Sherrington: Expecting Dak Prescott to make up for Jerry Jones mishandling Cowboys' QB situation is too much to ask

Cotton

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Expecting Dak Prescott to make up for Jerry Jones mishandling Cowboys' QB situation is too much to ask

By Kevin Sherrington , Staff Columnist

On one hand, Jerry Jones did his due diligence by drafting a quarterback and just in time, too, because he got another bad break with Tony Romo, so to speak.

On the other hand . . . you don't really believe any of the above, do you?

Dak Prescott had a great preseason, which is the same as saying your teenager survived driving school so you're sending the kid into the teeth of rush hour traffic for some takeout.

Let me go out on a limb here: Dak is smart, charismatic, a leader, a fourth-round steal who may indeed prove to be Romo's heir, but he's not ready to start a real-live NFL game next week. Neither is any of the quarterbacks who preceded him in the draft, by the way.

What Dak saw in the preseason won't even resemble what he'll see when the Giants line up across from him next week. It isn't just the pressure they'll bring, which is bad enough. It's what they'll pretend to do, then drop into something else to confuse him. And all at a speed he didn't see even in the SEC.

Jason Garrett and Scott Linehan will make the offense more friendly to Dak, which is something they didn't necessarily do for the poor saps who've had to replace Romo. They'll put in some read-option, because that's a true advantage Dak presents.

But how often will they take that risk with their starting quarterback?

Three times? Four, maybe?

Because it's not like they have a Plan C if another quarterback goes down.

The problem the Cowboys find themselves in going into the regular season didn't start when Romo broke something else. That makes five breaks, if you're scoring at home. Surely makes him the leader among current quarterbacks, and should make you strongly suspect it's a habit.

Romo's chronic condition never ceases to surprise Jerry, though. Every time his quarterback fails to get up, Jerry is as shocked as a rube at a Texas Hold 'em table.

One of the reasons he so rarely has drafted a quarterback was because he figured he already had one, and you can only play one at a time. The idea that the starter might get hurt, or that you should develop a quarterback, never really occurred to him, apparently. He'd get around to another one when he'd used up the current one.

Prescott does, indeed, appear to be a legitimate prospect. But it's simply too much to ask of any rookie quarterback not named Jameis Winston to carry a team. Especially one with playoff aspirations.

From 10 wins and maybe even 11, the Cowboys' potential record has slid to 7-9, at least in my humble opinion. If Romo is out eight weeks, what's your expectation of Dak? If he wins two or three, he's doing well.

If he breaks even, they should put up a statue of him at The Star.

My problem isn't with Dak; it's his timing. The Cowboys could have used him a couple of years ago. Or, more specifically, he could have used the time to marinate in the Cowboys' system.

Here's the way quarterback strata should look: The top layer is the starter, then a veteran back-up, then a quarterback to develop. The bottom layer should only work to the top in an emergency.
Which this clearly is. But it never should have gotten to this point, either.

Besides the fact that Jerry rarely drafts quarterbacks with any potential, he just as infrequently gets the veteran back-up part right.

We can argue whether you thought Kellen Moore was legitimate before he got hurt. But what should have happened at that point was clear.

Namely, acquire a veteran quarterback. If he comes in and fails to beat out Dak, fine. The point is, he gets some time in the system instead of being thrown into the fire. Like poor Matt Cassel last season.

Sure, the Cowboys have brought in some veterans for a look. As a matter of fact, they talked to Austin Davis on Wednesday. As Stephen Jones put it, there's "still work to be done."

Translation: We never want to pay these guys what they want.

Jerry didn't mind paying Kyle Orton $10.5 million over three years starting in 2012. He wasn't awful, either. Not before he got a little weird and decided to leave, anyway.

Don't even bring up Brandon Weeden, who was A.) too inexperienced for a veteran back-up and B.) too old to qualify as a developmental quarterback.

Even if you thought Davis' 10 NFL starts were enough, a week's notice isn't enough to get him up to speed.

The lesson Jerry has never learned is that, with quarterbacks, especially, bad things tend to happen. Expecting Dak to make up for the general manager's mistakes is too much to ask of anyone, much less a rookie.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Rookie QB's don't have a great success rate in the NFL. But part of that is you don't usually see rookie QB's playing with much talent around them. The rookie QBs who usually start are top 10 picks who have no talent in place around them. So for obvious reason's they struggle mightily.

