Dak's Career in Perspective

[DallasInDC]

There has been a constant refrain by some on here and in the media that Dak is a below average QB. Some are starting to acknowledge that Dak is much better than that based on this year's performance, and some are still refusing to acknowledge that he is a top QB in the League (as evidenced by this exchange in the Dak is a good guy Thread):

And one day you will see he has evolved into a really good QB.

Jury is still out on this. Let's see how the post season plays out.

I decided to look at how Dak over his career compared to his peers in the same time frame. I included all QBs that have played in at least 48 games (3 season minimum) from 2016 - 2023 (37 QBs included).

I used the following stats and ranked them from 1-37 and accumulated the rankings to see who had the highest rankings (lowest score):

Yds/GM | Comp % | Yds/Att | TD/Att | Int/Att | TD:INT Ratio | QB Rating | Winning % (used this for those who want to give the QB credit /blame for game wins/losses)

Across the 8 categories Dak's average ranking is 8. His highest ranking is 7th for QB rating, and his lowest ranking is 12th for Yds/GM. Dak ranks 6th overall when totaling the ranking for all 8 categories. No matter how you slice it, you cannot maintain this level of performance over 113 games compared to the entire league without being a top tier performing QB. This completely dispels the theory that Dak can't read defenses, is inaccurate, has low football IQ, can't make all of throws, etc. This shows there is a level of consistency in Daks play over the course of his career that is better than 85% of the QB during his career. The narrative that this Dak accumulates garbage stats and only plays well against the dredges of the league doesn't hold up as either when comparing across 8 seasons and having the 10th highest winning percentage.

Ranking for each of the categories:

Stats

 

[Xeven]

Dak is good and even great at fundamental QB play, he is just not that QB that can on his own, make the difference in close games. Mahomes, Jackson, Hurts are that guy due to their mobility when they are healthy. Dak just sits in the pocket to much and losses a ton of yards getting sacked back there. He has become a bit more mobile like his 2016 year with Moore departure but he still needs to step it up and get out of the pocket faster. He just not that great under pressure. His attempt to spin out of sacks always fail, he should just run rather than spin around.

 

[blueblood70]

Dak is good and even great at fundamental QB play, he is just not that QB that can on his own, make the difference in close games. Mahomes, Jackson, Hurts are that guy due to their mobility when they are healthy. Dak just sits in the pocket to much and losses a ton of yards getting sacked back there. He has become a bit more mobile like his 2016 year with Moore departure but he still needs to step it up and get out of the pocket faster. He just not that great under pressure. His attempt to spin out of sacks always fail, he should just run rather than spin around.

You almost had me,

I would have agreed with you the fact that you put jalen hurts in there literally the one dude on that list that needs more help than Prescott, if this year doesn't clear that up his first two years doesn't clear that up , the same things that was being said about Justin fields his first two years in this league was being said about jalen hurts until they did what? went out and got just about everybody they could to make the team better around him, best offensive line in football, I guarantee you if you put Prescott in that offense with that offensive line he's even better than Hurts. We don't have that here this year we almost have no run game the offensive line is shaky the defense has been shaky and yet here we are going on the third straight year of 12 wins..

I'm sorry dude jalen hurts is overrated... He's good but would I take Prescott over him, no I wouldn't... you know why because you're not getting a better player they're both probably give you about the same, there are really no quarterbacks that do it on their own outside of mahomes but that's even been proved wrong this year.. I mean why is Mahomes not playing better without his talent they've stripped his talent more and more every year and yes Patrick Mahomes to me is the best quarterback in the league still,

however, that pretty much holds true for all quarterbacks, not many quarterbacks can win without help that's why it's always been one of the more ridiculous narratives ever to say well Prescott not that good cause he needs help no they all need help.....

 

[Nav22]

Dak is good and even great at fundamental QB play, he is just not that QB that can on his own, make the difference in close games. Mahomes, Jackson, Hurts are that guy due to their mobility when they are healthy. Dak just sits in the pocket to much and losses a ton of yards getting sacked back there. He has become a bit more mobile like his 2016 year with Moore departure but he still needs to step it up and get out of the pocket faster. He just not that great under pressure. His attempt to spin out of sacks always fail, he should just run rather than spin around.

"Can't make a difference in close games"

What a silly cliche.

He didn't make a difference in the Lions game when he went 5-5 on the go-ahead TD drive?

