Why the Cowboys moving on from Dak Prescott could be a grave mistake

Dak Prescott is probably the most polarizing participant on the Dallas Cowboys. Followers both love him or hate him relying on how a lot of the blame they consider he deserves for the staff’s let-down performances. The eight-year veteran quarterback is far and wide when it comes to how he’s perceived. In 2022, he led the league in interceptions and had your complete nationwide media up in arms, solely to do a 180-degree turnaround and lead the league in landing passes this previous 12 months. He earned All-Professional honors and was the subject of many conversations about whether or not he was deserving of successful this 12 months’s Most Precious Participant award. Wow, what a distinction.

As nice of a season as he had final 12 months, Prescott struggled within the playoffs. He made poor selections and seemed panicked all through a lot of the sport. He had two expensive picks and didn’t finalize the staff’s first scoring drive till the clock had hit double-zeros within the first half. This marks the third consecutive season that the Cowboys have been bounced from the playoffs in a sport the place Dak has not lived as much as expectations. That isn’t to say that he’s the blame, however he’s actually not serving to.

With one other disappointing playoff exit, doubt lurks throughout the group. Whether or not it’s coaches or gamers, persons are questioning among the staff’s most influential contributors, with Dak being one in all them. Is he actually the man for this soccer staff? Including a bit gasoline to the fireplace is the notion that the Cowboys traded away a fourth-round draft choose to amass former third-overall choose Trey Lance proper earlier than the beginning of final season. Granted, that is only a “let’s see what he’s acquired” sorta transfer, however they wouldn’t have made such a transfer in the event that they didn’t consider he had an opportunity of manifesting right into a legit NFL quarterback. Within the spirit of taking a look at all angles, we went over that state of affairs a few weeks in the past.

Transferring on from Prescott is dangerous enterprise. If Lance had a superb pattern dimension of robust play, it could be rather a lot simpler to do, simply because the Cowboys had earlier than they moved on from Tony Romo and gave Dak the keys to the offense. However they don’t. Passing on Prescott means the staff goes to take an enormous leap of religion that no matter’s behind door quantity two can efficiently function the staff’s most necessary place on the roster. The final time the Cowboys needed to make such a transition with out having a superb plan already in place, it didn’t go properly.

After Troy Aikman’s retirement, the Cowboys seemed to the draft to seek out his alternative. Sadly, they didn’t actually have a first-round draft choose after dealing that away to Seattle for huge receiver Joey Galloway. In a weak quarterback class that provided nothing exterior of the primary two guys (Michael Vick and Drew Brees), the Cowboys reached for Quincy Carter with the 53rd total choose. Carter was a man that Jerry Jones liked and again then, the Jones affect was robust and the previous Georgia quarterback grew to become the primary ever second-round draft choose to start out at QB his rookie season.

The Carter experiment was up and down, with Jerry Jones rolling the cube with different candidates who may have the ability to shock folks and earn the QB gig. This included signing former quantity two total choose Ryan Leaf and throwing darts at two former baseball prospects, Chad Hutchinson and Drew Henson, the second of which Jones traded away a third-round draft choose to amass. After every subsequent gamble failed, the staff then determined to take the veteran route, first with Vinny Testaverde after which with Drew Bledsoe, each of whom had playoff success with Invoice Parcells.

Lastly, an unsuspected hero confirmed up within the type of undrafted free agent Tony Romo, nonetheless, that hero was only a mild-manner reserve buried on the Cowboys depth chart. Over his first three years within the league, Romo didn’t throw a single move within the NFL. Not one. In actual fact, it’s properly documented that Quincy Carter’s launch after failing a drug check is what saved Romo’s spot on the roster. That’s how shut they had been to not having Romo.

The Cowboys had been additionally fortunate to land Prescott. Jerry made a powerful push to commerce as much as purchase Paxton Lynch within the 2016 draft. Fortunately, the Denver Broncos provided a greater deal, however Jones spent the following 24 hours whining about how he ought to’ve provided extra to convey Lynch to Dallas. Later within the draft, the Cowboys once more tried to commerce up for one more quarterback, Connor Prepare dinner, however once more misplaced the bidding conflict. The staff didn’t pull the set off on Prescott till late within the fourth spherical with a compensatory choose.

Even with Dak, the Cowboys weren’t content material with their QB scenario. When Kellen Moore broke his ankle, the Cowboys tried to signal free agent Nick Foles who had simply been launched by the Rams, however Foles wished to play for the coach that drafted him so he signed with Andy Reid’s Chiefs. Per week later, they tried to work a take care of the Cleveland Browns for Josh McCown, however the Browns wished a second-round choose for him. And it took each Romo and Moore to go down with accidents earlier than Prescott was given a real likelihood.

Whenever you run all this again, it’s fairly clear that the Cowboys don’t have a pointy eye for buying quarterbacks. Positive, Romo and Prescott wore the star and so they’ve given the Cowboys relevance for the final 18 seasons, however we all know how lucky the Cowboys had been to land these guys. Even Corridor of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman fell into Jerry’s lap his first season because the proprietor because of the Cowboys’ depressing 1988 season that earned them the highest choose within the draft. Fortunately, Aikman was the undisputed high choose in his draft class or who is aware of what would’ve occurred.

It’s one factor to need Prescott to be higher within the playoffs. All of us need that. But it surely’s one other factor to be so crucial of him to the place you’re keen to hit the reset button at quarterback and take your probabilities with what Jones and firm can provide you with. Frankly, that ought to scare the bejesus out of Cowboys followers.