to be able to bring receivers over to the house to run routes. In a year when so much of the offseason had to be virtual, Prescott has been working on his accuracy in person.
It’s true that the Cowboys finished 8-8 last year and missed the playoffs. However, Prescott had the top statistical season in his NFL career. He threw for 4,903 yards and 30 touchdowns, against just 11 interceptions. If you factor in the fact that his wide receivers led the NFL in drops while he still completed 65.1% of his passes, you see that Prescott’s numbers should have been even better.
The counter-argument, of course, is that quarterbacks put up huge numbers when their teams are playing from behind (look, for example, at the numbers that Jameis Winston has put up leading the Tampa Bay offense, numbers that didn’t keep the team from dumping him for Tom Brady or keep the rest of the NFL from passing on him as a free agent when it came to a starting job). This is a powerful counter-argument if you are looking at Dallas’ chances of ending that 25-year title drought. They lost starters at all three levels on defense to free agency, and they didn’t do much to fill those holes, putting even more of a burden on the offense.
But this article isn’t about the Cowboys’ Super Bowl chances — it’s about Prescott. This year, Kellen Moore will enter his second year as offensive coordinator, and Mike McCarthy — known for his work in helping quarterbacks improve — enters his first year. The Cowboys drafted CeeDee Lamb to join a wide receiving corps that already included Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup — both of whom broke the 1,000-yard mark in receiving yards a year ago. Tight end Jason Witten left town for Las Vegas, but Blake Jarwin showed a ton of talent a year ago. Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard can catch passes out of the backfield. Could Prescott approach 5,500 passing yards and 45 touchdowns?
Prescott has taken a lot of criticism for the Cowboys’ failure to get even further into the playoffs during his short career. However, the Cowboys’ divisional round losses to the Packers and the Rams had a lot more to do with the failures of the defense than with the offense. Last year, the oddly conservative plays that former head coach Jason Garrett seemed to have forced on Moore stalled the team at just the wrong time, over and over. Quarterbacks make the big money, and they are the lightning rod for fans to praise during the good times — and to boo when things aren’t going so well. Prescott has shown that he has what it takes to play at an elite level in the NFL — and to take a team to a championship.
