I'm not going to talk about stats, because although Dak's season stats were huge, stats alone don't tell the story. For example, he was really somewhat below what his statistical ranking in yardage reflects. I want to consider championship capability - a much more difficult thing to rank than stats, but ultimately that's the goal.
As for championship level QB's, the proven guys are Brady, Brees, Rodgers and Wilson. And Brady had a down year and both he and Brees are in their 40's. Then there is Mahomes, who hasn't yet won, but has talent above possibly any other QB, and who most feel is capable of winning the Super Bowl. Obviously most Cowboy fans would take him over Dak.
That's a grand total of 5 guys that are considered championship level QB's, and it took 20 years worth of drafts to have those guys at this point in time. They don't grow on trees.
Then what? Watson? Wentz? Cousins? Garoppolo? Ryan? You could make an argument for those guys over Dak, but you could make an argument for Dak too. When it comes to it, Dak falls somewhere in that group, and reasonable people can disagree on exactly where.
Which, at the end of the day, is pretty good company in terms of the hierarchy of NFL QB's. It's not Wilson or Rodgers level, but neither is it Mayfield or Winston level, and nowhere near Dalton and Darnold level.
My conclusion is that while I agree Dak still has questions to answer, and the decision on what the Cowboys should be willing to pay is a tough one, I think fans are unreasonably thinking in terms of the team absolutely having to have a Brady/Brees/Rodgers/Wilson/Mahomes level QB, and that's not realistic. You shoot for it, but do you shoot yourself in the foot blindly hoping for it?
