After struggling over the past two weeks, should the Dallas Cowboys be worried about Dak Prescott being — and paying him like — their franchise quarterback?
One of the NFL‘s biggest storylines entering the 2019 season was if and when the Cowboys would pay their franchise quarterback, Dak Prescott. For whatever reason, Prescott and his play have become controversial. Many claim that Dallas shouldn’t pay him $30-$35 million per year, while others believe he has every right to be one of the highest-paid passers in NFL history.
It’s easy to see there has been so much debate about Prescott throughout the first three years of his career. He’s led the Cowboys to three straight seasons with a winning record and has scored 85 touchdowns while throwing just 25 interceptions.
The counterargument is that he’s played behind one of the best offensive lines in the league and has yet to lead the Cowboys to the Conference Championship round, let alone the Super Bowl. For that reason, why should he be paid in the same vicinity as proven Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks such as Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Drew Brees?
It’s a fascinating debate where public opinion appears to sway a different direction each week. The 2019 season has proven no different, as Prescott was the league’s best passer through the first three weeks of the season. He had a passer rating of 128, scoring 10 touchdowns as the Cowboys posted a 3-0 record.
But over the last two weeks, Dallas has lost back-to-back games, and Prescott has turned the ball over four times. His passer rating in those two contests: 79.2. Now, many are wondering who the real Prescott is. However, if you are a Cowboys fan, you shouldn’t be concerned about your starting quarterback. Not even in the slightest.
One of the main reasons that the Cowboys should panic about Prescott is that he is throwing the ball significantly further down the field than ever before. Heading into this season, Prescott’s highest air yards per attempt was at 8.2 in 2016. But through five games of 2019, he’s averaging 9.9 air yards per attempt. Will add aggression comes the risk of more turnover-worthy plays. However, the potential gain is worth the risk.
Prescott is no longer just a dink-and-dunk quarterback, as many claimed he was earlier in his career. Only Matthew Stafford, Jameis Winston and Patrick Mahomes are averaging more air yards per attempt than Prescott, and only Mahomes has a comparable passer rating, according to 360radar. With Prescott becoming a more aggressive passer, there are certainly will be some bumps in the road as he continues to work on his deep accuracy.
Outside of being a more aggressive passer, there have been some unfortunate luck involving the Cowboys’ offense. Let’s first take a look at the interceptions for Prescott, which are starting to mount up. Through five weeks, Prescott has six interceptions. As a rookie, he threw four interceptions during the season, and he threw eight in 2018. Let’s take a quick peek at all six of Prescott’s interceptions to see how many of them were indeed his fault:
Depending on how tough a grader you are, it’s fair to put three or four of these interceptions on the Cowboys’ passer. Prescott has had some unfortunate luck as catchable passes have bounced off receivers’ hands and into the arms of a defender. Is that likely to continue, or is that pure dumb luck?
As a team, the last two weeks have been a struggle, and while neither games have been Prescott’s best, his relatively poor performances are at least somewhat explainable. Am I excusing Prescott’s last two games? Of course not. Is he a perfect player? No. But he is an improving player that just faced two of the better defenses in the NFL.
Like every quarterback in the league, they aren’t going to thrive every week. There are going to be rough patches (especially when Prescott is missing his All-Pro left tackle), but it’s about how he responds and bounce back from a poor performance. If he can string together two or three good games in a row, nobody will be too hung up on his performances against the Saints or the Packers.
One thing that Prescott has unequivocally shown throughout his career is that he typically doesn’t struggle for long. Look for the two-time Pro Bowl quarterback to bounce back in a big way in Week 6 against the Jets as he continues to prove that he is worth a long-term extension in Dallas.