His running is what is special, so special that we really haven't seen anything like it ever aside from Vick. He had 38% as many rushing yards as passing, he ran for over 1200 yards and averaged nearly 7 YPC. He was 6th in the league in rushing yards, 23rd in attempts. That's absolutely ridiculous, both good and bad.
You want to put him in the elite QB category for that? Be my guest but I can guarantee you it will be short-lived.
As far as I can tell a QB has never ran the ball that many times in a season, do you think he can keep that up?
His passing numbers are impressive because they're extremely efficient, which is purely a function of how amazingly dynamic their running game was, largely due to him, coupled with how creative their offensive design in general was to give him easy throws/reads with defenses focused on the run. Not because he's some boffo passer who just carves up secondaries with 3 and 5-step drops like it's second nature while running for 100 yards a game.
But the real telling statistic that really exemplifies how heavily their passing game was built on the running game is his pass attempts.
401.
Even in Dak's rookie year he still threw the ball 459 times a game, which is significantly more if you look at average attempts per game.
Jackson's attempts per game, 26.73, ranked 40th in the league. The only legitimate starting QB last year with less attempts per game was Tannehill, who clearly was running a training wheels offense as they fed Henry 35 times a game.
The truly elite passing QB's, the ones who carry their offenses with their arm that you lust over when bitching about Dak, generally average around 35 attempts per game.
You know who is down in that range averaging around 27 attempts per game?
Josh Allen, Mason Rudolph, Jacoby Brissett, Case Keenum and a host of other career backup types. QB's like Tannehill, Garoppolo and Cousins are the only somewhat capable passers in that range, although they're obviously in purposefully run-heavy oriented offenses because their teams want to win with defense, the running game and QB's limiting mistakes. Game managers and bus drivers, or as you put it guys who aren't going to win in the playoffs.
Unless Jackson improves significantly as a passer his success last year will be a complete aberration, a fluke that will only last for as long as he can continue to put up historically rare rushing performances and continue to stay healthy while finishing top 10 in the league in rushing.
Long story short, you're lusting over a guy who wins with his legs first and second, and his arm third, and given how he's fallen flat on his face twice in a row in the playoffs it's astounding to me that you're so quick to put him on a pedestal with the literal best QB's in the league while throwing Dak under the bus for the exact same reason.