We have however seen some rookie QB's succeed in the NFL. One of which is actually very similar to Dak in Russel Wilson. Ignore for a second the defense that Wilson has and Dak doesn't have. Wilson came into the NFL and posted a 100 QB rating as a rookie with a 64 completion percentage by running the ball and getting outside the pocket to complete throws. Dak has even better pieces in place around him with the best offensive line in football, a top 5 WR in Dez Bryant and a top notch TE in Jason Witten. Not to mention one of the best young RB prospects in the last decade.

My hope is that we use Dak in the same exact way that Russel was used.
 

BipolarFuk

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We need to keep his throw to around 25 per game like they did Russell's rookie season as well.

You have at least two good backs. Run the shit out of it.
 

VA Cowboy

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He's right, we have not only ignored looking for our future starter but also for a viable backup. Last year our plan was Romo, Weeden, Moore and then bringing in Cassell after Romo went down.

After the debacle of last season, our only answer to addressing the situation was to draft our 5th-6th QB option, in the 4th round, while having Moore enter the year as our main backup.

If somehow Dak plays well and wins us some games it'll be a godsend and bailout Jerry's butt because normally relying on Moore and a rookie 4th rounder would be a disaster.
 

Cotton

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We need to keep his throw to around 25 per game like they did Russell's rookie season as well.

You have at least two good backs. Run the shit out of it.
Yep.
 

UncleMilti

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Rookie QB's don't have a great success rate in the NFL. But part of that is you don't usually see rookie QB's playing with much talent around them. The rookie QBs who usually start are top 10 picks who have no talent in place around them. So for obvious reason's they struggle mightily.

We have however seen some rookie QB's succeed in the NFL. One of which is actually very similar to Dak in Russel Wilson. Ignore for a second the defense that Wilson has and Dak doesn't have. Wilson came into the NFL and posted a 100 QB rating as a rookie with a 64 completion percentage by running the ball and getting outside the pocket to complete throws. Dak has even better pieces in place around him with the best offensive line in football, a top 5 WR in Dez Bryant and a top notch TE in Jason Witten. Not to mention one of the best young RB prospects in the last decade.

My hope is that we use Dak in the same exact way that Russel was used.
Yeah, that's a pretty laughable article.

I don't think anyone here expects Dak to go out and win 12 games for us, but to act like Winston was some sort of gift to the NFL compared to Dak is ridiculous.

Dak has 2 good WR's, and 1 great WR, plus an ATG in Witten at TE...I don't give a shit what Defensive looks are given, Dak should be able to complete enough passes to keep any defense they face this year honest.
 

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Yeah, that's a pretty laughable article.

I don't think anyone here expects Dak to go out and win 12 games for us, but to act like Winston was some sort of gift to the NFL compared to Dak is ridiculous.

Dak has 2 good WR's, and 1 great WR, plus an ATG in Witten at TE...I don't give a shit what Defensive looks are given, Dak should be able to complete enough passes to keep any defense they face this year honest.
It's pretty damn simple. Run the ball a bunch and then off of it run play action boot. Those are fairly easy reads for a young QB and it gives him the option to run if nothing is open. It would also keep the defense honest against our running game.

Not even sure where Winston came into the equation. If you want to say he is no Andrew Luck (Who took his team to the playoffs as a rookie) then I would agree. Luck was a rookie prospect on a totally different level then we have seen in a long time. We use Russel Wilson because he wasn't. Wilson was a prospect on a pretty similar level to Dak.

Another QB who had a ton of success as a rookie was Ben Roethlisberger. People forget, that dude came bursting into the league with a 98.1 QB rating and went to the playoffs.
 

Simpleton

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Romo only threw the ball about 27-29 times a game in 2014 so the gameplan shouldn't change too much in that regard. If the defense can only give up 17-20 points a week I think we'll win a good amount of games, but even if the defense struggles and we don't win many I think Prescott should do some nice things with the pieces around him.

Roethlisberger also had a fantastic defense and was incubated by a conservative offense that didn't ask him to do too much, just like Wilson.
 

dallen

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What is going to kill us this year is the defense giving up early points and falling behind.
 

