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Jon Machota
Feb 8, 2023
The expectations changed on March 10, 2021. That’s when Dak Prescott sat on a stage near the entrance of the team’s headquarters in Frisco, Texas.
To his left was Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones. To his right, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones. The three were together to discuss with reporters Prescott’s recently signed four-year, $160 million contract.
“I feel great about our future,” Jerry Jones said at the time. “I don’t mind telling you the main reason I feel great is the guy sitting right next door to me right here.”
The deal did not come together quickly. More than a year of negotiations took place. Prescott eventually became the highest-paid player in franchise history. At the time of signing, he was the NFL’s second-highest-paid quarterback behind only Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes.
“My expectations in myself are higher than anybody’s out there,” Prescott said that day. “All this contract does is raise those expectations for everyone else. I think higher expectations create higher results. I’m all for it. I’m excited. It’s a privilege to have this pressure.”
https://theathletic.com/4158908/2023/02/06/dallas-cowboys-offense-analysis-dak-prescott/
The Cowboys have won 24 regular-season games since that press conference at The Star. The Chiefs, who are about to play in their third Super Bowl in the last four years, are the only team with more regular-season wins over the last two seasons.
But the lack of playoff success continues to be Dallas’ biggest issue. It led to the Cowboys recently parting ways with offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, despite Dallas having one of the NFL’s top offenses each of the last two seasons. Head coach Mike McCarthy will now take over play-calling duties. The Cowboys announced Saturday that Brian Schottenheimer will be their new offensive coordinator. He was a consultant on Dallas’ staff during the 2022 season. He has 22 years of NFL coaching experience, which includes being offensive coordinator for the New York Jets (2006-2011), St. Louis Rams (2012-2014) and Seattle Seahawks (2018-2020).
Something needed to change and it wasn’t going to be the franchise quarterback. Prescott has two years left on his current deal. Stephen Jones told reporters last week at the Senior Bowl that the Cowboys remain committed to Prescott long-term and are open to extending his contract, even mentioning Prescott being their quarterback for the next 10 years.
“Obviously Dak is the key guy on this football team, first and foremost,” Stephen Jones said. “Everything starts and stops with him. Dak’s going to be our guy over and over again just like Troy (Aikman) was, just like (Tony) Romo was, just like (Roger) Staubach was.”
Prescott turns 30 in July.
Over the last 10 seasons, only two quarterbacks have guided their teams to the Super Bowl for the first time at age 30 or older: Matthew Stafford and Matt Ryan.
In Prescott’s seven seasons in Dallas, the Cowboys have not advanced beyond the divisional round. It’s a burden that every Cowboys QB will carry until the team ends its drought of 27 seasons without a trip to the conference championship game.
The most disappointing aspect of the Cowboys’ 2022 season is that it was their best overall team of the past decade. They’ve had better offenses during that time, but they’ve been missing the complementary outstanding defense.
With that now in place, led by arguably the league’s best defensive player in Micah Parsons, there’s even more pressure on Prescott to elevate his own play. Parsons is on a path to becoming the NFL’s highest-paid defensive player. The Cowboys need to capitalize when he’s still on his rookie contract.
The turnovers were the biggest concern with Prescott this season — he threw a career-high 15 interceptions in only 12 games. More importantly, he threw two in Dallas’ season-ending 19-12 loss at San Francisco in the divisional round. Those turnovers stand out even more in a game when Prescott didn’t need to be great for the Cowboys to win.
“I’ve got to be better,” Prescott said in his postgame news conference, “there’s no other way to sugarcoat it. … Unacceptable. I can’t put the ball in jeopardy like that. The number it’s gotten to is ridiculous. I can promise the number will never be this again. I promise that.”
Dak Prescott threw two interceptions in the Cowboys’ season-ending loss at San Francisco. (Kyle Terada / USA Today)
Prescott took the blame for the loss, which is not a surprise. He’s an elite leader, both on and off the field. He rarely says the wrong thing, which is especially difficult when under the microscope that comes with being the Cowboys’ quarterback.
