An Honest Question About Dak

[Kolemmitt]

A few more things to keep in mind about Dak:

His QB coach was his backup for two years.

His OC is unimaginative and criminally and chronically ignores his best assets.

We had almost a complete overhaul of our WR corp in one year. Look at the receivers Dak had at the beginning of the year. They were the worst in the league. But, amazingly, we add Cooper and Gallup gets accustomed to the league and suddenly he starts playing a high level - weird huh?

But for some reason, people go to great lengths, mental gymnastics, to belittle our young QB. I will never know why.

 

[Philmonroe]

You haven’t been here long enough to know that there is a certain group of posters who do NOTHING but complain about EVERYTHING. They couldn’t care less how Dak’s improved because someone like Cowturd says he was inaccurate. And when they are proved they were wrong they aren’t man enough to admit it. They will always ***** because they know they will get responses. Then their minions, who have the mental capacity of a slug, pile on so they get likes from the instigators. It’s quite sad actually.

You're doing the thing though just from an opposing viewpoint. You're no better and that's the funnies stuff about this Dak civil war. People on both sides swear they have some sort of high ground lol

 

[OmerV]

Dak was pretty bad at the beginning of the season, and he had his worst statistical year. Those factors tend to stick with people and distort what they see when he misses wide open guys or lobs passes into the end zone because he is worried about missing him and it ends up getting an INT instead of a TD.

He played much better after we got Cooper, and I thought I saw him finally throw defenses out of stacking the middle of the field to stop Zeke. We may have left some points on the table against the Rams, but I'm personally not a believer in the notion that the QB has to play literally perfect football to make up for deficiencies in other players. Defense gave up 270 yards rushing -- that should be the end of the story.

Dak actually did not have his worst statistical year. He had more yards, more yardage per attempt and per completion, a higher completion %, fewer INT's and the same number of TDs as in 2017.

 

[Philmonroe]

A few more things to keep in mind about Dak:

His QB coach was his backup for two years.

His OC is unimaginative and criminally and chronically ignores his best assets.

We had almost a complete overhaul of our WR corp in one year. Look at the receivers Dak had at the beginning of the year. They were the worst in the league. But, amazingly, we add Cooper and Gallup gets accustomed to the league and suddenly he starts playing a high level - weird huh?

But for some reason, people go to great lengths, mental gymnastics, to belittle our young QB. I will never know why.

You sound crazy saying a guy that's been in the league for 3 years is young how long we going to run with that one? Also let's be real until Dak when the flip have people mentioned the qb coach of all people for why the qb isn't better? Come on now. Some of y'all too emo for yalls avg Qb.

 

[pansophy]

No argument here on the start of the yr, that had just lost his #1, his HOF TE and the best C in the nfl. And didnt have no proven replacements. Oh yeah and a guy coaching the Ol that wanted to take his monster blocking and turn them into a zone blocking unit. And ill correct you in saying he had better stats then his rookie yr this yr. 2017 was his worst.

He misses open guys deep, but i dont know if you noticed, on most of them drives he misses, he still takes the team down for a score anyways.

And ur right, no QB plays a perfect game, and too many people get caught up in stats. When the one that cant be walked around is he just wins games.In close games, and in these close games Dallas isnt giving the ball to Elliot. They keep it with Dak.

Look I mean the front office obviously plans to keep him, so all of our arguing about it is irrelevant. Dak misses basic throws and as long as he does that he is going to have detractors because we don't have an offense that can make up for negative plays. The screen pass is too often our go to play on 3rd and 10+.

But Dak has a lot of positives and he has shown since his rookie year that he plays his best football under the most pressure. That's rare and fantastic. So we just have to hope he keeps developing.

 

[Rockport]

There is no conspiracy against Dak. Smart people with no allegiances or ill will towards the Cowboys look at his film and judge him fairly. He lacks elite arm talent, he too often doesn’t make the optimal read, and he lacks pocket awareness. He has positives too. And when you judge him on his production then extrapolate all of that out it looks like to those who get paid to analyze this stuff that he’s never going to be elite. Does that mean he can’t overcome the odds? No. And I sincerely hope he does. But odds are we will look back at Dak’s career and judge him as “serviceable” and not much more than that. So the question becomes is serviceable really what you want at the most important position in the league? You don’t have much of a choice for now. But it should be factored in when it comes time to make an investment in Dak.

32-17 is only serviceable? Holy moly.

 

[HungryLion]

You sound crazy saying a guy that's been in the league for 3 years is young how long we going to run with that one? Also let's be real until Dak when the flip have people mentioned the qb coach of all people for why the qb isn't better? Come on now. Some of y'all too emo for yalls avg Qb.

