National Football League

Forget Rookie of the Year, Dak Prescott is in the running for MVP

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:00 p.m. ET

Dieter Kurtenbach

Tony Romo shouldn’t get his job back.

Not so long as Dak Prescott can put on a Cowboys jersey.

Things had been trending this way for the first four weeks of the NFL season, in which the Cowboys only dropped one game (in boneheaded fashion) — Prescott was the professional operator, getting the ball where it needed to go with a preternatural awareness and surprising accuracy. He looked nothing like a rookie.

But Sunday’s win over the Bengals cemented it. Romo should be the backup — Prescott is the present and the future of the Cowboys.

It seems ridiculous to not put No. 9 back in once he’s healthy — Romo was an MVP candidate the last time he played a full season.

But Prescott is an MVP candidate right now.

He might even be the leader for the award through five weeks of the season.

Prescott has earned a reputation in the early stage of his NFL career — dink-and-dunk Dak — but that nickname needs to be forgotten. Yes, Prescott likes the underneath routes, but do you know who else does? Tom Brady. That guy loves hitting slanting receivers over the middle in catch-and-run situations.

Over the last three weeks, Prescott has been airing it out more — something he can do now that he’s in full command of the Cowboys’ offense.

Some players (::cough:: Ryan Tannehill ::cough::) never develop the level of understanding Prescott began showing in the Cowboys’ Week 3 win over the Bears. In that game and since, he’s been setting protections at the line and calling audibles based on some high-level assessment of the defense. He’s also shown expert handling of the pass rush — particularly against difficult interior pressure — manipulating the pocket or maneuvering in it to give himself clean looks. This, on top of making throws that are surprisingly accurate for anyone who watched him at Mississippi State, tossed with near-perfect timing and pace.

Before Sunday’s game, it was reported that the Bengals had looked at all 131 of Prescott’s throws this season. There wasn’t a bad decision or throw to be found.

To be fair, Romo is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL when healthy, but for Prescott to be at that level so soon is baffling. Add in Prescott’s ability to change the game with his feet — he has three rushing touchdowns already this year, the most for a Cowboys quarterback since 1983 — and it’s clear that he gives the Cowboys an extra dimension that Romo cannot provide.

It’s difficult to imagine Prescott going back to the bench. There might be a mutiny in Arlington.

No, the Cowboys have to ride this wave for as long as possible.

All signs point to the fact that things are only going to get better for the Cowboys, who already look like one of the NFL’s rare elite teams so far this season. The question-mark defense has figured out what the Seahawks learned when Pete Carroll took over — if you jam, grab, hold, and perhaps even stab every receiver on every play, you normalize pass interference and dare the referees to throw a flag on every play, something they’ll never do. Considering the Cowboys’ deficiencies on the defensive side of the ball, the tactic is genius.

The Cowboys defense can play this way because they trust that Prescott and the Cowboys offense will control the pace of the game. Again, a reminder: the Cowboys have a rookie quarterback and running back.

But behind one of the best offensive lines in football, the duo is proving to be a perfect pair — Prescott’s emergence as someone who can win a game singlehandedly has forced defenses to abandon base formations (or, in the case of the Bengals Sunday, stay in them and be picked apart) and that leaves running lanes for Elliott so large you and I could run through them. (Elliott's brilliance comes from the ability to turn a 10-yard gain into a 40-yard chunk.)

Sunday, the Cowboys didn’t have Dez Bryant, their starting left guard, or a totally healthy left tackle, and they were going against one of the NFL’s better defenses in recent years.

It was business as usual, though — the Cowboys offense rolled.

Thank Prescott, the man who makes the Cowboys' offensive machine work.

Matt Ryan is having a career year in Atlanta, Carson Wentz has looked strong (save for that final throw against Detroit) in Philadelphia, and Sam Bradford has been a revelation for Minnesota, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a more valuable player in the NFL than Prescott this season.

Forget the Rookie of the Year award — give that to Elliott. Prescott is worthy of the big accolade, and that has the Cowboys on the path for the most important award of them all.