But does that mean he will eventually have championship success on the field?
Jerry Jones is adamant that Prescott remains one of the team’s greatest strengths. When speaking with reporters at the Senior Bowl last week, Jones said he’s still “very strong on Dak.”
“We have a unique person, a unique football player, a unique quarterback,” Jones said. “This whole thing reflects the upside that I feel in Dak. The fact that we’re doing this, Mike is calling the plays, this has everything to do with the positive that’s around Dak, it’s building around Dak.”
When asked what should get Cowboys’ fans excited about next season, Jones mentioned the 25 wins over the last two seasons (including playoffs) and the current roster. And then he added: “Dwell on the fact that you have Dak. I like that. Focus on Dak being better. He will be better at (reducing) turnovers.”
It would be surprising if the 80-year-old Jones was publicly questioning his franchise quarterback. While some argue for the Cowboys to look for a replacement at the position, the last thing Jones wants to do is go back to the early 2000s. Between Aikman and Romo, the QB position in Dallas was a combination of Quincy Carter, Anthony Wright, Ryan Leaf, Clint Stoerner, Chad Hutchinson, Vinny Testaverde, Drew Henson and Drew Bledsoe. Dallas averaged seven wins per season during that stretch between 2001 and 2005.
Legendary Cowboys wide receiver and current NFL Network analyst Michael Irvin recently explained why simply moving on from Prescott is a bad idea.
“We say that as if it’s going to the store and putting down some money and paying for some candy,” Irvin said on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas last month. “It doesn’t work that way. You don’t get rid of Dak and talk about, ‘Let’s just go look for another.’ There are teams out there that have been looking for quarterbacks for 25 years, 30 years. No, you don’t get rid of a quarterback and look for another one.
“Now, if you stumble on another one then you look at maybe getting rid of this one. But you don’t move that kind of way in the NFL and talk about having success. If people are saying that, shut the hell up. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re going to put us in a bigger hole than we’re already in. At least we’re in the fight right now. You’re going to have us out of the fight. Just shut up.”
But even the most diehard of Prescott supporters would have to acknowledge that his inconsistent play during the back half of the season is concerning.
His last three games were all over the place. In the season finale at Washington, Prescott had arguably the worst regular-season game of his career. He threw his worst interception of the season. One play after nearly getting picked off on a poor throw to Michael Gallup, Prescott came right back to the play, which was then intercepted by cornerback Kendall Fuller and returned for a 29-yard touchdown. Prescott finished the game 14-of-37 passing for 128 yards, one touchdown, one interception and a 45.8 passer rating. The Cowboys lost 26-6 to a Commanders team that was starting rookie QB Sam Howell for the first time.
Somehow Prescott responded with maybe his greatest game. In what ended up being the final game of Tom Brady’s career, Prescott was incredible, completing 25-of-33 passes for 305 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions and a 143.3 passer rating. He also ran for 24 yards and a touchdown in Dallas’ 31-14 wild-card win.
How was that the same player who was on the field against Washington the week before and the same player on the field at San Francisco the week after?
Jerry Jones believes McCarthy taking over offensive play calling will help get Prescott back on track. It should also be noted that current Denver Broncos QB Russell Wilson had some of the best seasons of his career when Schottenheimer was his offensive coordinator in Seattle. Wilson made the Pro Bowl all three seasons while averaging 3,923 passing yards, 35 touchdown passes, eight interceptions and a 107.2 passer rating per year.
“Dak can handle it,” Jones said. “A lot of times, the changes are not what you’re adding, but what you’re cutting back on. Doing some things that are different, I think that’s a plus for Dak. And if it’s a plus for Dak, it’s a plus for all of us.”
