A perspective on Dak

[Pass2Run]

You ever thought, maybe he has to be a check down QB otherwise he gets sacked? Did you realize he’s been sacked more than any other QB?

To his credit, his LT has been out for bit and he's had a back up center all year.

And no Jason Witten, which was kind of a surprise.

That'll get shored up next year. But he's been playing well in spite of half of his best blockers being injured or retired.

Some of you guys are so unrealistic and uber idealistic.

This team is going to play for Dak.

 

[JoeKing]

Remember, Tony Romo was also the third option behind much lessor quarterbacks early on.

Drew Henson comes to mind.

That guy really stunk up the whole joint. So it's not uncommon to rise through the ranks in D-Town, if you have what it takes and the guys above you get banged up or don't live up to their hype.

You are talking about a different regime so it's not applicable here. The decision makers we have now are also the same ones that dealt with the QB health issues when Dak rose from 3rd string to starter. Do you not see the relevance there?

 

[NumOneQB]

outside of one long pass to zeke, the rest are dump off and screen passes. Dak doesn't go down field much and is not very good at it. 14 attempts of 20+ yards...that's it.....and 2 completions.....

You watch the Eagles last game? That’s all Wentz threw were screen passes.

 

[wssaustin]

Nice comparing with few bad teams, always win!

Skins had to sign Josh Johnson as their bad up QB. I know Dak isn't perfect and has aspects of the game he needs to work on. But, the Skins QB situation, proves of difficult it can be for some teams to fill in the QB position, if they don't already had a capable starting QB or lose their capable starting QB.

Dak may not be elite, or a top then QB. But, the Cowboys are still in a better spot concerning the QB position than a lot of teams are.

 

[Dorsett33]

When you look at the top 10 offenses in this league, none have run / pass type QBs. They are all guys that stand in the pocket and throw. You have to get to #11 and Carolina before you get to one that has a rep for being a runner. Yeah if you could combine Brady’s skill set with Cam Newton’s that would be a nightmare. But, it seems like no one (at least yet) has been able to be an elite pocket passer AND an elite runner. And if they were, the fear of injury would probably keep them in the pocket anyways. Look at Dak, he’s a bottom third of the league QB and he’s still so valuable that the coaches are scared to run him much.

All that to say, in today’s league and the kinds of talent that is out there you are better off with an elite thrower than you are with a guy who struggles to throw but can make plays with his legs.

But who is saying that the Cowboys are scared to run him? Cam can run and pass. But a top 10,offense doesn't equate to a Superbowl. And I don't think Dak has to be an elite runner. But, the threat that he can do both makes DCs have to plan for both.

 

[ItzKelz]

not sure where you are going with this argument....you said.....Dak, 24 of 28...we should all stand up and cheer....clap clap clap...yet 13 points...

now you are shifting to Zeke and he had under 100...so Das carried the offense? we still had 13 points....

and if you want to go that route....Zeke played against a top 5 rush defense....Dak played against the 30th ranked pass defense.... so who regressed?

and Zeke still had over a 100 yards total and the only TD of the game....so he helped Dak, catching those dump off screen passes (aka long hand offs) to pat Dak's stats.....

No I said Dak was improving and pointed towards 8-8 to Cooper, 8-9 to Gallup and 24-28 in that particular game. You said 13 points in that one game meant we could not score points and you blamed that totally on Dak ignoring the fact that we average 26 points the previous 3 games. So ignore what Zeke did the previous 3 games......

 

[Pola_pe_a]

From an outside observers view here’s what I see in Dak:

Pro’s
-adequate arm strength to make all the throws. Not elite but adequate
-athleticism- he’s a very good runner. He won’t make a ton of guys miss but he will run some guys over. His 10 yd run for a first against the Saints where he trucked a couple guys was very impressive
-character- he’s not a guy that’s going to embarrass the organization. He seems pretty even keeled which is a good thing IMO. QB’s like Cam that wear their emotion their sleeves drive me nuts and I think it leads to up and down teams.

Con’s
-Sees the rush way too much. He takes his eyes off his WR’s anytime he feels pressure
-He doesn’t move in the pocket all that well. He either makes his throw on time or he takes off. He doesn’t slide around in the pocket to create more time to throw, he just takes off.
-Anticipation- he doesn’t throw with a ton of anticipation. To me this may be his biggest flaw. He waits until guys are open to make a throw. You can get away with that if you have an elite arm. He doesn’t have an elite arm
-Fundamentals- his fundamentals need to be solid for Dak to be a real accurate QB. From what I’ve seen he’s not great at throwing from different platforms. If he loses his footwork he loses his accuracy.

