Mike White Highlights

[deadrise]

I think this will be a very telling year for Dak. If he doesn't succeed this year, I think you have to think long and hard about opening up the QB1 slot for competition.

That's the shame of it. I like Prescott. I like his demeanor, and I love the way he played in 2016.

I hate to think that whatever potential he has, which he showed in 2016, will always be limited by Garrett's and Linehan's lack of imagination and piss-poor coaching.

I'm convinced that Dak's play in 2017 was directly related to how predictable and sluggish the offensive scheme was (is?)

Other coaching staffs adapted to Dak's 2016 performance, and Garrett never adapted to those adaptations. Teams just sat on the patterns, nullified Bryant, nullified Beaseley. When Elliott was out and Smith was hurt Garrett had no idea what to do. He was lost.

 

[deadrise]

Not only that but 2 of the first 4 picks were defense. So it's not like we went offense heavy in this draft.

Actually, drafting for defense is helpful to a young QB if it improves field position and prevents having to always climb uphill when the defense can't stop anybody. McClay said about Vander Esch, ""This guy will get us some turnovers. He has that kind of instinct and that range. He'll get you the ball back."

Sounds QB friendly to me.

 

[fortsbest]

Dak obviously has talent and we all love his apparent leadership skills, but in spite Dead's great analysis of what happened last year, Dak also threw passes in the second half that had me saying "What the hell?" Like I said, I need to see a lot more of good Dak before I hand him a 5 year $125-150 mil contract after next year and I hope Jerry and Good Son feel the same. Let Rush or White get most of the preseason snaps and for God's sake let one of them play when we are killing or being killed during the regular season.

 

[NoDak]

Every single pick regardless of position is “QB friendly” if it improves the team.

 

[Genghis Khan]

I hate to be Debbie Downer, but in the back of my head, I kinda have QB versus the field as my earmarked use for first round pick next year already.

I feel the same way. Hell, if Darnold or Rosen had fallen to 19, I'd have drafted one this year. Of course, I would have signed Cousins too.

 

[deadrise]

Dak obviously has talent and we all love his apparent leadership skills, but in spite Dead's great analysis of what happened last year, Dak also threw passes in the second half that had me saying "What the hell?" Like I said, I need to see a lot more of good Dak before I hand him a 5 year $125-150 mil contract after next year and I hope Jerry and Good Son feel the same. Let Rush or White get most of the preseason snaps and for God's sake let one of them play when we are killing or being killed during the regular season.

Agree that Dak threw some "what-the-hell" passes. Part of me wonders whether he believed the whole thing was on his shoulders. Garrett always abandoned the running game too early and the defenses were calling out the plays before the ball was snapped. So Dak forced things or made some dumb throws, no question about it.

Agree too that Dak has a lot to prove before the big payday. O Line should be better, Zeke is there for 16 games (in theory), defense should be better, he's got two seasons under his belt. He'll really have no excuses, with the possible exception of Garrett, Linehan and Moore.

 

[Landry]

One more time.

 

[L.T. Fan]

Agree that Dak threw some "what-the-hell" passes. Part of me wonders whether he believed the whole thing was on his shoulders. Garrett always abandoned the running game too early and the defenses were calling out the plays before the ball was snapped. So Dak forced things or made some dumb throws, no question about it.

Agree too that Dak has a lot to prove before the big payday. O Line should be better, Zeke is there for 16 games (in theory), defense should be better, he's got two seasons under his belt. He'll really have no excuses, with the possible exception of Garrett, Linehan and Moore.

I agree Dak does have a lot to prove. Comparing his first two seasons are actually easier to explain than it appears on the surface. Season one had him in a puppet system where virtually every play had a predetermined execution. The reciever was predetermined. The route was predetermined and the blocking scheme was predetermined. There was no read in the play execution only a maintained effort of ball protection and escape when opened. It’s also called a choreographed system in some quarters.

Season two was all playbook and quarterback read. Dak just wasn’t altogether ready for that. The coaches are really to blame in the long haul but it’s behind them. This season will determine whether he can continue being a starter.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

I hate to be Debbie Downer, but in the back of my head, I kinda have QB versus the field as my earmarked use for first round pick next year already.

I'll take the field on that one. This team isn't going to bottom out. The only way I think we take a QB next year in the first round next year is if this team drops into the top 5-10 picks. It would take a real tank job from Dak to do that.

Now arguably a mediocre finish should have us thinking QB but it won't. I mean look how long it took the Bills with Tyrod Taylor finishing mediocre season after mediocre season before they got serious about their QB position. I don't want to get perpetually stuck at 9-7 because we have a solid QB but not one good enough to get us over the hump. But I expect Dak to have a bounce back year. We've got the O-line hopefully back in shape, the Zeke distraction every single week is gone and our receiver corp is way deeper now. The one hit we took on offense is probably Witten and TE. Which Witten wouldn't have been a hit had we addressed the position at all this offseason.