Jones mentioned in September during one of his weekly radio appearances on The Fan that the teams that pay the “big ticket” on the quarterback have to sacrifice in other areas. He was stating that since the Cowboys have one of the highest-paid quarterbacks, they wouldn’t be able to add as much talent in other areas. That was evident last March when they traded away Pro Bowl wide receiver Amari Cooper and his $20 million annual salary for basically a fifth-round pick that turned out to be offensive tackle Matt Waletzko.
The Cowboys thought they had their No. 1 wide receiver in CeeDee Lamb. They also thought that Gallup would recover well enough from his season-ending torn ACL to be a quality No. 2 and third-round pick Jalen Tolbert would be their No. 3.
They were right about Lamb. They were wrong on the other two. They also swung and missed in free agency on veteran WR James Washington. The front office was left trying to piece things together during the season by courting Odell Beckham Jr. and eventually signing T.Y. Hilton.
Dallas’ No. 2 receiver ended up being tight end Dalton Schultz. Noah Brown was the team’s third most-productive pass catcher, finishing with 555 yards and three touchdowns.
In the playoff loss to the 49ers, Prescott targeted Lamb and Schultz 23 times. No other wide receiver was targeted more than three times. Clearly, the weapons around Prescott need to improve, a difficult task considering Schultz is about to be an unrestricted free agent.
But Prescott also has to elevate his play.
McCarthy was asked last month about coaching legendary quarterbacks Joe Montana, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, and what was the common denominator between them and Brady.
McCarthy specifically mentioned the two-minute drill.
“It’s almost something they live for,” he said. “That’s when they’re in their element. … The common denominator is (with) these guys, you’re always in it, as long as you’ve got time and downs.”
There have been plenty of examples of Prescott fitting into that category during his career. However, against one of the NFL’s elite defenses the last two years, he’s come up short when it has mattered most.
Dallas had the ball with three minutes remaining last month at San Francisco, trailing 19-12. The plan was to go on an 82-yard touchdown drive and then win the game with a two-point conversion. The Cowboys didn’t gain a single yard.
The first Prescott pass should have been intercepted by 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw and returned for a game-ending touchdown. But Greenlaw dropped the ball. Prescott then threw incomplete deep to Gallup. He was sacked on the next play.
When Dallas got the ball back with 45 seconds remaining, Prescott should have been sacked in the end zone on the first play. San Francisco defensive lineman Arik Armstead pulled up, thinking Prescott was throwing. He didn’t want to get called for roughing the passer. Dallas’ season was over five plays later.
https://theathletic.com/4145994/2023/02/01/dallas-cowboys-free-agency-tony-pollard-dalton-schultz/
In the Cowboys’ playoff loss the year before, this time at home against the 49ers, most remember the final play. The clock ran out as Dallas did a poor job of getting in position to spot the ball for a final snap. The officials also weren’t at their best on the play. But the drive before was more concerning. Trailing 23-17, the Cowboys had the ball on their own 16-yard line with 2:51 remaining and all three timeouts. San Francisco’s top two defenders, DE Nick Bosa and LB Fred Warner, were out of the game because of injuries.
Prescott connected with Schultz for a 38-yard gain on the second play of the drive. First-and-10 from the 49ers’ 46 with 2:29 remaining and all three timeouts. Next four plays: sack, incomplete pass, incomplete pass, incomplete pass.
Executing there is likely what will determine if the Cowboys are able to make a deep playoff run in the near future. With defensive coordinator Dan Quinn returning for a third season to lead a unit with standouts Parsons, CB Trevon Diggs and DE DeMarcus Lawrence, that side of the ball finally has the talent to shut down other top offenses.
But that wasn’t enough at San Francisco.
“If you tell me we come into this game and hold them under 20 points, take away the turnover points, we hold them under 15, you win the game,” Parsons said. “We contained Deebo (Samuel). We contained (Christian) McCaffrey, for the most part. But they made more plays.”
The difference was that Dallas didn’t make enough offensive plays.
“Defense wins championships, but the Super Bowl is won by the quarterback,” McCarthy has said several times.
The Cowboys have the defense. They now need better play from the quarterback.