3 years is still pretty young for the QB position. Actually, there are a lot of QB’s historically who continue to improve their game past 3 years in the league.

 

[Future]

Dak was 415 yards short of this for the year. If he had a legit #1 WR for those 1st 7 games, je would have been way over that.

So? If my aunt had balls...

 

[jazzcat22]

It’s as simple as the eye ball test. My eyes tell me he’s not a top 12 qb in the nfl when it comes to throwing the football. Therefore my common sense tells me that in order to win a Super Bowl we need to build an incredible overall team along with getting lucky

I’m not saying Dak is far below the top 12 and I’m not saying it’s easy to find a franchise QB, but id prefer to go looking than to sign Dak to a big contract and settle for mediocrity.

Eyeball test. Maybe you need glasses.
Sorry, but I just find it funny when fans use this as a reason either good, bad or indifferent.
As there is a lot more going on during the play.

However, I prefer they give him another year before extending his contract.
They need to extend Zeke first.

 

[jazzcat22]

So? If my aunt had balls...

I don’t care about your aunts anatomy.

 

[Cowboy4ever]

I like how people use stats to prop up Dak, but then turn around and say the coaching sucks.. if the coaching sucked, how do you explain Dak's numbers?

But my main compliant about Dak is that he is very inconsistent. He looks like a HOF one play and a turd the next, when he uses proper mechanics and throws on time, he is good to real good, when he doesn't he is horrid. We have seen stretches this year, especially in the first half of the season where he was just awful - he would hold the ball to long, even when he had people open, he would take sacks that he didn't need to, he fumbled a lot. He would feel pressure when there wasn't any and would in turn, run into a sack, he failed to slide up or around in the pocket to find throwing lanes. It was almost as if, his rookie year didn't happen and last year was his first year starting, you shouldn't see these types of things in a 3rd year QB, or at least not to the extent we saw them with Dak. Now he was much better at those things late in the year for the most part, they were minimized, which is a relief to see. Since he is going to be the QB here for a long time it appears, I hope he is growing and getting better at those things and is able to build on them going into next year. I don't know if he will good enough to take this team to the next level. I do not think he has the talent to make others around him better, he needs people around him to make him better. Regardless, he is our QB and we will go as far has he can take us. Win or lose, it will be a fun ride, that's for sure.

 

[ClintDagger]

Game film? Lets not kid ourselves, we dont watch "film" we watch the same game we saw on tv only recorded it on our dvr. dont make it out like u know what ur looking at. None of us do. We dont know the progressions the play calls for. We dont know the instructions from the coach on that spacific play. All we have is a madden view of the game bein broadcasted.

What is the optimal read? You say he lacks pocket awareness? How did he win the game vs the Giants? Alot of you need to stop with the thinking that you know how to play QB. I like what Jimmy Johnson had to say about Dak on the pregame before the Rams game. He said Dak has been playing the best football of his career. He said his ceiling hasnt been reached and loved how his "pocket awareness has improved so much" Terry Bradshaw echoed the same thing.After the game Rod Woodson said he was very impressed how Dak was able to keep bringing the Cowboys back in the game vs the Rams. And also said he was playing as good as any QB in the playoffs.

I’m not talking about what posters on a message board think. I’m talking about analysts. The consensus on Dak is exactly what I wrote. No one says he’s terrible, but he’s seen as being outside of the top 15 and likely outside of the top 20 (although barely).

 

[Dre11]

You can't compare Dak's numbers to anyone who came into the league earlier than him. Rule changes have made it easier than ever to throw the ball and so really Dak should have better numbers than them. You could look at those guys by rankings when they came into the league which would control for those differences.

Rules didn't change that much since Ben, the hitting a defenseless wr is about the only change, 5 yards illegal contact has always been a rule.

 

[ClintDagger]

32-17 is only serviceable? Holy moly.

It’s a team game and this team is not built around the QB. Not just anyone could go 32-17, but there are probably 20 or so QBs in the league that could (and some could do better) with the supporting cast that’s been here throughout that time.

 

[LatinMind]

I’m not talking about what posters on a message board think. I’m talking about analysts. The consensus on Dak is exactly what I wrote. No one says he’s terrible, but he’s seen as being outside of the top 15 and likely outside of the top 20 (although barely).

Just this past week i seen Jimmy Johnson, Terry Bradshaw, rod Woodson and Eric Dickerson praise him. Even after the loss

 

[TexasHillbilly]

Well, you're right about one thing. The Dallas Cowboys are under the microscope more than any other team. Everything is magnified.

As for Dak, he still needs to improve in some facets. His arm talent is fairly average. But I'm rooting for him. At some point he will either completely break through or he will bust out. Looking forward to seeing which one it is.

