Cowboys QB Dak Prescott says he deserves as much blame as Mike McCarthy. He’s getting it.
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was trying to take up for coach Mike McCarthy after Sunday’s unconscionable and seemingly inexplicable 48-32 season-ending loss to the Green Bay Packers in the wild card playoff and only added himself to the feeding frenzy.
“I don’t know how they can be, but I understand the business,” said Prescott when asked about the questions surrounding McCarthy’s job status following his third straight 12-5 season and third straight disappointing finish in the postseason.
“In that case, it should be about me as well. I’ve had the season that I’ve had because of him. This team has had the success that they’ve had because of him. I understand it’s about winning the Super Bowl. That’s the standard of this league and damn sure the standard of this place. I get it, but add me to the list in that case.”
Done.
With a 2-5 mark in the playoffs in eight years as Cowboys quarterback and a penchant for not being able to rise to the occasion on the postseason, Prescott was already on the list.
Never mind that he had a career season with 36 touchdowns passes to just 9 interceptions, becoming the first quarterback in franchise history to outright lead in the league in touchdowns.
Never mind that he will finish in the top five and possibly top three in NFL MVP balloting, while making second team All-Pro for the first time in his career.
None of it matters, not after tossing two first-half interceptions, including a 64-yard interception return for a touchdown to add to the carnage of a 27-0 second-quarter deficit en route to the blowout loss.
“1,000 percent, 1,000 percent. I’m not a guy who lives in the past,” Prescott said. “Where my feet are and at this moment, yeah, I sucked tonight, that was it. I got it going a little bit late but none of that mattered at that point. It’s about winning and winning the playoffs and getting to the last game and winning that as well. Yeah, tough.”
A stunned and shocked Prescott had no explanation and no answers on how he can transfer his regular season performance into the postseason.
“It’s tough to give you that answer when I just went out there and we just did that,” Prescott said. Unfortunately, that’s what the off season is for and it’s a long one. Yeah, I wish I could give you that answer. There are no excuses. This is the last place that anybody in this organization, especially in our locker room, would have thought that we were going to be, and I’m sure you guys as well. That’s why I keep using the words ‘shocked’ or ‘stunned’. They came out here and they were better than us in all facets of the game. It sucks.”
Prescott may not have any answers.
But these are the questions owner Jerry Jones is facing as the Cowboys failed to reach the Super Bowl for a 28th straight season, including a fifth disappointing postseason with Prescott at quarterback.
The questions start with whether the team should move forward with McCarthy.
But they don’t end there.
With his quarterback in the heading into the final year of the four-year, $160 million deal he signed in 2021, Jones must address the elephant in the room as well.
Prescott has a $59 million cap hit in 2024. The Cowboys need to sign him to an extension to lower the cap figure sign other players.
But that means giving Prescott a contract worth $55 million or more annually and tying the franchise to him for another four years or so not knowing if he is the man who can help them win a Super Bowl, especially considering his postseason track record.
The only other option to let him play out his deal on his current contract and hamstring the team’s hopes and ability to improve in 2024.
Jones has said in the past that he wants Prescott to be his quarterback for another 10 years and reiterated that point during the Cowboys glorious regular season.
He wasn’t so committal after the stunning loss to the Packers.
“I really haven’t thought about this at all,” Jones said. “So I don’t want comment on it since I haven’t thought about it. My complete thought for the last several weeks have totally been around anticipating and planning on advancing from this game to another game her at the stadium since we found out we were going to have this home filed. So I’m going to back to the complete bottom of my thought process to think about anything other than next week’s game here.”
There is no next week’s game here.
And there won’t be until the 2024 season.
Who will be the head coach?
And what are the Cowboys going to do with Prescott?
This story was originally published January 15, 2024 at 9:17 AM.