Feb 8, 2023
The expectations changed on March 10, 2021. That’s when Dak Prescott sat on a stage near the entrance of the team’s headquarters in Frisco, Texas.
To his left was Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones. To his right, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones. The three were together to discuss with reporters Prescott’s recently signed four-year, $160 million contract.
“I feel great about our future,” Jerry Jones said at the time. “I don’t mind telling you the main reason I feel great is the guy sitting right next door to me right here.”
The deal did not come together quickly. More than a year of negotiations took place. Prescott eventually became the highest-paid player in franchise history. At the time of signing, he was the NFL’s second-highest-paid quarterback behind only Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes.
“My expectations in myself are higher than anybody’s out there,” Prescott said that day. “All this contract does is raise those expectations for everyone else. I think higher expectations create higher results. I’m all for it. I’m excited. It’s a privilege to have this pressure.”
https://theathletic.com/4158908/2023/02/06/dallas-cowboys-offense-analysis-dak-prescott/
The Cowboys have won 24 regular-season games since that press conference at The Star. The Chiefs, who are about to play in their third Super Bowl in the last four years, are the only team with more regular-season wins over the last two seasons.
But the lack of playoff success continues to be Dallas’ biggest issue. It led to the Cowboys recently parting ways with offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, despite Dallas having one of the NFL’s top offenses each of the last two seasons. Head coach Mike McCarthy will now take over play-calling duties. The Cowboys announced Saturday that Brian Schottenheimer will be their new offensive coordinator. He was a consultant on Dallas’ staff during the 2022 season. He has 22 years of NFL coaching experience, which includes being offensive coordinator for the New York Jets (2006-2011), St. Louis Rams (2012-2014) and Seattle Seahawks (2018-2020).
Something needed to change and it wasn’t going to be the franchise quarterback. Prescott has two years left on his current deal. Stephen Jones told reporters last week at the Senior Bowl that the Cowboys remain committed to Prescott long-term and are open to extending his contract, even mentioning Prescott being their quarterback for the next 10 years.
“Obviously Dak is the key guy on this football team, first and foremost,” Stephen Jones said. “Everything starts and stops with him. Dak’s going to be our guy over and over again just like Troy (Aikman) was, just like (Tony) Romo was, just like (Roger) Staubach was.”
Prescott turns 30 in July.
Over the last 10 seasons, only two quarterbacks have guided their teams to the Super Bowl for the first time at age 30 or older: Matthew Stafford and Matt Ryan.
In Prescott’s seven seasons in Dallas, the Cowboys have not advanced beyond the divisional round. It’s a burden that every Cowboys QB will carry until the team ends its drought of 27 seasons without a trip to the conference championship game.
The most disappointing aspect of the Cowboys’ 2022 season is that it was their best overall team of the past decade. They’ve had better offenses during that time, but they’ve been missing the complementary outstanding defense.
With that now in place, led by arguably the league’s best defensive player in Micah Parsons, there’s even more pressure on Prescott to elevate his own play. Parsons is on a path to becoming the NFL’s highest-paid defensive player. The Cowboys need to capitalize when he’s still on his rookie contract.
The turnovers were the biggest concern with Prescott this season — he threw a career-high 15 interceptions in only 12 games. More importantly, he threw two in Dallas’ season-ending 19-12 loss at San Francisco in the divisional round. Those turnovers stand out even more in a game when Prescott didn’t need to be great for the Cowboys to win.
“I’ve got to be better,” Prescott said in his postgame news conference, “there’s no other way to sugarcoat it. … Unacceptable. I can’t put the ball in jeopardy like that. The number it’s gotten to is ridiculous. I can promise the number will never be this again. I promise that.”
Dak Prescott threw two interceptions in the Cowboys’ season-ending loss at San Francisco. (Kyle Terada / USA Today)
Prescott took the blame for the loss, which is not a surprise. He’s an elite leader, both on and off the field. He rarely says the wrong thing, which is especially difficult when under the microscope that comes with being the Cowboys’ quarterback.