Overall- Dak strikes me as a middle of the pack or slightly better starter. You may not win because of him but he also won’t lose games for you. You could certainly do a lot worse. I do think Dallas runs one of the most vanilla O’s ever. Very little pre-snap motion aside from std WR motion to determine man or zone. I also dont understand why Dallas rarely puts Zeke out wide. He’s a matchup nightmare but he’s not used that way.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

No I said Dak was improving and pointed towards 8-8 to Cooper, 8-9 to Gallup and 24-28 in that particular game. You said 13 points in that one game meant we could not score points and you blamed that totally on Dak ignoring the fact that we average 26 points the previous 3 games. So ignore what Zeke did the previous 3 games......

so on the one hand, you give me an example of one game and how Dak did. On the other hand you want to dismiss that same game you are quoting and focus on previous three games...

and even in that one game....outside of safe throws he made, we had 250 yards passing....against the 30th ranked pass defense..... who were giving up 290 a game..... so now we have to hang our hat on 24 of 28 because not improvements in other areas, like passing yards, TD, fumbles....

and Zeke had a good game...against top 5 rush defense and eke had 130+ yards in the game....

is Dak improving? yes. is he making the same mistakes? yes. does he need to improve more? yes. this is his 3rd year and we are talking about the same flaws he showed his first year.....how many more years do you want to give him?

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

You watch the Eagles last game? That’s all Wentz threw were screen passes.

went in 2 less games has more passing yards than Dak.....

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

When you look at the top 10 offenses in this league, none have run / pass type QBs. They are all guys that stand in the pocket and throw. You have to get to #11 and Carolina before you get to one that has a rep for being a runner. Yeah if you could combine Brady’s skill set with Cam Newton’s that would be a nightmare. But, it seems like no one (at least yet) has been able to be an elite pocket passer AND an elite runner. And if they were, the fear of injury would probably keep them in the pocket anyways. Look at Dak, he’s a bottom third of the league QB and he’s still so valuable that the coaches are scared to run him much.

All that to say, in today’s league and the kinds of talent that is out there you are better off with an elite thrower than you are with a guy who struggles to throw but can make plays with his legs.

with that day lover crowd, when all else fails...they always go to Romo..... don't forget

 

[ItzKelz]

so on the one hand, you give me an example of one game and how Dak did. On the other hand you want to dismiss that same game you are quoting and focus on previous three games...

and even in that one game....outside of safe throws he made, we had 250 yards passing....against the 30th ranked pass defense..... who were giving up 290 a game..... so now we have to hang our hat on 24 of 28 because not improvements in other areas, like passing yards, TD, fumbles....

and Zeke had a good game...against top 5 rush defense and eke had 130+ yards in the game....

is Dak improving? yes. is he making the same mistakes? yes. does he need to improve more? yes. this is his 3rd year and we are talking about the same flaws he showed his first year.....how many more years do you want to give him?

Bottomline the last 4 games Dak has improved since we have added Cooper and the numbers show that and his improvement is only going to continue to trend up as he gains chemistry with Cooper and Gallup specifically.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

Bottomline the last 4 games Dak has improved since we have added Cooper and the numbers show that and his improvement is only going to continue to trend up as he gains chemistry with Cooper and Gallup specifically.

yes, he has improved. how much more will he improve is the questions...will he be elite passer? top 10? given the new talented players he has on the roster. ......and its expected for him to improve when you add a two time prowler...if he didn't show improvement over the past 4 games, I would want him cut asap.

 

[ItzKelz]

yes, he has improved. how much more will he improve is the questions...will he be elite passer? top 10? given the new talented players he has on the roster. ......and its expected for him to improve when you add a two time prowler...if he didn't show improvement over the past 4 games, I would want him cut asap.

Cooper is a results of the failings of JJ and SJ not to add a #1 WR on the roster prior to the season starting. Dak in a sense was set up to fail. JJ made the call to give up that #1 for Cooper to correct his mistake. Dak and the team have benefited from it and hopefully we continue benefiting on those She-agles!