 

[fortsbest]

The only thing different is that a tank job here hopefully means the coach is gone too, so a new coach might come in and say, "I've seen 3 seasons of that dude from the outside and he can't get it done!" Time for a new QB

 

[Cowboysrock55]

The only thing different is that a tank job here hopefully means the coach is gone too, so a new coach might come in and say, "I've seen 3 seasons of that dude from the outside and he can't get it done!" Time for a new QB

Yeah I just think it's highly unlikely a team this talented does that poorly.

 

[deadrise]

Agree that Dak threw some "what-the-hell" passes. Part of me wonders whether he believed the whole thing was on his shoulders. Garrett always abandoned the running game too early and the defenses were calling out the plays before the ball was snapped. So Dak forced things or made some dumb throws, no question about it.

Agree too that Dak has a lot to prove before the big payday. O Line should be better, Zeke is there for 16 games (in theory), defense should be better, he's got two seasons under his belt. He'll really have no excuses, with the possible exception of Garrett, Linehan and Moore.

Just wanted to make sure no one missed the point.

 

[Simpleton]

I think Dak catches too much flak for last season, just like Romo before him. He was very good the first half of the season and carried us in a few games until Elliott got his head out of his ass late in the Green Bay game.

Everything went downhill once Smith went down and Elliott was suspended, which isn't that surprising considering our shitty coaches. And I haven't even mentioned the OL which was in flux most of the season even aside from Smith's injuries, you had Chaz Green starting early in the year, he wasn't very good so he was replaced by Cooper, then you had Collins settling in at RT, a position he hadn't played since what, high school?

There was alot going on last year that worked against Dak and I think it's a bit much to expect him to carry the team in his 2nd year under those circumstances. I'm very confident he'll rebound from what, in reality, was only a handful of poor games.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

I think Dak catches too much flak for last season, just like Romo before him. He was very good the first half of the season and carried us in a few games until Elliott got his head out of his ass late in the Green Bay game.

Everything went downhill once Smith went down and Elliott was suspended, which isn't that surprising considering our shitty coaches. And I haven't even mentioned the OL which was in flux most of the season even aside from Smith's injuries, you had Chaz Green starting early in the year, he wasn't very good so he was replaced by Cooper, then you had Collins settling in at RT, a position he hadn't played since what, high school?

There was alot going on last year that worked against Dak and I think it's a bit much to expect him to carry the team in his 2nd year under those circumstances. I'm very confident he'll rebound from what, in reality, was only a handful of poor games.

I'm with you. And after all of that people make it sound like Dak had a terrible year. Certainly we all would have like for Dak to play better but at worst he was a middle of the pack starting NFL QB last year. He had middle of the pack yards. He had a middle season in terms of QB rating. He won 9 games which is right at the middle of the pack. So it wasn't some god awful season, it just wasn't as good as we would have all liked. He basically had the same season that Derek Carr had except with a better record.

But hey, I'm also excited to see how White develops.

 

[L.T. Fan]

I'm with you. And after all of that people make it sound like Dak had a terrible year. Certainly we all would have like for Dak to play better but at worst he was a middle of the pack starting NFL QB last year. He had middle of the pack yards. He had a middle season in terms of QB rating. He won 9 games which is right at the middle of the pack. So it wasn't some god awful season, it just wasn't as good as we would have all liked. He basically had the same season that Derek Carr had except with a better record.

But hey, I'm also excited to see how White develops.

This is a pivotal year for him. He will either display an improving trend or display a static or declining mode. It was expected ( at least by me) that his sophomore season would likely be short of his first season if for no other reason than the benchmark was pretty high as a rookie. The coaches did a good job of playing to his strengths and creating game plans that allowed him to concentrate very simple execution. They threw him to the wolves the following season by forcing him into playbook schemes and he simply wasnt ready for that. Hopefully his mental game will match his physical game this season.

 

[Genghis Khan]

Romo caught too much flak especially because he was never close to as bad as Dak was last year.

I don't want to have this debate again because it's fruitless. But you guys are underselling how bad Dak was last year, it wasn't a handful of games it was like 8 or 9. If you want stats, go look at his game logs and look at how many games he was under 200 yards passing, or under 7 yards per attempt, or below 85 QB rating.

You can attribute it to all kinds of things if you want. I'm skeptical and I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Rev]

That first year really put unfair expectations on Dak. So a second year guy that had 1/2 a game before he was thrown to the wolves struggled a bit? Say it ain't so. How about we give him the same development time Romo had before we start describing his career. At the very least lets see how this year pans out.