Cowboysrock55

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What is going to kill us this year is the defense giving up early points and falling behind.
That wasn't really the issue last year though. It was more like we would keep games close for the first 2 or 3 quarters but then the defense would wear out because our offense is doing nothing. As long as we can grind things out this year it shouldn't be a peoblem.
 

dallen

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That wasn't really the issue last year though. It was more like we would keep games close for the first 2 or 3 quarters but then the defense would wear out because our offense is doing nothing. As long as we can grind things out this year it shouldn't be a peoblem.
I probably should have put an "if" in there. I agree with you. As long as we can keep the score close and keep our defense rested we should have success
 

Bluestar71

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Dak is going to make plenty of mistakes like any rookie but having plenty of weapons and an O-line that gives him an extra second or two to make decisions and keeps him from getting beat to a pulp should give him a leg up on many rookies that have to start before they're really ready.
 

ravidubey

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That wasn't really the issue last year though. It was more like we would keep games close for the first 2 or 3 quarters but then the defense would wear out because our offense is doing nothing.
Our defense has had problems vs. balanced offenses back to the mid 80's.

If they can stay balanced in the 4th quarter with the score close, our defense is hanging by a thread.
 

townsend

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Our defense has had problems vs. balanced offenses back to the mid 80's.

If they can stay balanced in the 4th quarter with the score close, our defense is hanging by a thread.
We did great at closing as a defense in 2014. But it seems like they regularly choked in close games in almost every other year since the Parcells era.
 

GShock

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Linehan is a spread offense guru.

Dak ran the spread at MSU.

Elliott excelled in a spread at OSU.

This does not need to be Dak running an offense built for Romo.

This offense should be like the 2012 slurs, but with a more durable QB, and better weapons at WR.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Linehan is a spread offense guru.

Dak ran the spread at MSU.

Elliott excelled in a spread at OSU.

This does not need to be Dak running an offense built for Romo.

This offense should be like the 2012 slurs, but with a more durable QB, and better weapons at WR.
I've said it before, I love what Linehan has been doing with Dak during the preseason. The funny thing is I bitched about all the shotgun last year but it's different with Dak. His ability to run creates a dynamic out of the shotgun that forces them to still respect the running game. It works with Dak.
 

GShock

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I've said it before, I love what Linehan has been doing with Dak during the preseason. The funny thing is I bitched about all the shotgun last year but it's different with Dak. His ability to run creates a dynamic out of the shotgun that forces them to still respect the running game. It works with Dak.
Yep. It is all kinds of awful with Romo back there. With Romo, it almost guarantees a pass, and the d-line can pin their ears back and meet at the QB. I think it has a huge impact on offensive line play, as well. They were born to grind meat (well, except maybe Tyron). Backpedaling play after play in those games where Romo throws 40 times puts our strongest unit in a reactionary, defensive posture. It cannot help but affect their mindset.

Committing to the run, watching the defensive lineman across from you get fatigued as the game wears on, firing out in run blocking even from a shotgun formation on a read option - that will affect mindset, too. Moreover, it affects future opponents. Watching film for a week and knowing that win or lose, you are in for three hours of physical pounding takes a mental toll, especially as it gets to be later in the season.

Let the strength of this team play to its strength.
 

UncleMilti

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I've said it before, I love what Linehan has been doing with Dak during the preseason. The funny thing is I bitched about all the shotgun last year but it's different with Dak. His ability to run creates a dynamic out of the shotgun that forces them to still respect the running game. It works with Dak.
If the Cowboys are smart, they'll play to Daks strengths, and throw Garretts shit offense in the trash.

The Seahawks jumped right into making an offense around Wilson.

I have always marveled at how Wilson managed to win SB's from a physical standpoint. His rainbow passes and lack of touch always make me laugh. But he has the smarts and he has been set up in an offensive system thats plays to his strengths, and he is obviously surrounded by a D that the team leans on to win.

Thats the big negative for Dak...no D to help shoulder the load.
 

Cowboysrock55

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If the Cowboys are smart, they'll play to Daks strengths, and throw Garretts shit offense in the trash.

The Seahawks jumped right into making an offense around Wilson.

I have always marveled at how Wilson managed to win SB's from a physical standpoint. His rainbow passes and lack of touch always make me laugh. But he has the smarts and he has been set up in an offensive system thats plays to his strengths, and he is obviously surrounded by a D that the team leans on to win.

Thats the big negative for Dak...no D to help shoulder the load.
Garrett just needs to back away and let Linehan take over designing this offense in my opinion.
 

BipolarFuk

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Team's are going to be throwing the sink at the run game until Dak proves he can beat them.
 
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