Two Years Later, Dak Prescott Has Problems

[Smitty]

It's looking more and more like it. He had the perfect storm... A very strong Oline, A #1 WR that was still going pretty well. A reliable TE. A very strong running game. And a league that was expecting to see Romo under center, and was caught by surprise in what they should expect from him.

Once the league had some time to study his traits and the other parts began to falter..? Well, we're looking at it.

Yeah, and many of us saw this possibility coming suggested that maybe things would catch up with Prescott, and were told, no, no, it's not possible. Not saying it was you, but.... you know, you'd think we'd learn our lessons about being homers, but here we are again. Making fun of Jerry, but some here are no better.

 

[Smitty]

Only Griffin's effectiveness that year came from rushing him a lot, and that wasn't sustainable considering his body type. Dak has actually showed the ability to make passes, although not so much lately.

But he didn't really. Prescott was opportunistic in his passing, but he never demonstrated a real mastery of it. His best performance was really in the Green Bay playoff loss. That was the first, and really only, game where I can remember being impressed with how Prescott managed to sling the ball around. And he had to, because he was down big early. Even the Pittsburgh game, his career high in passing yards, was thanks to an 85 yard screen. Take that away and he's right back at his average of 230.

He and RG3's rookie numbers are actually relatively similar. Similar YPG, similar YPA, similar completion percentage, similar TD:INT ratio, pretty much very close.

 

[mcnuttz]

That's my quarterback!

 

[Simpleton]

Yeah, and many of us saw this possibility coming suggested that maybe things would catch up with Prescott, and were told, no, no, it's not possible. Not saying it was you, but.... you know, you'd think we'd learn our lessons about being homers, but here we are again. Making fun of Jerry, but some here are no better.

Nobody said it wasn't possible, my argument was that even aside from 2016 he was on pace for about 40 total TD's to like 10 INT's over the first half of 2017 before losing Elliott/Smith and the Atlanta debacle.

Arguing that he got way too much blame for the 2017 collapse, that he was playing at his near 2016 level over the first half of 2017, and that he deserved the benefit of the doubt isn't arguing that "it's not possible" that he fails.

And the comparison to RG3 also isn't really fair, Griffin's success was basically wholly due to the fact that his rookie year coincided with the peak of the read-option catching the league off-guard. Prescott's success in 2016 was based more on the surrounding cast, not just catching the league during a fad at the right time. The results might ultimately be similar but the underlying reasons are different.

As an aside, Griffin also had the benefit of far superior coaching/offensive philosophy under Mike/Kyle Shannahan, as opposed to the group of dullards Prescott has mentoring him. I don't know how impactful that was specifically but it's the truth.

 

[Angrymesscan]

No one can deny that the Dak we saw before the Atlanta game was totally different. He may not have had the gaudy passing stats, but he looked calm and poised. Moved the offense at a level not even Romo had, getting 400+yds in almost every game. After the Atlanta game he looks jumpy, like the game is moving to fast for him. I think he's just broken, his confidence is shot.

 

[Cotton]

No one can deny that the Dak we saw before the Atlanta game was totally different. He may not have had the gaudy passing stats, but he looked calm and poised. Moved the offense at a level not even Romo had, getting 400+yds in almost every game. After the Atlanta game he looks jumpy, like the game is moving to fast for him. I think he's just broken, his confidence is shot.

This is how I see Dak right now.

 

[Simpleton]

No one can deny that the Dak we saw before the Atlanta game was totally different. He may not have had the gaudy passing stats, but he looked calm and poised. Moved the offense at a level not even Romo had, getting 400+yds in almost every game. After the Atlanta game he looks jumpy, like the game is moving to fast for him. I think he's just broken, his confidence is shot.

Yea, what tells me he's broken is a play from that Carolina game where he escaped pressure by pushing up in the pocket and spilling out to his right. Beasley was open down the right sideline, maybe 25-30 yards downfield and Prescott either didn't see him or saw him and didn't pull the trigger.

The play was almost an exact carbon copy of the two bombs he dropped to Brice Butler in Arizona last year where he escaped the pocket to his right and found Butler deep down the right sideline for two huge plays that ultimately ended up winning the game.

That's a sign of a broken QB to me, and while I think part of his decline is just based on his own talent/ability and the league catching up, a huge part of it is also the negligence of the coaching staff and the offensive design. Chaz Green giving up 5 sacks, the inability to adjust within games, within seasons, between seasons, etc., that's mostly on the coaches.

 

[p1_]

They ruined him, and are now wasting Zekes talent as a result

 

[Cowboysrock55]

Yea, what tells me he's broken is a play from that Carolina game where he escaped pressure by pushing up in the pocket and spilling out to his right. Beasley was open down the right sideline, maybe 25-30 yards downfield and Prescott either didn't see him or saw him and didn't pull the trigger.

The play was almost an exact carbon copy of the two bombs he dropped to Brice Butler in Arizona last year where he escaped the pocket to his right and found Butler deep down the right sideline for two huge plays that ultimately ended up winning the game.

That's a sign of a broken QB to me, and while I think part of his decline is just based on his own talent/ability and the league catching up, a huge part of it is also the negligence of the coaching staff and the offensive design. Chaz Green giving up 5 sacks, the inability to adjust within games, within seasons, between seasons, etc., that's mostly on the coaches.

