No one seems to fear — or even respect — Dak Prescott anymore.
An anonymous player poll slotted him as QB15 and the 79th-best player in the league in the “NFL Top 100″ list. Our FOX Sports NFL staff left him off our top 10 quarterbacks list. Even if there’s some measure of respect for the Dallas Cowboys quarterback, there’s definitely not a lot of love.
Those lists, however, may be underrating one of the league’s best pocket quarterbacks.
So, I’m here to remind you what Prescott can do, even at age 32 and coming off a hamstring injury that ended his 2024 season in Week 9. Just two years ago, he finished second in MVP voting behind Lamar Jackson. That season, which concluded just 20 months ago, Prescott threw for 4,516 yards, 36 touchdowns and nine interceptions with a pair of rushing touchdowns to boot. But this year, no one is ranking him anywhere near the top of the heap.
“I don’t think I’ve ever really cared about a list,” Prescott said at the beginning of training camp. “I was, what, the ninth or so [quarterback taken in the 2016 draft]. The checklist adjustments each particular person you ask. The checklist adjustments yearly. With accidents, it ought to change. With younger, new gamers coming in, the checklist goes to alter. It’s not one thing I ever give weight to.”
Whether or not he cares concerning the rankings or not, Prescott can crack the highest 10 in 2025.
Identical to in 2023, Prescott can have a stacked supporting forged on offense. He’ll have CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens — akin to the 2023 group that featured Lamb and Amari Cooper. Lamb and Pickens is likely to be probably the most proficient receiving duo within the NFL, however their efficiency will depend upon Pickens’ compliance after he earned a repute as mercurial in Pittsburgh. However to date, the change of surroundings has labored for the younger wideout.
“I am very excited,” Lamb mentioned this week when requested about taking part in with Pickens. “I am unable to even put it into phrases.”
The query is how way more Prescott, new head coach Brian Schottenheimer and the Cowboys can get out of Pickens, who performed with QBs Russell Wilson and Justin Fields in 2024 and Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph and Mitchell Trubisky in 2023. On first look at these names, there needs to be loads of meat left on the bone for Pickens’ manufacturing. However he must fall in line because the staff’s second choice within the passing recreation, versus in Pittsburgh, the place he had been WR1 for the previous two years.
“[Pickens] made it straightforward, man,” Prescott mentioned. “He is a man that will get open, large goal, runs laborious, performs like a staff participant. So whether or not it is the run [blocking] or not, he is doing his job. And it has been straightforward, and it is solely gotten higher and higher and higher. It is actually due to the participant he’s, and the buy-in that he is had into this offense.”
Past the receivers, tight finish Jake Ferguson has an impressive rapport with Prescott. And whereas there are some questions on who will run the soccer (doubtless Javonte Williams to begin), there additionally may very well be some decision on the offensive line with left sort out Tyler Guyton getting back from harm and first-round rookie Tyler Booker serving to within the inside. Youth and potential don’t all the time convey enchancment to an offensive line, however the Cowboys are at the very least invested in it.
There are different pressurizing elements apart from the offensive line. There’s additionally Prescott’s contract. He leads the NFL in common annual worth: $60 million per yr. It has been that method for over a yr, even with a handful of QBs (together with Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes) getting new offers. Has Prescott lived as much as his contract? Can he? Is he overpaid? These are the kind of questions that put additional stress on the quarterback who’s already below scrutiny because the centerpiece of America’s Staff.
Offensively, Prescott seems set as much as have probably the greatest seasons of his profession, whilst he returns from his hamstring harm. Definitely, he hasn’t let the harm decrease his expectations for the upcoming yr.
“Having enjoyable and profitable the Super Bowl. Interval. It’s what I would like,” Prescott instructed reporters throughout coaching camp. “It’s what everybody desires on this locker room. … That’s what’s on my thoughts. Ten [years] in and able to play one other 10. However I would like that at the beginning. Now. And that’s the urgency that I carry.”
Urgency is sweet. Targets needs to be excessive. Prescott’s objectives, although, are doubtless too excessive.
What’s prone to maintain the Cowboys again from attaining their Tremendous Bowl aspirations can also be what is going to thrust Prescott to the highest of the NFL’s passing statistical classes.
It’s the Dallas protection.
Take a look at what Joe Burrow did final yr. His manufacturing did not simply come from an amazing supporting forged on offense, that includes Professional Bowl receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. It’s additionally that the Bengals‘ protection was atrocious, and Burrow needed to throw for what felt like 500 yards per recreation.
Prescott may need to do the identical factor. You’ve in all probability heard: The Cowboys traded Micah Parsons, probably the greatest defensive gamers within the league, to Inexperienced Bay for defensive sort out Kenny Clark and two first-round picks. The commerce got here after a protracted contract dispute with Jerry Jones.
“It’s simply good to be previous it,” Prescott mentioned. “And as I mentioned, each events are joyful.”
It doesn’t precisely sound like Prescott misses Parsons — not but at the very least.
But when a Tremendous Bowl is actually Prescott’s aim, there can be some tough shootouts the place the QB needs he had Parsons on the sphere. In any case, the Cowboys were one of the league’s worst defenses last year when they didn’t have Parsons. Very like Burrow needed to contend together with his protection final yr, Prescott would possibly discover himself chasing the opposing offense this season.
I do know that Jerry Jones has created mess after mess in the course of the offseason. I do know that the Cowboys are a cleaning soap opera. And I do know that they received’t be pretty much as good with Clark over Parsons.
Regardless of all that — and, in some measure, due to all that — Prescott is due for an enormous yr. And if that occurs, he’ll be proper again on the top-10 lists.
Earlier than becoming a member of FOX Sports activities as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years overlaying the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports activities Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Observe him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.
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