 

[Kingofholland]

Dak is good and even great at fundamental QB play, he is just not that QB that can on his own, make the difference in close games. Mahomes, Jackson, Hurts are that guy due to their mobility when they are healthy. Dak just sits in the pocket to much and losses a ton of yards getting sacked back there. He has become a bit more mobile like his 2016 year with Moore departure but he still needs to step it up and get out of the pocket faster. He just not that great under pressure. His attempt to spin out of sacks always fail, he should just run rather than spin around.

The QB position will always be a hotly debated one. Even those you mentioned above have faced criticism. Its such a year to year league.

Going back to Dak I think one of the best things he does is his ability to escape broken plays so I'm not sure what you mean by his attempt to spin out of sacks always fail which is simply not true. Sure he gets sacked, but there are quite a few plays he extends that would be negative plays.

 

[DFWJC]

Just some current trivia here....

Going into the final week, Dak leads the NFL in Total TDs-Total Turnovers (+24)
Five players are +20 or more
Prescott, Allen, Purdy, Hurts, Love
(probable MVP Jackson is +16 but has come on strong late in the season)

Dak is also only behind Purdy in Passer Rating

Here's to hoping he and the Boys top it off with a deep playoff run

 

[DFWJC]

Top 6 in the ESPN QBR

Purdy
Prescott
Allen
Jackson
Herbert
Stafford

 

[acr731]

I would rather talk about this after the playoffs. Is his play right now really that much different than any other year since 2016? With the exception of 2020, no, it's not that much different. I still want to see him step up in the playoffs, and for most of his career he hasn't done well in these games.

 

[DallasInDC]

I would rather talk about this after the playoffs. Is his play right now really that much different than any other year since 2016? With the exception of 2020, no, it's not that much different. I still want to see him step up in the playoffs, and for most of his career he hasn't done well in these games.

There is definitely room to improve in the playoffs...definitely. however, he has been about average compared to all the other playoff QBs on that list that has played in at least 3 playoff games.... ranking 13 out of 27. Overall, he has had 1 really bad year in the playoffs (2021 loss to the 49ers). Compared to his peers, the one area that is holding him back is INTs (ranks 128 out of 24 QBs with 5 in 6 games). If he cleaned that up, I think he would be a top 10 Playoff QB. I did find it interesting the QBs that ranked below him on a cumulative ranking (not saying that Dak is a better QB - e.g. Brady - just find it interesting how low Brady and Roethlisberger actually ranked).

Playoff Stats and Rankings:

Dak's stats by Year:

 

[JBS]

Dak is good and even great at fundamental QB play, he is just not that QB that can on his own, make the difference in close games. Mahomes, Jackson, Hurts are that guy due to their mobility when they are healthy. Dak just sits in the pocket to much and losses a ton of yards getting sacked back there. He has become a bit more mobile like his 2016 year with Moore departure but he still needs to step it up and get out of the pocket faster. He just not that great under pressure. His attempt to spin out of sacks always fail, he should just run rather than spin around.

This is your educated analysis? Hahahahah

 

[Xeven]

You almost had me,

I would have agreed with you the fact that you put jalen hurts in there literally the one dude on that list that needs more help than Prescott, if this year doesn't clear that up his first two years doesn't clear that up , the same things that was being said about Justin fields his first two years in this league was being said about jalen hurts until they did what? went out and got just about everybody they could to make the team better around him, best offensive line in football, I guarantee you if you put Prescott in that offense with that offensive line he's even better than Hurts. We don't have that here this year we almost have no run game the offensive line is shaky the defense has been shaky and yet here we are going on the third straight year of 12 wins..

I'm sorry dude jalen hurts is overrated... He's good but would I take Prescott over him, no I wouldn't... you know why because you're not getting a better player they're both probably give you about the same, there are really no quarterbacks that do it on their own outside of mahomes but that's even been proved wrong this year.. I mean why is Mahomes not playing better without his talent they've stripped his talent more and more every year and yes Patrick Mahomes to me is the best quarterback in the league still,

however, that pretty much holds true for all quarterbacks, not many quarterbacks can win without help that's why it's always been one of the more ridiculous narratives ever to say well Prescott not that good cause he needs help no they all need help.....

I agree that Dak is much better QB overall than Hurts. Hurts mobility however allows him to pull some wins out that Dak would not get. All I am saying is Dak could improve greatly if he works on his speed and getting out of the pocket faster when pressure is coming and make stuff happen when we would lose otherwise. He just sits too long and drops back way too far. No excuse for 10-15 yard sacks.

 

[shabazz]

2-4 in the playoffs. Dak said in his own words that quarterbacks are measured in post season wins and losses. I agree 100% with him!