I definitely think the coaches have broken Dak. Maybe a real offensive coordinator and QB guru could help to fix that. But this staff is clueless. Sometimes you have to build a QB's confidence up and get him in a rhythm. We just have no clue how to do that and Dak looks so uncomfortable back there 90% of the time.

 

[Genghis Khan]

No one can deny that the Dak we saw before the Atlanta game was totally different. He may not have had the gaudy passing stats, but he looked calm and poised. Moved the offense at a level not even Romo had, getting 400+yds in almost every game. After the Atlanta game he looks jumpy, like the game is moving to fast for him. I think he's just broken, his confidence is shot.

I can deny that.

 

[Angrymesscan]

I can deny that.

Which part do you consider to be false?

 

[Genghis Khan]

Which part do you consider to be false?

"No one can deny that the Dak we saw before the Atlanta game was totally different. "

 

[Smitty]

The coaches breaking Dak is overblown. This is not a franchise QB that they've destroyed; he never was one. He had obvious limitations that Geng and I pointed out, ie, he cannot drive the ball downfield through the air with regularity. He couldn't do it as a rookie, he couldn't do it as a sophomore, and he can't do it now.

The coaches are doing Dak absolutely no favors and that's indictable, but this is a guy who was schemed around and well protected in 2016 and not vice-versa (ie, actually a credit to the staff). Since then, the book has come out about him and the staff can't figure out how to get him to excel at new things, and again, yes, that's bad on their part, but this isn't a guy who was great and has been miscoached into sucking. This is a guy who never was proficient passing the ball, and never was gonna be the long term solution, and the staff just can't figure out how to hide him anymore even though there are things that more creative staffs would do to mitigate SOME of the problems.

With the unimaginative staff, we've dropped to very poor production, but there's no coaching that would have turned this guy into Jared Goff. He's simply not that player.

A new staff might be able to come in here and turn Prescott into a poor man's Cam Newton, absolute best case scenario, and even that is most likely outside the top-10 QB boundary and you'll see that staff experience similar playoff yo-yo-ing like the Panthers do, because they don't have a steady elite QB. More likely, you'd get like Blake Bortles level effectiveness at best.

 

[Angrymesscan]

"No one can deny that the Dak we saw before the Atlanta game was totally different. "

You don't think he looked different?
How he stood in the pocket, his going through his progressions, looking downfield, calmly throwing to the open guy, etc.
We all agreed that he missed a lot of reads and left a lot of "meat on the bone", but he was calm and delivered mostly good throws.
Now he's flustered, rushing things, indecisive, just a complete mess back there.

 

[Genghis Khan]

You don't think he looked different?
How he stood in the pocket, his going through his progressions, looking downfield, calmly throwing to the open guy, etc.
We all agreed that he missed a lot of reads and left a lot of "meat on the bone", but he was calm and delivered mostly good throws.
Now he's flustered, rushing things, indecisive, just a complete mess back there.

He was pretty bad, and this is just off the top of my head, in the first NYG game, most of the Arizona game, and most especially the Denver game, all prior to Atlanta. And if you want to throw in his rookie season, games like the NYG games and Minnesota, at least.

That Atlanta game wasn't some demarcation where he made some precipitous decline. There were bread crumbs all along the trail if anyone cared to notice.

 

[Simpleton]

He was pretty bad, and this is just off the top of my head, in the first NYG game, most of the Arizona game, and most especially the Denver game, all prior to Atlanta. And if you want to throw in his rookie season, games like the NYG games and Minnesota, at least.

That Atlanta game wasn't some demarcation where he made some precipitous decline. There were bread crumbs all along the trail if anyone cared to notice.

All young QB's have terrible games along the way, you just listed 5 games out of 20+ for a 1st/2nd year player where over that span he put up something like 40+ total TD's to about 10 INT's. And even in that Arizona game he came up with awesome throws down the stretch that basically won the game.

Yes, he had struggles, but the Atlanta game is a clear landmark in time where you have a historically bad performance that the offense as a whole seemingly never recovered from. Just the week before the offense methodically rolled up nearly 400 yards and 28 points in a performance that was very reminiscent of 2016, and since then, nothing basically.

I'm not saying the Atlanta game in and of itself ruined him or the offense but it was clearly a landmark type of game.

 

[Genghis Khan]

Actually I named six and there were probably more, I was just going off the top of my head.

A lot of things propped him up but when those were peeled away he has really struggled.

Yes, a lot of young QBs struggle but when those struggles persist you just are who you are.

 

[p1_]

Atlanta totally was a turning point game for Dak. He has not been anywhere near the same since.

 

[boozeman]

Atlanta totally was a turning point game for Dak. He has not been anywhere near the same since.

That game and since told teams that it is okay to pressure him because he can't handle it.

 

[Sheik]

Just for the simple fact that the games are incredibly boring, and Dak is clearly not going to be the starter here for the next 8 years, I say fuck it. Start the talks to bring Romo back, see if the time off has done him any good.

If he can still move a little in the pocket, he could at least keep the team somewhat competitive until they can draft a replacement.

I’m on that bandwagon. If there is one.