 

[john van brocklin]

When you look at the top 10 offenses in this league, none have run / pass type QBs. They are all guys that stand in the pocket and throw. You have to get to #11 and Carolina before you get to one that has a rep for being a runner. Yeah if you could combine Brady’s skill set with Cam Newton’s that would be a nightmare. But, it seems like no one (at least yet) has been able to be an elite pocket passer AND an elite runner. And if they were, the fear of injury would probably keep them in the pocket anyways. Look at Dak, he’s a bottom third of the league QB and he’s still so valuable that the coaches are scared to run him much.

All that to say, in today’s league and the kinds of talent that is out there you are better off with an elite thrower than you are with a guy who struggles to throw but can make plays with his legs.

Good points,
If Dak did not have his running skills we would really be in trouble

 

[Captain43Crash]

To his credit, his LT has been out for bit and he's had a back up center all year.

And no Jason Witten, which was kind of a surprise.

That'll get shored up next year. But he's been playing well in spite of half of his best blockers being injured or retired.

Some of you guys are so unrealistic and uber idealistic.

This team is going to play for Dak.

Also his RT has been below average at pass blocking this year and his LG is a backup who also struggles with pass blocking. Dak’s doing well considering the pass blocking and predictable play calls.

 

[Captain43Crash]

went in 2 less games has more passing yards than Dak.....

Wentz’s O line is a real top 5 passing blocking O line. Ours has struggled to pass block all year. Hopefully, they finally get their act together and pass block for Dak.

 

[Captain43Crash]

From an outside observers view here’s what I see in Dak:

Pro’s
-adequate arm strength to make all the throws. Not elite but adequate
-athleticism- he’s a very good runner. He won’t make a ton of guys miss but he will run some guys over. His 10 yd run for a first against the Saints where he trucked a couple guys was very impressive
-character- he’s not a guy that’s going to embarrass the organization. He seems pretty even keeled which is a good thing IMO. QB’s like Cam that wear their emotion their sleeves drive me nuts and I think it leads to up and down teams.

Con’s
-Sees the rush way too much. He takes his eyes off his WR’s anytime he feels pressure
-He doesn’t move in the pocket all that well. He either makes his throw on time or he takes off. He doesn’t slide around in the pocket to create more time to throw, he just takes off.
-Anticipation- he doesn’t throw with a ton of anticipation. To me this may be his biggest flaw. He waits until guys are open to make a throw. You can get away with that if you have an elite arm. He doesn’t have an elite arm
-Fundamentals- his fundamentals need to be solid for Dak to be a real accurate QB. From what I’ve seen he’s not great at throwing from different platforms. If he loses his footwork he loses his accuracy.

Overall- Dak strikes me as a middle of the pack or slightly better starter. You may not win because of him but he also won’t lose games for you. You could certainly do a lot worse. I do think Dallas runs one of the most vanilla O’s ever. Very little pre-snap motion aside from std WR motion to determine man or zone. I also dont understand why Dallas rarely puts Zeke out wide. He’s a matchup nightmare but he’s not used that way.

That’s a fair thought out analysis. I have always been a huge Dak fan, but I am also seeing his limitations. Hopefully he can get better at moving around in the pocket to give himself more time to throw. Agree, he needs to anticipate the receivers cut and throw the ball sooner at times. Also, needs to improve his down field accuracy. He does have a lot of qualities to win in this league.

Seems like many fans on this site do not understand how bad this O line has been at pass blocking this year. Also, many fans don’t understand when you are predictable in your play calls it is much harder to make plays/pass block.

 

[Captain43Crash]

Only because Michael Thomas had a bad game against us.

We made him have a bad game!

 

[Captain43Crash]

and yeah the skins wish they had our offensive line too, but ours isn't good enough for Dak. smh

The Skins wish they had Alabama’s O line.
Regarding our O line: In my opinion besides Offensive coaching( predictable play calls and basic passing scheme) the biggest weakness on our team is the O lines pass blocking.

 

[kskboys]

Saying a RBs receptions automatically make you a check down QB is probably too strong, but Dak is a check down QB. The film proves that out so the stats can be thrown out. He regularly forgoes opportunities downfield in favor of dumping it to Zeke. But that may be what he’s coached to do.

All QB's are checkdown QB's.

No QB in the history of the NFL has made a great career out of throwing to covered WR's. I don't know how this crapp rumor got started, but it's getting a little ridiculous. You know what checking down means? It means going through your progressions. If no one is open, you go to the outlets, the TE's and RB's and such.