But does that mean he will eventually have championship success on the field?
Jerry Jones is adamant that Prescott remains one of the team’s greatest strengths. When speaking with reporters at the Senior Bowl last week, Jones said he’s still “very strong on Dak.”
“We have a unique person, a unique football player, a unique quarterback,” Jones said. “This whole thing reflects the upside that I feel in Dak. The fact that we’re doing this, Mike is calling the plays, this has everything to do with the positive that’s around Dak, it’s building around Dak.”
When asked what should get Cowboys’ fans excited about next season, Jones mentioned the 25 wins over the last two seasons (including playoffs) and the current roster. And then he added: “Dwell on the fact that you have Dak. I like that. Focus on Dak being better. He will be better at (reducing) turnovers.”
It would be surprising if the 80-year-old Jones was publicly questioning his franchise quarterback. While some argue for the Cowboys to look for a replacement at the position, the last thing Jones wants to do is go back to the early 2000s. Between Aikman and Romo, the QB position in Dallas was a combination of Quincy Carter, Anthony Wright, Ryan Leaf, Clint Stoerner, Chad Hutchinson, Vinny Testaverde, Drew Henson and Drew Bledsoe. Dallas averaged seven wins per season during that stretch between 2001 and 2005.
Legendary Cowboys wide receiver and current NFL Network analyst Michael Irvin recently explained why simply moving on from Prescott is a bad idea.
“We say that as if it’s going to the store and putting down some money and paying for some candy,” Irvin said on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas last month. “It doesn’t work that way. You don’t get rid of Dak and talk about, ‘Let’s just go look for another.’ There are teams out there that have been looking for quarterbacks for 25 years, 30 years. No, you don’t get rid of a quarterback and look for another one.
“Now, if you stumble on another one then you look at maybe getting rid of this one. But you don’t move that kind of way in the NFL and talk about having success. If people are saying that, shut the hell up. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re going to put us in a bigger hole than we’re already in. At least we’re in the fight right now. You’re going to have us out of the fight. Just shut up.”
But even the most diehard of Prescott supporters would have to acknowledge that his inconsistent play during the back half of the season is concerning.
His last three games were all over the place. In the season finale at Washington, Prescott had arguably the worst regular-season game of his career. He threw his worst interception of the season. One play after nearly getting picked off on a poor throw to Michael Gallup, Prescott came right back to the play, which was then intercepted by cornerback Kendall Fuller and returned for a 29-yard touchdown. Prescott finished the game 14-of-37 passing for 128 yards, one touchdown, one interception and a 45.8 passer rating. The Cowboys lost 26-6 to a Commanders team that was starting rookie QB Sam Howell for the first time.
Somehow Prescott responded with maybe his greatest game. In what ended up being the final game of Tom Brady’s career, Prescott was incredible, completing 25-of-33 passes for 305 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions and a 143.3 passer rating. He also ran for 24 yards and a touchdown in Dallas’ 31-14 wild-card win.
How was that the same player who was on the field against Washington the week before and the same player on the field at San Francisco the week after?
Jerry Jones believes McCarthy taking over offensive play calling will help get Prescott back on track. It should also be noted that current Denver Broncos QB Russell Wilson had some of the best seasons of his career when Schottenheimer was his offensive coordinator in Seattle. Wilson made the Pro Bowl all three seasons while averaging 3,923 passing yards, 35 touchdown passes, eight interceptions and a 107.2 passer rating per year.
“Dak can handle it,” Jones said. “A lot of times, the changes are not what you’re adding, but what you’re cutting back on. Doing some things that are different, I think that’s a plus for Dak. And if it’s a plus for Dak, it’s a plus for all of us.”
