What to expect from Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott in the regular season
Some Cowboys fans have gotten their wish — though they probably didn’t want it to go down like this.
Tony Romo could be out for 10 weeks after it was discovered that he has a broken vertebra in his back — a result of a Cliff Avril hit early in the Cowboys’ third preseason game against the Seahawks.
Dak Prescott, the rookie out of Mississippi State who was so superb in the preseason that there was a noticeable undercurrent of fans calling for him to start over a healthy Romo in Week 1 against the Giants, is in all likelihood going to get the first snap of the regular season.
So what can we expect from the fourth-round pick?
Well, to start, don’t expect him to maintain his preseason numbers — they’re absurd, in a good way: 39 of 50 for 454 yards, five touchdowns with no interceptions and two rushing touchdowns.
The reason you shouldn’t expect those numbers is because many of those passes came against preseason defenses, particularly in the first two games. While you can’t totally discount the performances against the base looks put together by a hodgepodge of defensive players, you can grade on the curve. But even after correction, Prescott looks good.
Why wouldn’t he? Prescott was an excellent collegiate quarterback at Mississippi State and he’s carried the confidence that he built there to the NFL.
In the Cowboys’ offense, with Dez Bryant out wide and a strong stable of runners behind him, and with that O-line — that beautiful, dominant offensive line — Prescott has every reason to be successful at the NFL level, so long as he remains confident.
The closest thing to a regular-season defense Prescott has seen came Thursday. Prescott was good, but not on par with the superb he’d been in the prior two games. He ended the contest 17 of 23 with 116 yards and a touchdown, mostly against the Seahawks' first-team defense.
That, or a little worse, is what you can expect from Prescott in the regular season — that’s really good for a rookie.
Prescott has been able to thrive this preseason because he has all the physical tools to be a standout NFL quarterback and he's not running anything new at this level — in fact, you could argue that the Cowboys are pushing themselves to match his understanding by implementing some third-level read packaged plays into the offense.
“The offense we ran at Mississippi State was nothing short of an NFL offense,” Prescott told USA Today. “The only thing that was different is that we didn’t go under center. I swear to you, in (pre-draft) visits, every play they showed me, I could name it. We just called it something different. At another team I visited, they ran the exact same stuff we ran.
It’s going to get tougher — NFL defenses will key in on that preseason film and do everything they can to throw the rookie off kilter. How he responds to that will determine his fate, but the Cowboys don’t need him to be Aaron Rodgers. This offense is good enough that he merely has to manage the contest.
He can do more than that, but let’s not forget he’s a rookie and he hasn’t quite seen full NFL speed yet.
For now, the Cowboys are going to execute the exact same plan they had when Romo was the presumed Week 1 starter: run the ball behind that awesome offensive line, draw the defense further toward the line of scrimmage with underneath throws, and then go over the top to Bryant. It’s a simple formula, and one that Prescott absolutely can execute, so long as the Cowboys remain aggressive in their play calling and Prescott remains confident in his ability to make all throws.