 

[DallasInDC]

Dak is good and even great at fundamental QB play, he is just not that QB that can on his own, make the difference in close games. Mahomes, Jackson, Hurts are that guy due to their mobility when they are healthy. Dak just sits in the pocket to much and losses a ton of yards getting sacked back there. He has become a bit more mobile like his 2016 year with Moore departure but he still needs to step it up and get out of the pocket faster. He just not that great under pressure. His attempt to spin out of sacks always fail, he should just run rather than spin around.

Then why does he rank 9th in 4th Quarter comebacks and 9th in game winning drives of active QBs (notice how many more active years the players above him have with the exception of Mahomes):

4th Quarter Comebacks:

Game winning Drives:

 

[vlad]

There has been a constant refrain by some on here and in the media that Dak is a below average QB. Some are starting to acknowledge that Dak is much better than that based on this year's performance, and some are still refusing to acknowledge that he is a top QB in the League (as evidenced by this exchange in the Dak is a good guy Thread):



I decided to look at how Dak over his career compared to his peers in the same time frame. I included all QBs that have played in at least 48 games (3 season minimum) from 2016 - 2023 (37 QBs included).

I used the following stats and ranked them from 1-37 and accumulated the rankings to see who had the highest rankings (lowest score):

Yds/GM | Comp % | Yds/Att | TD/Att | Int/Att | TD:INT Ratio | QB Rating | Winning % (used this for those who want to give the QB credit /blame for game wins/losses)

Across the 8 categories Dak's average ranking is 8. His highest ranking is 7th for QB rating, and his lowest ranking is 12th for Yds/GM. Dak ranks 6th overall when totaling the ranking for all 8 categories. No matter how you slice it, you cannot maintain this level of performance over 113 games compared to the entire league without being a top tier performing QB. This completely dispels the theory that Dak can't read defenses, is inaccurate, has low football IQ, can't make all of throws, etc. This shows there is a level of consistency in Daks play over the course of his career that is better than 85% of the QB during his career. The narrative that this Dak accumulates garbage stats and only plays well against the dredges of the league doesn't hold up as either when comparing across 8 seasons and having the 10th highest winning percentage.

Ranking for each of the categories:

Stats

Bro dak sucks don’t you know it? Until he drop kicks Nick bosa, has a surprise 8 Sack performance and for the fun of it kicks a walk off 80 fg to win the nfc title, you won’t hear the quieting of cries one bit. Then let’s say he decides to channel Timmy Smith, Tom Brady and Jerry Rice and triple crown offensive Super Bowl records to a resounding victory you’ll still hear noise, i mean let’s see him win back to back at that point…. It never ends.

Thank you for putting together this analysis, very cool. Happy new year

 

[Risen Star]

You've got nothing.

 

[erod]

Dak is a mediocre quarterback, period.

However, this is his chance to finally prove otherwise. He has home field (unless he screws that up Sunday) and then he's got two home games to get to San Fran.

Until he plays well against legitimate contenders, he's still just Dak.

He doesn't even have to win against the Niners, but he has to play well. So far in truly clutch moments against THE teams, he never has.

Statistics mean absolutely nothing. They're all bloated these days because of the ridiculous rules, and Dak's are primarily garbage numbers against bad teams or in the 4th quarter of games already decided. And that goes for lots of quarterbacks.

 

[rnr_honeybadger]

2024 and we are still trying to sell the dream that is Dak Prescott.

 

[rnr_honeybadger]

He doesn't even have to win against the Niners, but he has to play well.

All he needed to do the last two post seasons was not turn the ball over against the 49-ers. Couldn't do it.

 

[DallasInDC]

Bro dak sucks don’t you know it? Until he drop kicks Nick bosa, has a surprise 8 Sack performance and for the fun of it kicks a walk off 80 fg to win the nfc title, you won’t hear the quieting of cries one bit. Then let’s say he decides to channel Timmy Smith, Tom Brady and Jerry Rice and triple crown offensive Super Bowl records to a resounding victory you’ll still hear noise, i mean let’s see him win back to back at that point…. It never ends.

Thank you for putting together this analysis, very cool. Happy new year

So basically he needs to go Chuck Norris on everybody in the playoffs....I get it. The QB of the Dallas Cowboys can't just be a QB...they need to be a god.

 

[DallasInDC]

2024 and we are still trying to sell the dream that is Dak Prescott.

2024 and some people are trying to create their own reality that Dak is not a good QB capable of winning a SB.