Dak Prescott “ready” for regular season, no thoughts of sophomore slump
Dak Prescott declared himself ready for the 2017 season on Tuesday.
The Dallas Cowboys’ regular-season opener against the New York Giants is still 19 days away, but Prescott feels as though he’s prepared for Year 2 in the NFL.
“I mean, I’m ready,” Prescott said. “That’s all come from camp and just preparing. Obviously it’s going to be good and it’ll be helpful to take more reps in this upcoming game, kind of get a whole half or whatever it is the coaches decide we get to get going and get into that game tempo, get that game conditioning. But mentally, I know this offense is and the team is physically, we’re ready to go.”
Prescott played two series last Saturday against the Indianapolis Colts, his first game action of the preseason. He completed seven of eight passes for 106 yards and a touchdown.
Prescott is expected to get more time this weekend against the Oakland Raiders and then won’t see the field again until the regular-season opener Sept. 10.
Prescott is coming off arguably the best season by a rookie quarterback in NFL history, and the coaching staff has raved about his work throughout the offseason and in training camp.
Prescott took over the starting job when Tony Romo was injured in the preseason, and never relinquished those reigns. He led the Cowboys to the NFC East title, going 13-3 with 3,667 passing yards with 23 touchdowns and four interceptions.
He completed 67.8 percent of his passes and had a 104.9 passer rating in a season that earned him NFL rookie of the year honors. Not too shabby for a guy drafted in the fourth-round of last year’s draft.
And Prescott has no concerns of a possible “sophomore slump.”
“All I’ve ever known is hard work, and hard work pays off,” Prescott said. “That’s what I did in this offseason as I’ve done every offseason in my career. I don’t see, that’s never been anything in my mind. I don’t know anyone around me who would think that. It’s just the preparation, everything that goes in eliminates that for the most part.”
Prescott is fully confident in his abilities to lead the team even further this season. He isn’t worried about being a fourth-round guy and what outsiders may think of that. Or even being the eighth quarterback taken in the 2016 draft.
All of those are just underlying reasons that continue to motivate him.
“I’m past that for the most part,” Prescott said. “I guess that’s something I’ll always have a chip on my shoulder as I’ll never forget being passed over as many times as I was and how many other quarterbacks were picked ahead of me. But that’s not something I go around each day, or not often even think about when I was drafted or the type of person people think me of as a fourth-round guy.
“It’s about what I can to help this team and the player I am right now.”
This story was originally published August 22, 2017 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Dak Prescott “ready” for regular season, no thoughts of sophomore slump."