The Cowboys have a lot of questions entering the new year, and the performance of their quarterback is one of them.
A year ago this time, the Dallas Cowboys were still licking their wounds after a playoff beatdown by the Green Bay Packers left a nasty aura lingering all through the offseason. Sadly, the Cowboys weren’t able to redeem themselves in any fashion as things went from bad to worse. The team lost games, their quarterback got hurt, and their head coach was fired. It was pretty bad.
But that’s all in the past, right? Mike McCarthy is gone, so hopefully, any bad mojo he had exited the building with him. Dak Prescott should return with a clean bill of health. With a clean slate and some new additions to the roster, the hope is that the Cowboys can right the ship and get back to their winning ways.
One element that isn’t talked about is the capability of Prescott. Don’t get us wrong, the Cowboys quarterback is the most polarizing player on the roster, and there are non-stop discussions about whether he’s the guy or not. Mostly, in this debate, there’s not a lot of middle ground. You either love him or want him gone.
But there is a third category that acknowledges that Prescott is a very good quarterback but also questions his performance at times. We know there are times he can light up the stat sheet and wreak havoc over NFC East teams, but what about other times when the rubber meets the road? Why does he get so frazzled at big moments? Is there something awry with his psyche in those moments?
The Green Bay debacle was a mess for all parties involved. Certainly, the loss doesn’t fall on the shoulders of Prescott. And while those carrots should be long cooked by now, how did the Cowboys quarterback respond after that disappointing playoff game? Well, let’s recap.
Prescott played eight games last year. The Cowboys lost five of those games. After Dak went down, the Cowboys kept losing games, but it didn’t get worse. It actually got better. The team had a slightly better winning percentage with Cooper Rush than Prescott. Of course, a lot of factors go into winning games, not just who’s playing quarterback. Let’s look at Prescott specifically.
He had the lowest touchdown percentage (3.8%) of his nine-year career. You’d have to go back 20 years to find a starting Cowboys quarterback who had a lower TD% than what Prescott had last season (Vinny Testaverde, 2004). He had the lowest yards-per-completion average (10.7) of his career. You’d have to go back to the turn of the century to find a starting quarterback with a lower average as not even Testaverde or Quincy Carter had seasons that low.
And if you think he was being too careful with the ball, that wasn’t it either. He was averaging an interception a game, which put him on pace to throw 17 picks for the season, two more than he had in 2022 when he led the NFL in interceptions. So, with low touchdowns, high picks, and low yards per completion, it shouldn’t be surprising that he finished with the lowest passer rating of his career.
And his season wasn’t a journey of highs and lows. When Prescott and the offense came out flat, they would fall behind in a hurry and usually end up on the losing end of a blowout. When they played okay, it usually came down to the wire. Gone were those big Prescott games where he would light things up and put up a 3+ touchdown game. Like, completely gone. Prescott had none of those games last year.
That graphic is a little alarming. We didn’t even see a flash of greatness from Prescott last season.
Between the Green Bay loss and the next regular season game, Prescott received a four-year, $240 million extension that solidified the notion that he’s their guy. The Cowboys are truly all in on Dak for the foreseeable future. And that shouldn’t be anything that worries fans, but it sure would be nice to see a version of Prescott that brings about hope. We need that MVP-like guy we’ve seen before. The Cowboys have a lot of questions to answer, and whether we like it or not, one of them is how good Dak Prescott is going forward.