I would like to trade him to NE to see if he is any better under Billycheck. Then I can blame it on the coaching. lol

 

[Cowboyz88]

Confirmation Bias is always at work when discussing Dak.

NO ONE will change their position.

 

[Dre11]

Nobody really says this.

And the problems always arise when people do stuff like compare him to quarterbacks who are a) far better right now and b) played their first 3 seasons years ago. 4,300 yards in today's NFL is NOTHING.

big passing numbers were big every since Warner and t

I have said from the get go on what i think alot of the hate for Dak comes from. And i really think it has nothing to do with football. But ill leave it at that and i ope nobody goes into a debate about it because we will get benched lol. Ill discuss my view on this with anybody who wants in pm.

I just think alot of people think you have to be drafted high to be acceptable or you ave to be the QB they wanted. Everybody wanted Wentz or Goff. Wentz is a guy who is outplayed by his backup. And Goff is strctly a system QB. Which everybody with any football knowledge said during the draft process. Hell you saw it this past saturday. When Goff was forced to go thru read progressions he was horrible. Dallas went zone and all of the sudden Goff had the inside routes open. The Rams system had two types of plays. A run up the gut if Dallas shifted to the bunched Wr side. Or a in route if Dallas stayed in its base. Of ourse you have to have the players to make the plays. And they did. Dallas was just off balance with the presnap movement and misdirections on the snap.

Why do you think Philly and LA get the LOS so fast? Because the coach can speak to him until there are 15 seconds left on the play clock. The coach is walking him thru the defenses set. Moreso with Rams. Philly slowed down once Foles was in and i think thats why they have more success because Foles can read a defense better than Wentz. Dak has had to learn the pro system. He's had to make the adjustments because of type of offense the Boys run.

We saw Wentz and Goff in when they didnt have a coaching holding their hand presnap and it was really bad.

This is exactly right.

 

[SoupcanSam]

I would like to ask the forum why we as an NFL treat Dak so different from any other young QB. The easy answer is he’s the Cowboys QB, but let’s dive in a little more.

Dak just finished up year 3. His biggest criticisms are:

-Inconsistent with decision making and accuracy.
-Issues with pocket awareness.
-“Game Manager”

Here are his first 3 years:

Dak Prescott- 975 completions on 1,475 attempts for a 66% completion percentage and about 3,625 passing yards a season. He’s averaged 23 TD passes and 8 interceptions. His YPA for his career is 7.4

Let’s look at 3 other quarterbacks in their first 3 years

Russell Wilson - 794 completions on 1,252 attempts for a 63.33 completion percentage for about 3,316 passing yards a season. Over those years he averaged 24 TD passes and about 8 interceptions. His YPA in those 3 years was 7.8

Big Ben - 644 completions on 1,032 attempts for a 62 % completion percentage and about 2,840 yards passing a season. He averaged about 17 TD passes and 14 interceptions. His YPA those years was 8.4

Tom Brady - 954 completions on 1,541 attempts for a 62% completion rate and about 3,409 yards passing a season. He averaged about 23 TD passes and 13 interceptions. His YPA was 6.7

Dak arguably has performed the best statistically of all these teams with worse coaching and worse players (remember these are all Super Bowl teams within those first 3 years of those guys careers).

I hear so much talk on this forum about how much better Romo was and they back it up with stats and highlights from when Romo already had years of experience and reps.

Dak is only in year 3. While the other QB’s mentioned above were given some of the same criticisms, they also were given time to grow.

-R. Wilson was a game manager who routinely sailed fastballs over WR’s heads.
-It took Tom Brady 5 years to shake off his rep as a game manager with an all time great HC.
-Big Ben barely got to throw the ball this first few years.

Why do most other QB’s get a chance to improve while Dak is supposed to be at peak potential right away?

Is it because Dak’s lows are aesthetically unpleasant while his highs don’t look that sexy either? Is it the color of his skin? Is it the 2016 season that spoiled us all?

Dak has obviously made strides in improvement this season once he got a semblance of a WR/TE group.
Why do most fans shut the door on any more improvement from him? Why do we give Jared Goff a pass for bad QB coaching but Dak doesn’t? Help me understand why we as a fanbase refuse to give Dak the same leash as everyone else. All these QB’s were limited in their first few years, let’s let the growth process complete before we make a definitive judgment.

Imo Dak is not a QB. He is just a TE with a below average college arm.

 

[Diehardblues]

We had a top 10 offense with same HC and OC but different QB.

It is what it is. Worship a 22nd ranked QB all you want. But I’m worshipping more QB’s like the ones playing Sunday.