Jones mentioned in September during one of his weekly radio appearances on The Fan that the teams that pay the “big ticket” on the quarterback have to sacrifice in other areas. He was stating that since the Cowboys have one of the highest-paid quarterbacks, they wouldn’t be able to add as much talent in other areas. That was evident last March when they traded away Pro Bowl wide receiver Amari Cooper and his $20 million annual salary for basically a fifth-round pick that turned out to be offensive tackle Matt Waletzko.
The Cowboys thought they had their No. 1 wide receiver in CeeDee Lamb. They also thought that Gallup would recover well enough from his season-ending torn ACL to be a quality No. 2 and third-round pick Jalen Tolbert would be their No. 3.
They were right about Lamb. They were wrong on the other two. They also swung and missed in free agency on veteran WR James Washington. The front office was left trying to piece things together during the season by courting Odell Beckham Jr. and eventually signing T.Y. Hilton.
Dallas’ No. 2 receiver ended up being tight end Dalton Schultz. Noah Brown was the team’s third most-productive pass catcher, finishing with 555 yards and three touchdowns.
In the playoff loss to the 49ers, Prescott targeted Lamb and Schultz 23 times. No other wide receiver was targeted more than three times. Clearly, the weapons around Prescott need to improve, a difficult task considering Schultz is about to be an unrestricted free agent.
But Prescott also has to elevate his play.
McCarthy was asked last month about coaching legendary quarterbacks Joe Montana, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, and what was the common denominator between them and Brady.
McCarthy specifically mentioned the two-minute drill.
“It’s almost something they live for,” he said. “That’s when they’re in their element. … The common denominator is (with) these guys, you’re always in it, as long as you’ve got time and downs.”
There have been plenty of examples of Prescott fitting into that category during his career. However, against one of the NFL’s elite defenses the last two years, he’s come up short when it has mattered most.
Dallas had the ball with three minutes remaining last month at San Francisco, trailing 19-12. The plan was to go on an 82-yard touchdown drive and then win the game with a two-point conversion. The Cowboys didn’t gain a single yard.
The first Prescott pass should have been intercepted by 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw and returned for a game-ending touchdown. But Greenlaw dropped the ball. Prescott then threw incomplete deep to Gallup. He was sacked on the next play.
When Dallas got the ball back with 45 seconds remaining, Prescott should have been sacked in the end zone on the first play. San Francisco defensive lineman Arik Armstead pulled up, thinking Prescott was throwing. He didn’t want to get called for roughing the passer. Dallas’ season was over five plays later.
https://theathletic.com/4145994/2023/02/01/dallas-cowboys-free-agency-tony-pollard-dalton-schultz/
In the Cowboys’ playoff loss the year before, this time at home against the 49ers, most remember the final play. The clock ran out as Dallas did a poor job of getting in position to spot the ball for a final snap. The officials also weren’t at their best on the play. But the drive before was more concerning. Trailing 23-17, the Cowboys had the ball on their own 16-yard line with 2:51 remaining and all three timeouts. San Francisco’s top two defenders, DE Nick Bosa and LB Fred Warner, were out of the game because of injuries.
Prescott connected with Schultz for a 38-yard gain on the second play of the drive. First-and-10 from the 49ers’ 46 with 2:29 remaining and all three timeouts. Next four plays: sack, incomplete pass, incomplete pass, incomplete pass.
Executing there is likely what will determine if the Cowboys are able to make a deep playoff run in the near future. With defensive coordinator Dan Quinn returning for a third season to lead a unit with standouts Parsons, CB Trevon Diggs and DE DeMarcus Lawrence, that side of the ball finally has the talent to shut down other top offenses.
But that wasn’t enough at San Francisco.
“If you tell me we come into this game and hold them under 20 points, take away the turnover points, we hold them under 15, you win the game,” Parsons said. “We contained Deebo (Samuel). We contained (Christian) McCaffrey, for the most part. But they made more plays.”
The difference was that Dallas didn’t make enough offensive plays.
“Defense wins championships, but the Super Bowl is won by the quarterback,” McCarthy has said several times.
The Cowboys have the defense. They now need better play from the quarterback.
