Cowboys at bye: Hard-working QB Dak Prescott has relentlessly taken game to next level
Dak Prescott’s numbers speak for themselves through the first seven games of the season.
The Dallas Cowboys have a barely above middling record at 4-3 heading into this week’s bye but it has little to do with the elevated play their fourth-year quarterback.
With 2,123 yards on 168-of-238 passing with 12 touchdowns, seven interceptions and a quarterback rating of 102.6, not including three rushing touchdowns, Prescott has been a top-five quarterback in the first half of the season.
He ranks seventh in quarterback rating, third in completion percentage, third in yards, third in average gain, sixth in completions and 10th in touchdown passes.
And this doesn’t include the advanced analytical numbers where he ranks second in deep passing yards, per Pro Football Focus. He is first in ESPN’s QBR. Per Pro Football Reference, he is first in air yards per attempt and second in air yards per completion.
He was 26th in air yards per completion last season, improving from 5.6 to 8.0.
Per Next Generation Stats, Prescott is the only quarterback to outperform expectations in every game this season based on its Completion Probability model.
This is not the stuff of a dink-and-dunk bus driver. He has been a reason for their success.
None of it is lost on the Cowboys.
But as much as they are impressed with his stellar play, they rave more about his attitude, work ethic and leadership as they believe those traits will take his game to an even higher level.
“I think he’s off to a really good start,” coach Jason Garrett said. “His leadership has been fantastic. His mental and physical toughness have been fantastic. He, too, is a great example to his teammates about how he approaches it every day, handles the success, handles the adversity week to week, play by play. I just think he’s been outstanding in that regard. He’s certainly been productive for us, throwing the football, very productive running the football. He’s playing at a very high level.
“There certainly are plenty of things that he needs to work on. He works on it as hard and as well as anybody I’ve ever been around, so he’s a very focused guy, very purposeful guy. So certainly off to a great start and hopefully he gets better and better as we go.”
Quarterbacks coach Jon Kitna played 16 years in the NFL and has been around a number of great quarterbacks.
He says Prescott’s work ethic, leadership and mindset are already legendary.
“We’re trying to give him days off,” Kitna said. “He won’t take them. He just wants to work every day. His makeup and his mentality is that the light switch is always on. You don’t want to mess with that stuff.”
Kitna was most impressed with how Prescott practiced and led during the first day in the heat when they returned to Frisco from training camp and the first practice after the devastating 24-22 loss to the New York Jets that extended the team’s losing streak to three games.
“He’s not even going to let his body win over his mind,” Kitna said of Prescott’s competitive mindset. “I’ve seen it twice in practice where the normal human being would have shut it down.”
It was no surprise to the Cowboys that Prescott led the way in the 37-10 season-saving win against the Philadelphia Eagles when he outdueled fellow fourth-year quarterback Carson Wentz for the fourth time in six meetings.
It prompted a postgame wink of approval between Prescott and owner Jerry Jones, signifying an all-knowing understanding that the Cowboys have the better quarterback in rivalry.
So why haven’t the Cowboys signed Prescott to a long-term contract extension, surpassing the four-year $128 million deal Wentz got last June?
It’s not for a lack of trying, vice president Stephen Jones said.
“We want to sign him,” Stephen Jones said. “Our goal is to sign him. We are confident we can get a deal done.”
Jones said the Cowboys felt that way about Prescott and his future with the team before the season. His next level play in 2019 has only reinforced what they already thought, which is big considering that a certain vice president predicted the team would make him the richest player in franchise history and among the richest in NFL history after his sensational first season in 2016 when he fashioned the finest rookie season of any quarterback in league history.
“I think he has taken a big step this year,” Jones said. “His leadership and resiliency has shown up in even in the games we haven’t done well. He has taken another big step. His work ethic second to none. He wants to be great. The time on the job is paying off. He is having a great year.”
The thing that most excites the Cowboys is they believe Prescott is going to continue to get better not just this season but in seasons to come. Jones says that is even more reason to bet big on Prescott.
“One of the quarterbacks who is just going to get better, like Tony Romo did,” Stephen Jones said. “When Tony retired, he said I’m the best I have even been, unfortunately my body is not holding up. I know the game better than ever. I see things better than ever.
“I think it will be the same with Dak in terms of continually getting better as he gets older.”
