Before becoming the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys in 2020, Mike McCarthy spent thirteen seasons with the Green Bay Packers. In his time in Green Bay, McCarthy coached the Packers to one Super Bowl title, three other NFC Championship Game appearances and six NFC North titles. Additionally, in that time, then-Packers QB Aaron Rodgers won two league MVP's under the coaching of McCarthy. I say all of this because it adds a whole heck of a lot of weight to what McCarthy recently had to say about Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.

“Mike McCarthy said he thinks Dak Prescott’s current stretch of play is comparable to some of the great stretches Aaron Rodgers had when they were working together in Green Bay,” per a tweet from Dallas Cowboys reporter Jon Machota of The Athletic. Now on one hand, it's not unreasonable for a coach to dish out praise this high when one of his players is having an MVP caliber season. On the other hand, Aaron Rodgers is a whole other beast and any coach comparing any quarterback to Rodgers needs to tread lightly.

In fairness to Dak and out of respect to Mike McCarthy, let's go through the process of breaking it all down. Let's compare Dak Prescott's current season to Aaron Rodgers' two MVP seasons under Mike McCarthy in Green Bay:

Aaron Rodgers (2011): 309.5 yards per game, 45 touchdowns, 6 interceptions, 122.5 passer rating, 14-1 record

Aaron Rodgers (2014): 273.8 yards per game, 38 touchdowns, 5 interceptions, 112.2 passer rating, 12-4 record

Dak Prescott (2023): 266.8 yards per game, 23 touchdowns, 6 interceptions, 107.4 passer rating, 8-3 record

That's a pretty clear edge to Rodgers, right? However, if we only look at Dak's previous five games, now we're onto something:

Dak Prescott (Weeks 8-12): 320.4 yards per game, 17 touchdowns, 2 interceptions, 124.9 passer rating, 4-1 record

Yeah, now those are the numbers that more than warrant this hot take from Mike McCarthy. This stretch has been enough to vault Dak Prescott right to the tippy top of the MVP race, along with Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes, Tua Tagovailoa, Christian McCaffrey, and yes, CJ Stroud.

Dallas has a brutal schedule coming up, but that's great news for Dak Prescott's MVP candidacy. If he can turn in notable performances versus the Eagles, Bills, Dolphins and/or Lions (four of their next five games), Prescott could become the first Cowboy to win MVP since Emmitt Smith took home the hardware thirty years ago.