 

[Simpleton]

16/33 249 YDS, 1 TD, 2 INT's, 7.55 YPA
14/29 142 YDS, 1 TD, 2 INT's, 4.90 YPA
17/29, 189 YDS, 1 TD, 0 INT's, 6.52 YPA

Total: 51.6 completion %, 6.37 YPA, 3 TD's/4 INT's

18/31 145 YDS, 0 TD's, 3 INT's, 4.68 YPA
20/27, 179 YDS, 0 TD's, 2 INT's, 6.63 YPA
21/34, 181 YDS, 0 TD's, 2 INT's, 5.32 YPA

Total: 64.1 completion %, 5.49 YPA, 0 TD's/7 INT's

I left out a handful of games with poor statistical performances due to them being wins where each QB made a few big plays (at NYG in 06, at OAK/vs. WAS in 17) but these are the 3 worst games from Romo in 06 and Prescott last year. I also left out the Atlanta game for obvious reasons.

So can we stop comparing a 2nd year Prescott with a 4th year Romo as if they are the same thing, especially when Romo put up plenty of his own stinkers, including a game at home vs. Philly that cost us the division that was very similar to Prescott's performance vs. Seattle?

And this is despite the fact that he had a better supporting cast, 06 Owens/Glenn were much better than 17 Dez/Williams despite their age, 06 Witten vs. 17 Witten is no contest, and 06 Jones/Barber were far superior to what we had at RB without Elliott. The only offensive unit that was arguably better for Prescott was the OL and even that is a toss-up with Smith out.

The fact of the matter is that Prescott was more or less playing at his 2016 level until everything went sideways with Smith, Elliott, and to a lesser extent Lee. Over the first 8 games of the year he put up 16 TD's/4 INT's (and another 4 rushing), 1818 YDS on 63% completion % and 7 YPA. He was on pace to more or less match 2016 statistically with a lower, but still pretty good YPA and completion % but with significantly more TD's and only 8 INT's.

Everything went to shit and you can blame Prescott for not being able to adjust, for perhaps being lulled into a false sense of complacency or being spoiled with his supporting cast, but the fact of the matter is that he was generally playing at the same level as he was in 2016 until Smith/Elliott went away.

There's also the very likely reality that many have to consider which is that Prescott may never be as good a QB as Romo but that he is still worthy of being the franchise QB for the next 10 years.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

There's also the very likely reality that many have to consider which is that Prescott may never be as good a QB as Romo but that he is still worthy of being the franchise QB for the next 10 years.

There is also the possibility that Dak never puts up the numbers through the air that Romo did but he wins more games in the end. I want to win and Dak is a winner. I don't care if he does it while throwing for 200 yards instead of 400.

We just need to get back to what works. 2014 and 2016 both highlight exactly what works for this offense and this team. It's an elite level running game and passing offense that compliments it. We just need to get back to that.

 

[Angrymesscan]

16/33 249 YDS, 1 TD, 2 INT's, 7.55 YPA
14/29 142 YDS, 1 TD, 2 INT's, 4.90 YPA
17/29, 189 YDS, 1 TD, 0 INT's, 6.52 YPA

Total: 51.6 completion %, 6.37 YPA, 3 TD's/4 INT's

18/31 145 YDS, 0 TD's, 3 INT's, 4.68 YPA
20/27, 179 YDS, 0 TD's, 2 INT's, 6.63 YPA
21/34, 181 YDS, 0 TD's, 2 INT's, 5.32 YPA

Total: 64.1 completion %, 5.49 YPA, 0 TD's/7 INT's

I left out a handful of games with poor statistical performances due to them being wins where each QB made a few big plays (at NYG in 06, at OAK/vs. WAS in 17) but these are the 3 worst games from Romo in 06 and Prescott last year. I also left out the Atlanta game for obvious reasons.

So can we stop comparing a 2nd year Prescott with a 4th year Romo as if they are the same thing, especially when Romo put up plenty of his own stinkers, including a game at home vs. Philly that cost us the division that was very similar to Prescott's performance vs. Seattle?

And this is despite the fact that he had a better supporting cast, 06 Owens/Glenn were much better than 17 Dez/Williams despite their age, 06 Witten vs. 17 Witten is no contest, and 06 Jones/Barber were far superior to what we had at RB without Elliott. The only offensive unit that was arguably better for Prescott was the OL and even that is a toss-up with Smith out.

The fact of the matter is that Prescott was more or less playing at his 2016 level until everything went sideways with Smith, Elliott, and to a lesser extent Lee. Over the first 8 games of the year he put up 16 TD's/4 INT's (and another 4 rushing), 1818 YDS on 63% completion % and 7 YPA. He was on pace to more or less match 2016 statistically with a lower, but still pretty good YPA and completion % but with significantly more TD's and only 8 INT's.

Everything went to shit and you can blame Prescott for not being able to adjust, for perhaps being lulled into a false sense of complacency or being spoiled with his supporting cast, but the fact of the matter is that he was generally playing at the same level as he was in 2016 until Smith/Elliott went away.

There's also the very likely reality that many have to consider which is that Prescott may never be as good a QB as Romo but that he is still worthy of being the franchise QB for the next 10 years.

My main concern is that Dak got rattled in that Atlanta game and seems to have some sort of PTSD from it, he always looked calm cool and collected before that game, but afterwards... skittish and jumpy.

Hopefully he can regain what I thought was his greatest asset, confidence.